Lowepro PhotoTrekker II Review

Photo Trekker AW II (As with any blog entry, if you want to see larger versions of these images, just click on them.)

Just about a month back Lowepro sent me the Photo Trekker AW II. My first impressions were “Wow, its big!” It is big, about the size of what we used to call a Day and a 1/2 pack. The size of the interior is: 12W x 6D x 19H in. / 30.5 x 15 x 48.5 cm. The size of the exterior, tripod holder attached: 14.5W x 15D x 21.5H in. 37 x 38 x 54.5 cm. Lowepro lists it’s capacity as:

• 1–2 large 35mm or digital pro SLRs with lenses attached, (up to a 400mm f/2.8); plus 5–7 more lenses
• medium format system, including large 6 x 7 camera (like the Mamiya® RZ); or
• 4 x 5 field camera system

But quite frankly, if you were to max this bag it would be too heavy to carry and you’d not have room for any other of the necessities of a trekking trip.

One of the first things I did was to adjust the suspension. This is very easy. Why don’t more backpack companies use this suspension system? The Photo Trekker AW II has a frame sheet in the back of the pack that transfers the weight of the pack onto your hips through the waist belt. Adjusting the suspension is easy; you just remove the Pack Jack™, this is a hard plastic sheet that wedges or sort of slices down between the padding and Velcro to release the shoulder harness. Once the shoulder harness is positioned properly, you remove Pack Jack™ and press against the back of the pack to secure shoulder harness with the Velcro, very simple.

All of the Trekker AW II series come with a very cool daypack called simply the DayPack II . What makes this cool is the DayPack II fastens onto the Photo Trekker by locking four oval catches on the front of the daypack into the corresponding rectangular clips on the Trekker AW II. Again, a very well thought out design. It would be helpful if at least the DayPack II was designed with organizer pockets. Small pockets for small loose items. Why? Because this is a big photo pack made for trekking means you won’t be carrying anything else on your back, so you need space for the little things like lip balm, a pocketknife, car keys and other items you would carry with you camping.

Now I wanted to give this monster a try. I wanted this pack because I have been trekking with the CompuTrekker. The name may infer that this is for trekking but it is not. It does well traveling around the globe any way but on your feet. The Photo Trekker, however, was designed for just the kind of wilderness trekking we do. A week after receiving the Photo Trekker AW II I had an opportunity to put it through its paces.

We loaded up a trekking team in the Sumos (an Indian SUV type vehicle, but uglier than anything you have seen before) and headed to Kolahoi Peak, in the Indian Valley of Kashmir. The bag did take up some significant room in the back of the Sumo but that was ok. When we got to the trail head I loaded this up on my back and headed out.

I did not carry a lot of photo equipment this trip. All I had in the pack was:

1. Canon 5D with the 85mm f/1.8 on the body
2. 50mm f/1.8
3. 17-490mm f/4 L
4. Sigma EF-500 DG Super Flash unit
5. Manfrotto 190DB with the 484 ball head
6. A few filters
7. Rocket Blower for the lens
8. Katadyn Water filter
9. Colombia rain shell
10. REI rain pants
11. Lunch
12. 1 ltr water in held onto the waist belt by the Lowepro’s SlipLock™ bottle bag.

The only think I was missing was a heavy telephoto, like a Canon 70-200 f/2.8 IS L (coming soon). But even so this bag weighted over 35 pounds!

I used the main compartment to carry all the photo equipment, my rain pants and the Katadyn water pump. I used the large outside pocket for my rain shell. In the daypack I had my lunch. My water was fastened on to the belt of the Photo Trekker. Some times I found it a little hard to get to but it wasn’t that bad. The only other option I had was to carry the water in the daypack or by hand, none of which were something I wanted to do. I carried the tripod on the side of the pack using the Tripod Mount™. This was a small problem. The mount did not fit my Manfrotto 190DB. Kind of hard to believe, but apparently the double wing locking knobs used by the190DB are so antiquated that Lowepro doesn’t design the Tripod Mount™ to fit them. So I had to force the two legs into the mount. That was uncomfortable, to say the least, but they did fit eventually.


The trek went very well and I got to shoot many fantastic portraits of the locals along the way. The bag proved to be very comfortable to carry and I have no complaints so far. Along the way we had to cross a locally made bridge, meaning three logs thrown across a raging river. It was a little hairy, not too bad, but with several thousand dollars of equipment on my back it got considerably scarier. This is where I wish it was water proof. It is not, but what it does have going for it is a set of waterproof zippers on the major compartments. So where this bag is not like the DryZone bags, my guess is it could (though I don’t want to try it) stand up to a quick dip in a river. Lowepro does not guaranty anything like this, so don’t try this next time you are out and about!

Along the way we had to cross a locally made bridge, meaning three logs thrown across a raging river. It was a little hairy, not too bad, but with several thousand dollars of equipment on my back it got considerably scarier.

On the last day, literally the last hour or so, it rained on us. We had just made it to the trailhead of a small village in Kashmir called Aru. I ducked under the eves of a house pulled out the AW rain cover and smiled. Not only did it cover the bag it also covered the tripod, something the Computrekker AW cover did not. Within a few minutes later it stopped raining. I credit the AW cover for that to. You see; it is kind of like washing your car on a sunny day, within an hour or two after you finish it is bound to rain. So the next time it rains while you are out trekking, pull out your AW cover from under your Photo Trekker AW II and smile, even if it doesn’t stop the rain, it’ll still keep the equipment as dry as if there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.

Pros:
1. This bag is big. It can carry a lot more equipment than you can put on your back.
2. The suspension system is better than most backpacks I have used. It is a dream to wear.
3. It is a good looking bag and well designed.
4. It has plenty of straps and loops for Lowepro’s SlipLock™ attachment system of accessories.

Cons:
1. This bag is
big, it takes up space. This is not really a con, but an advisory. If you are looking for a bag that you can toss around, even though this maybe carry-on size, it is bulky.
2. With the size is the weight, it is heavy.
3. I wish there was more organized storage for smaller items. The Photo Trekker has three small pockets in the internal main compartment, these are designed for CF card, cables and the like, and large one outside pocket and then there is the DayPack II.
4. My tripod did not fit into the Tripod Mount™.

Conclusions: This is a great bag and well worth the price tag, $229 at Amazon if you need a bag that you need to take to some rough areas. This is not the bag for around town, if you want that, get the Computrekker or one of the smaller backpack like it. This bag had the great outdoors in mind and with the exception of a few very small issues this bag perform well. It did everything I wanted it to do, heck it even stopped the rain!