Tenba Shootout Convertible Waistpack (Black)

Comments about Tenba Shootout Convertible Waistpack (Black):

This bag has been great. I'm really glad I went with a waistpack, I barely notice it and it is so easy to spin from back to front to get at my gear. There is enough room for the body+lens and then 2 other good sized pockets for say another lens and a flash.

Comments about Tenba Shootout Convertible Waistpack (Black):

I loved the presentation by Tenba and the whole concept.
Unfortunately the measurements of the inside of the bag are waaay overstated (by 1-2 inches each) and therefore it's a much smaller bag than expected.
I bought it without seing it trusting the sizes stated by the manufacturer. I wrote to them about it and never heard back. Not a great customer service.
I had to buy a different bag.
And by the way, those weatherproof zippers tend to jam easily.

Comments about Tenba Shootout Convertible Waistpack (Black):

This is the kind of camera bag I would design, if I designed camera bags. I stumbled upon this one on accident (having looked primarily for shoulder bags), and I was glad I did. It's far more comfortable to carry than any shoulder bag I've ever used (though you can use it as one), feels extremely well-made and has just enough room for my equipment, which includes a Canon 40D with attached Tokina 16-50mm lens, A 50mm prime, and a 75-300mm zoom in the main compartment, along with a Nissin Di-28 flash, digital recorder, battery charger, CF reader, 2 camera batteries, a few AA's/AAA's, GPS, car charger and extra CF cards in the various pockets.

The key word here is *just* enough room. I tend to travel pretty light with my gear, and I prefer buying new equipment that is as small and as light as possible. A camera with a grip will not fit into this bag (unless you like to struggle getting it out). A lens taller than 5.5 inches will not fit vertically. A normal-sized flash would need to be put in the main compartment, limiting the number of lenses you can carry. The side openings are only somewhat useful for accessing equipment if you have it as packed full of stuff as I do. It's really designed for a camera with attached lens plus one additional zoom/two small primes. Any more than that and you have to get pretty creative with the inserts.

As others have stated, the weather-sealing for the zippers makes their movement less fluid. The attachment points on the belt are almost too small to fit the accessory pouches for the memory cards/cell phone - they cannot be clipped on or removed easily. The bag also doesn't retain its shape as well as it should, making it more cumbersome to add/remove equipment.

Do I have a lot of little complaints about this bag? Sure. I also realize it's about as close to perfect as I'm likely to find, as it makes the most efficient use of its space.

Comments about Tenba Shootout Convertible Waistpack (Black):

It just right to carry my Nikon camera. the waist belt keeps the weight on my waist not on my shoulder. I can use the the shoulder strap to help hold my bag stable while walking.

Comments about Tenba Shootout Convertible Waistpack (Black):

I used the waistpack on a 28-day trip to Egypt, Kenya, and Tanzania, and I was very happy with it. I carried a Nikon D700 plus 24-70mm and 70-300mm lenses, both with hoods, plus filters, cards, batteries, etc. It held the camera and both lenses disassembled with room to spare. With either lens on the camera, it was a tighter fit but still worked. Most of the time I used the shoulder strap or the shorter purse-style strap, since the bag fully loaded weighed over 10 pounds - pretty heavy for a waist-pack, given that my waist already carries a few pounds more than it should. But I wanted a fanny-pack to carry my gear through airport check-in, since it was then clearly a "personal item" and that let me have a separate carry-on as well.

Unlike another reviewer, I didn't really have much problem with the zippers, although the rain-resistant closure is a bit sticky to deal with. My only issue is that everything on the bag was black, which made it hard to locate the different straps and zippers. I solved that by putting colored duct-tape in appropriate places. I should have gotten tan or silver. One other slight difficulty is that the end pockets have only one zipper, which makes it possible to leave them open without realizing it.

All in all, an excellent product!

Comments about Tenba Shootout Convertible Waistpack (Black):

This waist pack has plenty of room to carry all of the gear and is very comfortable to use

Comments about Tenba Shootout Convertible Waistpack (Black):

I purchased the Shootout Waistpack in preparation for a two week trip to Northern Europe in which I knew I would be doing a lot of walking through scenic European ports. I intended to carry no more photo equipment than I absolutely expected to need. My camera is a Nikon D300 with an 18-200mm lens which I consider to be somewhat heavy and a bit bulky but which is versatile. In addition I carried storage cards, spare batteries, an electronic remote shutter release and odds and ends. Although there was little room to spare, the waistpack carried it all. The design worked well for me as the combination of shoulder strap and waist belt provided a balanced load that was not at all tiring to carry for a six to eight hour period. During one day I encountered heavy rain but the pack protected all my gear with no moisture entering,even without the supplied rain cover. I think if I wanted to use the rain cover it would have been a nuisance to use and of course limit access to my gear. As a routine matter, accessing my gear was somewhat awkward when using the waistbelt. This was partly because zippering the bag open and closed was difficult because the moisture guard over the zipper was made of a tacky plastic material that made the zipper difficult to slide, particularly with the zipper facing my body. Before I left on the trip I rubbed some silicone lubricant on tne area which was very helpful until the silicone wore off. Other than that I had no other problems and the bag worked as well as I expected it to.