Monday 5 February 2018

K&F Concept KF13.026 V4 Camera Backpack


K&F Concept KF13.026 V4 Bag

Following on from my review of the K&F Concept TM2324 tripod the brand contacted me again and  wanted to send me some more items to test out - another tripod - the KF-TM2534T (review to follow) and this KF13.026 V4 camera bag. Man, that model name just rolls off the tongue.


Rain cover is a handy addition that most camera backpacks have

My Bags/Cases
I have a few different camera bags and cases to hold my gear - Sony LCS-SC8, Lowepro Flipside 400AW, Lowepro Flipside 500AW and a Peli 1510. I use all of them for different reasons. I mainly use the Peli 1510 to store my main cameras and lenses as I know it's safe and secure in there with its foam interior, watertight casing and crushproof outer shell. Depending on what job I'm shooting I sometimes also take the Peli with me. The frustrating thing for me is that I just hate that I can't fit the lenses and camera bodies that I need in there alonside my laptop, hard drives and a bunch of other things. Plus when it's fully loaded it weighs a tonne. I may need to get a bigger and lighter Peli case like the Peli 1615 Air but these come at a considerable cost. The Sony is a very small bag only capable of holding a camera body and one or two lenses depending on which camera body and lenses I'm carrying so I tend to only use this for trips out for casual shooting. I use both Lowepro bags quite heavily as they can fit a lot of gear, have padded compartments inside, are comfortable to carry and just look pretty good in terms of aesthetic design. I'm yet to test out whether the bigger Lowepro Flipside 500AW would qualify as cabin baggage, I guess this is a risk that I'm not willing to take so when travelling abroad I always take the smaller Flipside 400AW and it's served me very well on trips to New York, Miami, Göteborg and Spain.


Bonus lens cleaning extras included with the bag

Features
The K&F Concept bag sits between the Sony mentioned above and the Lowepro Flipside 400AW in terms of size so it's not the biggest of bags by any means. The design is quite sleek and minimal, it packs quite a lot of features and even comes with a lens cleaning kit (comprising of a lens pen, air blower, lens tissues, a microfibre cloth and a small spray bottle to fill with lens cleaning solution). A very handy addition in my eyes. The bag has a small zipped pocket at the front for storing things like a passport or keys. Behind that is a bigger, zipped compartment which has 3 small pockets, a large mesh pocket and another larger velcro fastened pocket which can fit a standard 9.7" iPad. Batteries, memory cards and other miscellaneous items can be stored here. Additonally, in this area of the bag you will find a small pouch attached via a plastic buckle - inside the pouch is a waterproof cover for the bag to save your equipment from a heavy downpour. Also on the front of the bag it has a small rubber hole where you can pass a headphone cable through - a decent feature. The main section of the bag can be accessed via the two zips at the top of the bag. It's worth noting that these zips join together and have a hole that a small padlock can fit through to keep your equipment secure. Inside this comparment there is room for one camera body, several lenses and other miscellaneous items such as batteries, cables and a lens cleaning kit. On one side of the bag there's a mesh pocket to hold a water bottle. On the opposite side there is a pocket and a strap to secure a small tripod to the bag. I was just about able to attach the relatively small K&F Concept TM2424 tripod to the bag. This pocket would only be suitable for tripods of this size or smaller. There's a handle at the top of the bag which isn't padded. The shoulder straps are padded with a breathable mesh and feel ok. They also have two support straps - one that goes across you collarbone area and the other that would go around your abdominal region. The area of the bag which would come in contact with your back is quite thickly padded again with a breathable mesh for comfort.

A 9.7" iPad fits nicely in the front pocket.

Filled with Mirrorless camera body and lenses

Filled with DSLR camera body and lenses


Conclusion
Water repellent outer
Build quality of the bag itself seems pretty decent - it's made out of a water repellent Nylon and has padding throughout to help protect your lenses and camera from getting knocks. The cost (at the time of writing retails on Amazon for £42.99) is pretty inexpensive for a camera bag with so many features. Due to the size of the bag it's not something I would use as regularly as some of my other bags but it is a welcome addition as I can see that I would use this for casual shooting on short trips where I don't need a lot of kit. All camera bags come with certain caveats, my gripe with this one is that it's just slightly too small to fit my 13" Sony Vaio laptop. Perhaps it might fit a newer 13" laptop like a Macbook Pro or Dell XPS 13. Other than that it's a fairly respectable bag which offers good value for money.

Thanks for reading. Don't forget to check out my other reviews and blog posts.

I'd like to once again thank K&F Concept for sending the bag out to me for testing.

For more information on K&F Conecpt products please take a look at their page on Amazon.


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Samyang AF 35-150mm f2-2.8 FE