Tenba Cooper 6 Luxury Canvas Camera Bag with Leather Accents, Gray

2020-02-28T08:12:32

This is a quality, well-made bag. It is not obviously a camera bag, which I like. I love the bag! But I rarely use it with the camera I bought it for, a Panasonic GX-9. There are 3 reasons for this: 1) Less padding than I expected. It doesn't have an insert, which is fine, and it has some built-in padding, but the interior is not lined with with the soft grey cushy stuff the Tenba inserts are made from. The divider panels it comes with are thin. I bought a Tenba insert for it, but it was even smaller and left too much extra space available. (I kept the insert to store accessories in, though--it's good!) 2) The zipper. The zipper itself is heavy duty and covered with a rubber shield. That's great. But it's also curved, which makes getting the camera out awkward. My camera's viewfinder doesn't fold flat, and it gets snagged on the bag's opening and flips up almost every time I take it out. If the bag's flat top opened fully using a zipper around 3 sides so you could open the top like a flap, it would be *so* much easier to access. 3) It's a bit too small for the stated purpose. Even though it's for 2-3 lenses (one on the camera), that's a tight fit with, for example, a little pancake lens and a wide angle lens. The exterior pockets have no gusset so they're pretty tight. My phone has to be squeezed in if the inside is full. I have small hands, but the combination of the size and the zipper make using it the way I wanted to frustrating. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't consider the bag for other reasons: Do you have a slim mirrorless camera with a fixed lens, like a Fujifilm X100, or any small camera with a retractable lens like a Panasonix LX10? The bag could be good for that, particularly if you add a simple padded insert (or don't get too adventurous). The bag might also be good for assorted accessories, as a "companion bag." I have been using it as...a bag! It's surprisingly roomy for everyday stuff (glasses, wallet, keys, phone a snack, maybe a small bottle of water), it looks good, and the styling is gender-neutral. It could also be a dopp kit bag. I don't regret my purchase...but I think what actually need for the camera is a Cooper 8.

Faye L.