After buying a smaller pack by mistake, I switched to this one.

Tried it in the store and it felt fairly comfortable (to hike several miles with). After the equipment had been put in, I found the bag very awkward. For one thing, the hip belt is a bit "dinky" for a serious backpacker; I wish a padded hipbelt was offered. Secondly, I will relocate the chest strap, as it's too high and chokes the person (I'm 5'6, 145 lbs).

The centre if gravity for the bag is a bit low, unless one cinches all the straps. All in all, the quality is superb and the bag must be stiff because it's new. As I use it for photo, I will remove the laptop bag, as, putting anything in there contributes to a lot of rigidity. The pack then doesn't mold itself very well to the back. I'll remove the laptop bag ASAP and see if there an improvement in the fit against the bag. This is regrettable, as I used the laptop bag to store a lot of paperwork. When the laptop bag is instaled, it's fairly hard to zip up the bag, again perhaps because the pack is new.

I also found it hard to get into the side pockets without bruising my hands on the zippers, as they are fairly small(but very deep). The loop and strap arrangement on the back to hold a tripod does a poor job. It's the first time that I have a rearward opening bag and it certainly isn't very conducive to getting the camera out quickly to get that sudden shot!

The mesh doesn't help much either because the zipper is too "dinky". It's necessary to put the bag down, invert the shoulder straps and hope you open the bag zippers the right way, not binding on wrong side of the loop handle at the top. One must then get inside the mesh and recover the camera, possibly getting a share of leaves inside, while on the trail. I cannot put all those dividers together again, after taking the inside apart.

I wish that the maker had included some sort of instructions as to configure a basic layout. All those padded triangles etc can get a bit overwhelming. I have several left over, not really knowing where they fit; how I wish I had taken a photo before tearing the guts out. The workmanship is excellent and I would very highly recommend this bag to a hiking photographer. I suppose, when the stiffness is gone out of it, this bag will be a jewel. My previous bag has stood me for 20 years of brute hiking and I had one with an external frame before that.

In some not too distant future, I will go to a camping organization and have my good old padded hipbelt redone by their seamstress, then install it in lieu of the present one, which feels more like a thick rope after many miles, then a nice padded support. That should fix some of the problem. I will probably also re-locate the chest strap; the present tailoring of the bag doesn't allow it to be lowered than to a certain point. I fould the shoulder straps to be well tailored and comfortable, except for being stiff.

Hopefully, I'll let the bag weather a couple of good downpours; either that or give it a good soaker. That should bring the stiffness out of it. Naturally, even though the bag is waterproof, I strongly recommend spraying some waterproofing once in a while if you are going to hike miles with it. The bag is best suited for city use but it will take some lumps, I'm sure.