Tenba Shootout 632-643 Convertible Photo Sling Bag Small (Black)

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Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 7 x 8 x 15.5 inches ; 2.5 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B001JYFKMO
• Item model number: 632-643
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: November 1, 2008

Product Description

Product Description

Capacity: 1-2 SLRs, 3-4 lenses, flash and accessories. SLR with mounted 300mm telephoto lens (in long lens configuration).The Sling is a single-strap, quick access bag that swings around for fast shooting without removing the pack. Tenba's exclusive design converts to a lightweight long-lens bag for top-loading your mounted super telephoto lens (up to 300mm f/2.8). A full access back panel opens the main compartment completely, to allow easy setup and cleaning. Think of it as a backpack without the bulk, or a shoulder bag without the strain. The Small is identical to the Medium size in every way except for size. It will fit a regular sized SLR without the added depth of a vertical grip/booster (actually 2 bodies if necessary), plus lenses, accessories, and a tripod or monopod.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars More clever & versatile than you might suspect, November 14, 2009

By	T. Campbell (Dearborn, MI USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I bought this bag in black/olive color (632-641). Originally I didn't give it much thought and passed over it since I wanted a bag I could swing around to my waist and you wouldn't think a backpack style bag can do that. Appearances can be deceiving.

This bag is designed to swing around for access without having to take it off your shoulder. What appears to be a zipper pouch (in the Amazon photo of the product it's the zipper section on the lower left side of the bag) is actually a door that opens to the interior of the bag. The shoulder strap is designed to be worn over your right shoulder, down across your chest, and buckles to the bag on the lower left side. With this arrangement, if you swing the bag around to your front (without removing it from your shoulder or disconnecting the strap) the entire bag will NOW be positioned in front of you, sideways, and just above waist level. What's more, that zipper door on the 'lower left' side of the bag will now be on 'top' of the bag. This means you have access to your spare lenses, accessories, flash, etc. without actually needing to remove the bag. There is a second smaller strap that connects from the lower right corner of the bag and snaps to a buckle on the front of the shoulder strap - this gives it more stability so it can't slide around if you're hiking. For occasional use it is not necessary to connect the second strap and there's a sleeve on the side of the bag to tuck in the strap when it's not being used (so you don't have a dangling strap).

The entire inside appears to be two compartments. One on the top of the bag (which has padded baffles to allow the camera and lens to rest face-down inside the bag), and a lower section with numerous adjustable dividers (velcro). The entire "floor" that separates the top from the bottom is also attached via velcro and can be adjusted to any height, allowing you to apportion space to the top section vs. the bottom section.

The full padded back of the bag (the part that would rest against your back) also zippers completely open. It zippers open down the left, bottom, and right sides of the bag.

Everything on the inside is adjustable. All baffles, dividers, and floor sections are connected using velcro and can be repositioned.

The right-side of the bag (not visible in the Amazon product picture) has a pair of adjustable straps intended to attach a small tripod or mono-pod. There is also a non-adjustable strap on the bottom of the bag which could be used to attach or hang an extra accessory.

Tenba "Shootout" series bags are designed for outdoor use with exposure to weather. The zippers are all designed to be fairly weather-tight. Every zipper has a vinyl seal so the teeth are not exposed when the zippers are closed. The bag is not "waterproof" but is "water-resistant" and would have no problem with medium rain or spray. The bag also comes with a rain slick which covers every side of the bag *except* the back-pad -- this is suitable for protection if you're caught in more severe weather.

I think this bag has better quality than just about any of the other bags I looked at. I only gave it four stars (instead of 5) because some of the areas of this bag were just a little too small. My camera outfit includes a camera body with an 18-55mm zoom, a 55-250mm zoom, a 60mm macro lens, a dedicated flash, diffuser, a large battery shoe (mates to bottom of the DSLR), as well as some smaller items such as filters, remote shutter release, spare batteries & charger . Capacity-wise the bag is large enough. But organizationally, the whole point of the bag is to allow me to switch lenses, get to my flash, etc. without having to take the bag off my back. It took a while to find any arrangement of the adjustable compartments that would allow everything to fit in the bag, but I had to sacrifice accessibility and take the bag off my back in order to access what I needed. The dividers in the lower section seem designed with the assumption that you'll open the full back to get inside the bag. If positioned to allow access from the side door the dividers are a bit too tall and it was difficult to get various accessories in and out of the bag easily (it would have helped if the side door was a bit larger). If the camera (I used a Canon EOS Rebel T1i) is in the top section pointed down (which is how they intend for it to be stored) the floor dividing the upper and lower sections needed to be repositioned because the 18-55mm lens (which isn't particularly long) was too tall. Repositioning the floor took away so much space from the lower section that my gear really didn't fit anymore, and created a lot of wasted space in the top (of course this is a matter of how much gear you have -- on the positive side you could fit a camera with a very very long lens inside the bag if you wanted.

I love the product construction quality (it's not flimsy) and the cleverness of the design, but I think the baffles & dividers need to be made for better accessibility from the side door (which is the whole point of the bag).

I think this bag would be ideal for someone with fewer accessories & lenses. Tenba makes a 'medium' size version of this same bag which I haven't tried yet, but I do plan to check it out and see if it works a little better.

Tenba has a video tour of the bag on their own website for better views and demonstrates how to wear and use the sling bag.