Knowing the Lowepro Shoulder Bag

I was given to test the Lowepro Shoulder Camera Bag to use it for the Energizer Night Race. This writeup is to give it some perspective of the bag.

Outlook & Finishing
The bag is finished in Black externally and lined with Lime green fabric on the inside. The contrast is quite interesting. Surprisingly though, the bag does not have that much padding as the usual Lowepro standards. This lack of padding is perhaps to keep it light and easy to use. Access to the internal compartment is via a flip cover and two buckle. Comments i received from some girls are that they like the color scheme. I am ok with the color scheme though some of my guy frens thought its too "girly".Internally, you have one big compartment with velcro on the sides for you to place two separators. Using the separators, u can divide that compartment into three distinct areas to place camera body, lens and flash.
I have tried to put my Nikon D40 with battery grip in the bag. It is a bit tough , though doable. It would be more comfortable and convienient to place the camera minus the battery grip, but i was just trying to stretch it. The other compartment, i manage to place my SB400 flash and another spare Nikon lens (18-70). The ideal configuration is perhaps a small camera with kit lens, a flash and another spare lens.

In use review
The camera bag feels comfortable in use for casual travel to carry your camera when you do a walk about. It may not be a fair to compare this bag and my usual Lowepro Flipside400, which i use regularly for sports and outdoor shoot. This shoulder bag is more suited for holidays, travelling and walk about where heavy duty equipment are not being lugged around.

I had used it for my daughters sports days and find it useful to take out and put in stuff. It has a zipp compartment for placement of lens cap and memory card (though it is clearly not identified as in other Lowepro bags). I also use it as a walk about camera bag during the energizer Nite race. I find it light and convienient and easy.

Conclusion and Summary
In summary, these are the findings:-

What it should be used for
a) Casual walk about, travel or holiday
b) Equipment list no more then 3 ie Camera, Flash and maybe another lens
c) Budget constraint and as alternative to other entry packaged bags

What it should NOT be used for
a) Heavy duty users with big lens and big camera body (inclusive of battery grip)
b) Rough use
c) If you are running around from place to place.

I presume, this bag is the entry package for Lowepro to introduce to the first time Camera user. I think its listed in Lowepro catalogue as Exchange Messenger.