The LowePro Mini Trekker
(by Lee Harper)
I have owned a Lowepro Mini trekker for some time now and it
is a very good small rucksack type camera bag. It will hold quite a lot of gear
if packed well, up to 2 bodies (1 Pro D2X and a D70). Plus a few short lenses
and a 70-200 f2.8. But I have used it with my D2X with my 300mm F2.8 attached
as well as my D70 and 70-200mm f2.8. This is a Bit of a squeeze but does the
job and makes trekking long distances better than with many of the bigger
packs.
It has all the normal moveable padding and dividers plus
internal and external pockets. These will take a waterproof coat or filters and
holders. But as it is one of the smallest rucksack type camera bags and has a
limited amount of space, it can very quickly become too small.
I have the early non-AW version that
has the rain cover, this is not really a major issue as I always carry a few
black bin liners and if it rains heavy then I can always place the bag inside
the black sack to keep it dry. This has never happened yet so I expect that
this is not really an essential option.
One thing I have noticed with this, and other bags
of the same design, is that they can have a tendency to
be front heavy. So anytime that you put them down and try to stand them up then
you will find that they ALWAYS fall forwards. Recently on a shoot I put my Mini
trekker down on a slope and before I knew what happened the bag had rolled
forward,
down the bank and was (lucky for me) floating on its back in the lake. The guy
I was with who had a larger version of the same bag remarked that he had the
same thing happen to him only a few weeks ago. So never put these bags down on
their back or upright without checking that they are not going to roll over
first, or lean them into the hill. I was lucky that my bag was closed and did
not cause any damage to my kit. But I am sure there are people out there to
whom this has happened who have not been so lucky.
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