Tenba Axis 20L Backpack for 1-2 Mirrorless, DSLR or Cine Cameras with 5-7 Lenses, Up to 300mm f/2.8 Lens and Up to 15" MacBook Pro, Black

2020-09-24T08:09:19

I ended up returning this for the 24L to fit my gear. It’s an excellent bag.

PENNY R.

2020-03-25T12:53:34

This is a nice bag. Took it on a trip to Sri Lanka where I was taking more gear than usual so it wouldn't fit in my previous favorite Lowepro Flipside Sport. I was able to fit 2 Olympus O-MD E-M1 bodies plus the 12-40mm, 40-150mm and 300mm PRO lenses, 1.4x and 2.0x teleconverters, batteries, filters, and some other little things in the main compartment. The front compartment is not huge but I could fit some things like a folder with my travel plans, hand sanitizer, etc in it. The outer material is very sturdy. I didn't get rained on so I can't comment on the water repellancy, but did take it on a couple of hikes and jeep safaris so it got pretty dusty on the outside. I like the hip belt for carrying heavy loads. The laptop sleeve held my LG Gram 15 just fine but I think that was the max size it will hold. It pretty much perfectly fit my needs. Kudos to Tenba for sending a me a rain cover free of charge since the bag I got didn't include it (but was supposed to).

Glenn A.

2019-04-16T09:53:55

Absolutely love this backpack. Had so much room and it’s so versatile! Super comfortable to wear and easy to get to your gear!

TASHENNA B.

2018-12-18T12:56:54

Finally a backpack that can carry all my gear. The adjustable shoulder straps are great.

RAY M.

2018-12-03T07:27:47

They look like quality bags (time would tell), and the interior divider system is quality, with thick padded dividers, and good velco attachment “wings”, with a nice mix of really thick and not-so-thick dividers. The walls are at nice near-90-degree angles which means that you get max use of interior space and are able to fit a lot inside. There are however some really strange design issues with this bag – it really seems like they got a lot of things really right, and then there are these things they got really wrong because it seems like they had a very specific idea they were trying to implement – but they didn’t think about the resulting issues those ideas would cause. 1)The side “expandable” pocket does not accommodate medium-sized or larger water bottles – the size that most people would use. You can fit a 20oz store-bought plastic water bottle. The size is limited because they designed the pouch to expand, and then contract flat against the body of the backpack – but this limits how wide it can expand. I would rather it not contract back so flat, but be more expandable. It seems like a good idea in practice, but the sacrifice isn’t worth it in the end. 2)There is no longer a buckle strap on the side (above the expandable pocket) as shown in the pics here – my guess is that was intended to hold a tripod as with other bags, but for some reason they decided to get rid of it, which is weird because it seems by the lack of reviews (like none) that these packs are fairly new; so to have images featuring this strap but for it to be gone doesn’t indicate to me that it was removed due to customer feedback or complaints – more that the finished product ended up without it. So just FYI, there are NO straps or buckles on the sides (even though the pictures show it 3)The pack only allows for ONE(1) position of the tripod, and it’s SMACK DAB in the middle of the back of the backpack (where the MOLLE grid is!) – there is a small pouch that folds out of a zippered slit on the bottom intended for the foot of the tripod, and it’s in the middle. Basically forget about making use of the MOLLE grid arrangement on the back once you have a tripod mounted in the middle, plus… 4)The MOLLE grid is disappointingly NOT stitched to spec (even though the company claims to have made packs for the Military for years) – they are wider than normal MOLLE size (MOLLE/PALS is typically stitched in 1.5” intervals, these are 2” intervals), and as such, normal MOLLE gear fits funny if the attachment has more than two straps on the back. Couple this with the fact that the last intervals on both sides have stiches down the middle of the interval, making them completely useless for attaching anything with MOLLE straps. This looks to be designed this way so that the lashing straps they supply have a small loop to connect to on either side of the grid – but at the expense of losing the ability to use the MOLLE grid on either side. So the only useful MOLLE loops are in the middle, but that’s where the tripod has to be mounted… 5)The two lashing straps that are supplied on the back that have d-ring MOLLE attachments on the ends, do NOT have buckles, therefore they are only useful at “lashing” things on – you can’t un-buckle them and buckle something in. This is a miss in my book – add buckles to them and then they can be used for more purposes. 6)And there are virtually NO pockets in this thing! There’s not many places to store anything. All that said, there is a SERIOUS design flaw in these AXIS bags in my opinion (I have the 20L and 32L, assume the 24L is the same). Most backpacks have their shoulder straps connected to the MAIN BODY of the backpack. However, due to these bag’s interestingly cool shoulder strap design where you can adjust the height of the straps, the shoulder straps are actually connected to the zippered flap that opens up the main body. What this means is simply this – the zipper holds the ENTIRE weight of the backpack, and if that zipper fails (comes open because you didn’t zipper it all the way shut, it breaks from use, one of the teeth comes loose, etc), the backpack will come completely open, fall backward and potentially everything in there could spill out. Face it, at least for me, the zippers are usually the things that go first on backpacks – I’ve had my share of teeth that finally broke (or wore down, or didn’t zipper together correctly), and the zipper just ripped open in a chain reaction of teeth-separating chaos. I’ve also not zippered a pack completely shut, and had it come open on me under weight. I don’t like this idea. If you use this pack, I would at least always make sure that you zipper it shut all the way to either side – don’t ever zipper it shut where both zippers meet at the top.

RON S.

2018-12-03T07:26:59

They look like quality bags (time would tell), and the interior divider system is quality, with thick padded dividers, and good velco attachment “wings”, with a nice mix of really thick and not-so-thick dividers. The walls are at nice near-90-degree angles which means that you get max use of interior space and are able to fit a lot inside. There are however some really strange design issues with this bag – it really seems like they got a lot of things really right, and then there are these things they got really wrong because it seems like they had a very specific idea they were trying to implement – but they didn’t think about the resulting issues those ideas would cause. 1)The side “expandable” pocket does not accommodate medium-sized or larger water bottles – the size that most people would use. You can fit a 20oz store-bought plastic water bottle. The size is limited because they designed the pouch to expand, and then contract flat against the body of the backpack – but this limits how wide it can expand. I would rather it not contract back so flat, but be more expandable. It seems like a good idea in practice, but the sacrifice isn’t worth it in the end. 2)There is no longer a buckle strap on the side (above the expandable pocket) as shown in the pics here – my guess is that was intended to hold a tripod as with other bags, but for some reason they decided to get rid of it, which is weird because it seems by the lack of reviews (like none) that these packs are fairly new; so to have images featuring this strap but for it to be gone doesn’t indicate to me that it was removed due to customer feedback or complaints – more that the finished product ended up without it. So just FYI, there are NO straps or buckles on the sides (even though the pictures show it 3)The pack only allows for ONE(1) position of the tripod, and it’s SMACK DAB in the middle of the back of the backpack (where the MOLLE grid is!) – there is a small pouch that folds out of a zippered slit on the bottom intended for the foot of the tripod, and it’s in the middle. Basically forget about making use of the MOLLE grid arrangement on the back once you have a tripod mounted in the middle, plus… 4)The MOLLE grid is disappointingly NOT stitched to spec (even though the company claims to have made packs for the Military for years) – they are wider than normal MOLLE size (MOLLE/PALS is typically stitched in 1.5” intervals, these are 2” intervals), and as such, normal MOLLE gear fits funny if the attachment has more than two straps on the back. Couple this with the fact that the last intervals on both sides have stiches down the middle of the interval, making them completely useless for attaching anything with MOLLE straps. This looks to be designed this way so that the lashing straps they supply have a small loop to connect to on either side of the grid – but at the expense of losing the ability to use the MOLLE grid on either side. So the only useful MOLLE loops are in the middle, but that’s where the tripod has to be mounted… 5)The two lashing straps that are supplied on the back that have d-ring MOLLE attachments on the ends, do NOT have buckles, therefore they are only useful at “lashing” things on – you can’t un-buckle them and buckle something in. This is a miss in my book – add buckles to them and then they can be used for more purposes. 6)And there are virtually NO pockets in this thing! There’s not many places to store anything. All that said, there is a SERIOUS design flaw in these AXIS bags in my opinion (I have the 20L and 32L, assume the 24L is the same). Most backpacks have their shoulder straps connected to the MAIN BODY of the backpack. However, due to these bag’s interestingly cool shoulder strap design where you can adjust the height of the straps, the shoulder straps are actually connected to the zippered flap that opens up the main body. What this means is simply this – the zipper holds the ENTIRE weight of the backpack, and if that zipper fails (comes open because you didn’t zipper it all the way shut, it breaks from use, one of the teeth comes loose, etc), the backpack will come completely open, fall backward and potentially everything in there could spill out. Face it, at least for me, the zippers are usually the things that go first on backpacks – I’ve had my share of teeth that finally broke (or wore down, or didn’t zipper together correctly), and the zipper just ripped open in a chain reaction of teeth-separating chaos. I’ve also not zippered a pack completely shut, and had it come open on me under weight. I don’t like this idea. If you use this pack, I would at least always make sure that you zipper it shut all the way to either side – don’t ever zipper it shut where both zippers meet at the top.

RON S.