There Are Pandas, and Then There Are Pandas.
And this isn't either of them! The Pandas we're talking about here, are watches, not bears. And what got me thinking about them (again) was a link posted this morning by @cm.rook who pointed a few of us to the very attractive (and not terribly priced) Yema "Rallygraph" Panda which, in it's most traditional arrangement, looks like the one on the left, but can also be had in the version on the right: The model on the left is a true Panda, while the model on the right is called a reverse Panda. The reason for that distinction is clear--Panda bears, only come in the first arrangement. Now at this point, everyone should be thinking about the most well-know Panda, The Rolex Panda, which is actually a Daytona, and among Rolex Daytonas, the most famous of which is the Paul Newman Daytona, which was famous first, because it was Paul's, and second because it sold at auction for $17.8 million (US Dollars). The story of that auction is well-known so I'll only...
Nov 8, 2019
There's a lot of hybrid camera bags on the market today, things that use fidlock style attachment points to create a suspended camera cube (for example, the ITR One backpack, or the Blackember Citadel). There's also a lot of camera bags which use fill-in camera cubes which can be removed and turned into their own stand-alone camera carrying units (the Prima Boundry's camera unit, for instance). I'd imagine that if you took the camera backpack challenge, you'd probably try to focus on what most of these hybrid bags are attempting to do: Mix "camera bag" with "effective EDC".
As someone who has experience with a *lot* of different camera bags, for the most part? These bags suck as camera bags. There's a few reasons, but camera bags, to be actually functional and not just "padded areas to put a camera", need to be designed as camera bags first, and other bags second.
Camera bags have 4 unique challenges: 1. Space / Capacity -- Unless you're walking around with a mirrorless camera and a prime lens, or maybe an APS-C, many camera bags which have cameras as the after thought have poorly designed dimensions for 70-200 2.8 length lenses, or even a collection of primes. At best, they add a lot of padding and weight for the ability to bring maybe a single body with lens attached and an extra prime. It's nice as a feature, but it's not what most photographers want out of a camera bag.
2. Access / Security: Another place a lot of these "camera-bag second bags" have is that they don't have convenient ways to quickly access your camera. If you're into street, nature, or other sorts of fast-response photography, these bags don't cut it at all. Most of them have no dedicated access for a camera slot that would let you quickly pull it out. Combine that with 1; even if they *do* have a quick-access area, is it large enough to be able to easily pull out a full-frame with a battery grip? Often times, the answer is "no."
Ok, so you've got a quick access zipper. Can you ensure it's secure and your camera's not going to get stolen? That's an issue rarely, if ever, addressed. Photographers *also* tend to want back-zip camera bags, so that the zipper lays against your back, and when you open it up, you can get full access to all your gear. It's also more secure that way! And your back doesn't get dirty when it's time to throw your backpack back over you.
3. Comfort: If you've got 1 and 2 going on, you're making good progress towards being a great camera bag! But now you've got the capacity to handle a lot of weight -- you need to make sure you can carry it comfortably, high on your back. Most camera backpacks don't have load-lifters at all, and a lot rely on (unattractive) hip straps. I think optional hip-straps are basically a must, but it's possible to carry 15 pounds comfortably without them -- I'm not sure why camera bag companies haven't looked at better harness and frame systems.
But a backpack that can do that rarely has..
4. Style: Let's face it, most camera bags look like total ass. It's extremely difficult to hit 1-3 and still make a stylish looking bag. The Peak Design Everyday Backpack is good looking, but shelving units are inherently a space-waster, and small objects thrown in the top can quickly get lost. The Wandered PRVKE camera bag also looks good and hits a lot of these, but gives up being an effective EDC because of a lack of an internal organizer.
Anyway, I wrote a lot with no guarantee you're going to read any of this, and I'm sure that someone as talented as you are definitely knows what they're doing, but just throwing out my observations on the market as it stands :)