CameraBag
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The best camera bags
By Erin Lodi, Mike Perlman, and Eric Adams This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter, reviews for the real world. When readers choose to buy Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, it may earn affiliate commissions that support its work. Read the full article here. If you're working with only a single camera and a lens, a good camera strap is all you need. But as soon as you start bringing multiple lenses and a tripod, you'll want a proper camera bag—preferably one that also looks nice enough to use every day. After spending the past two years testing more than 30 camera bags, we've found a number of great bags that cover a wide range of styles and carrying needs. For many photographers, the best choices are the 20-liter Peak Design Everyday Backpack or the 15-inch Everyday Messenger.
The Everyday Messenger bag isn't just for camera freaks
The Everyday Messenger camera bag has grabbed the imagination of Kickstarter users, raising an unprecedented $4 million and counting. You may wonder how the folks behind it, Peak Design, managed to convince more than 14,000 people to roll the dice on a $200-plus concept sack instead of snagging one from an established company like Ona. I was certainly curious, so when the company offered me a chance to try it, I took it -- even though we don't review bags very often. And while the style is not to everyone's taste, the attention to detail and unique features like a magnetic latch and folding dividers make it the best small camera (and regular bag) I've tried.
IRL: UNDFIND's One camera bag and FIFA 13 for Xbox 360
Welcome to IRL, an ongoing feature where we talk about the gadgets, apps and toys we're using in real life and take a second look at products that already got the formal review treatment. Can't bring yourself to spend $300-plus on a leather camera bag? Get a $130 one made out of Neoprene, says Darren. (And he should know: he's tested just about all of them by now.) As for Edgar, he's not recommending you buy anything, per se; he just wants you to know how much he loves FIFA 13.
Ona Camps Bay DSLR / laptop backpack review
Look, when it comes to hunting down a pack for your gadget collection, you've got options. Plenty of options. But not too many options like this. Ona -- a high-end purveyor of handcrafted camera bags -- first caught our eye last year with the markedly functional Union Street, but at the time, we felt that there was an even bigger gap in this universe that could only be filled with a like-minded backpack. So, here it is. The Camps Bay is the outfit's first full-on, back-worn pack designed to carry both a laptop (up to 17-inches, no less), a DSLR and a plethora of lenses and accessories. %Gallery-138241% In fact, this here bag holds a downright astonishing amount of kit, while looking decidedly unlike every other backpack that you've ever laid eyes on. For quite some time, Kata's brilliantly constructed 3N1-33 (review) was our go-to multi-mode bag; it's largely a perfect combination of laptop sack and camera organizer. But we always found ourselves hung up on a couple of issues. For one, it wasn't capable of swallowing 17-inch multimedia rigs. Secondly, shoving a full-frame body in there (Nikon's D3S comes to mind) isn't exactly easy when you're also toting a 24-70mm f/2.8 and 70-200mm f/2.8 -- two (huge) hunks of glass that any self-respecting pro almost certainly has access to. Read on for more of our thoughts.
Ona Union Street DSLR / laptop messenger bag review
Ever heard of Ona? Up until last week, we hadn't either. Turns out, Ona's a purveyor of "fine" camera bags and accessories, and given that it's the holiday season, we figured it prudent to have a gander at the outfit's latest and greatest -- you know, just in case you've a camera lover in your family who you've yet to buy for. The all-new Union Street ($279) is quite clearly an upscale messenger bag on the outside, but the internals are arranged in a way that the amateur photog / gadget lover would appreciate. There's room for a few pens (of the lens and / or ink variety), a smartphone, a navigation system, a 15-inch (or smaller) laptop and -- according to Ona -- a DSLR along with three lenses. The other notable aspect is the waxed canvas exterior (dubbed Waxwear), which is generally more rugged and weather resistant than your average patch of suede or leather. How's it all shake out? Join us after the break for our pair of pennies. %Gallery-109233%
Infinicam gives you a boatload of filters for your iPhone images
It's been almost a year and a half since I took a look at CameraBag, an app that allows you to filter your photos, mimicking classic film cameras from days gone by. Now the creators of CameraBag have stepped the game up with Infinicam. The app can generate an almost unlimited amount of filters to apply to images, and also provides 18 border styles to suit your photographic whim. I tried the app on a variety of landscape images, and found the results interesting. You simply press an on-screen button and the app will generate a random filter. If you like it, you can save it to a favorites list. If you don't, just press the button again. The app has some preset styles, which can be accessed by tapping on your image. Once you have what you want, the image can be saved to your camera roll, or emailed. You can save the image at the full resolution of your camera, or you can make it smaller. There is also an easy-to-use cropping tool. I enjoyed using this app. I don't think it's for the semi-pro, because you really don't have control of the image. You're just making random stabs to see what comes up. Sometimes the results are stunning. Sometimes they are pretty weird and not worth saving. There is a history function that lets you retrace your steps. I'd love to see the app add the ability to keep the filter chosen and then modify it slightly with hue or saturation and other parameters. Photographers looking for more control would be wise to look at Filterstorm for a very flexible and powerful app. If you like the look of old cameras and films Hipstamatic is also worth a look. Check the gallery for some examples. Infinicam costs US $1.99, supports the Retina Display on the iPhone, but works on the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad and requires iOS 2.0 or later. %Gallery-107779%
CameraBag makes the trek over to the iPad
CameraBag (U.S. $2.99) is a popular little utility that has had life on both the Mac and PC platforms, as well as the iPhone. Now it's made it onto the iPad, where it will be welcomed by photographers. CameraBag is a photographic cropping, framing, and filter tool. The app comes with some preset filters like "Helga," which gives you a square format image with washed out highlights and some vignetting. "1962" provides dynamic black and white images, and "Magazine" delivers saturated tones to your photos. There are other presets as well, plus a button that generates a random variation of an existing preset. If you don't like what you see, you just keep hitting the button until you get something you like. What are the downsides of CameraBag? Well, there's no control of the cropping, so you can't move the object in the frame. The frames are pretty basic, and there's no choice for the color of the frames. Basically, you get white, except for the cinema frame that consists of black bars. CameraBag preserves the resolution of your originals, and it's possible to scale them down if you'd rather have a smaller size for posting or sending photos via mail. Finished images are saved back to the iPad library or can be emailed. Some people will say that without a built-in iPad camera, there's no reason to even bother with photo apps on the platform. That viewpoint is short-sighted. Through a USB connection, you can import photos from iPhoto. With the pending iPad camera kit, you'll be able to pull in photo files (even RAW format) from your digital camera, and then modify the images at your pleasure. This app and Photogene, which I reviewed a few days ago, aren't really Photoshop on the iPad, but they do go a long way toward providing a way to edit your photos for either improvement or fun. Be sure to visit the CameraBag website for more examples of what the app can do. Here are a few of my own samples: %Gallery-90421%
CameraBag makes it to the desktop
We took a look at CameraBag for the iPhone in June. It's a nifty little app that applies several pre-set filters to your photos. Now, the developers have released an almost identical app for the desktop. Users got hooked on the ease of adding filters and altering photos, and they wanted it on their desktops and laptops too, so now it's a reality.CameraBag Desktop for the Mac gives you 9 basic filters, 7 vary the color to match various films, and 2 filters provide gray scale filters. The filters can be layered one on top of the other if you desire, and with the 'reprocess' command. Every time you press it you get a variation on the original filter.As on the iPhone app, you can choose a border for your picture, and then output the picture at the original size or you can scale it down.The filters mimic the look of old instant camera films, and a host of other camera, film and lens combinations. CameraBag is not for the advanced digital photographer, but if you want to take an image and quickly apply a filter and a border this is a welcome tool. I'd like to see some more things added, like saturation controls and sliders for color temperature and sharpness. Adding those features combined with the filters would give a user almost unlimited control of the look of the images. As it is, your starting point is always what the designer of the filter had in mind. While you can reprocess, you have no control, and the parameters change at random. In the gallery I've included some variations on a single photo to show you some of the possibilities. You can also visit a web page to see how customers have used the CameraBag technology.CameraBag is US$19.00 and can be ordered direct from the developer. %Gallery-73929%
Photo filters galore for your iPhone pix
CameraBag [App Store link] joins the club of iPhone apps that offers filters for your photos to change the style or color balance of what you have snapped. The app sells for US$2.99.This app offers filters that mimic old film emulsions of the past, as well as offering fish eye views and infrared simulation.Here's the complete list:Helga - A square-format toy camera with washed-out highlights and old-school vignetting.1974 - This is your father's camera. Faded, tinted, and hip.Magazine - Emulates effects used in fashion magazinesLolo - Shoot from the hip and take life as it comes with vibrant, colorful shots.Cinema - Dramatic, moody, wide-screen stills from the movie of your life.1962 - Dynamic black and whites from the photojournalists of a bygone era.Mono - Smooth gradation from black to white.Infrared - Simulation of the popular landscape photography technique.Fisheye - Popular fish eye lens effect - try it in combination with other filters.Instant-emulates the old Polaroid lookOriginal - The unaltered image.Some of the filters are subtle. Some are pretty dramatic. I didn't find any of them to be horrible. The app gets good reviews from users, except due to some legal issues from Polaroid, the borders of the images were changed and don't really look like the old Polaroid prints, so users are unhappy with the new filter. The developer is working that out, and is referring users to the US$0.99 version of the app, CameraBag Lite retro, [App Store] which still has the older filter. The app was stable in my use, and allows you to email the finished images, or save them to your camera roll. The developer is also working on a desktop version of the app for both the Mac and PC. There are lots of apps offered that do similar effects. Ultimately, you need to choose the one that best fits your needs. I think the CameraBag filters do a nice job, and are easy to use. They are certainly worth a look.Here are filters I applied on a landscape photo, along with the original for comparison:%Gallery-65364%
