Is This the Best Camera Bag On the Market?

As a full-time photographer, getting a camera bag that is durable, big enough to fit my equipment, and comfortable is a must. Unfortunately, it's more easily said than it is done.

Most photographers will probably tell you that they've had a lot of camera bags in their career and I'm no exception to this rule. A couple of years back, I was convinced that I had found the solution to all of my problems: a camera suitcase that fit all of my equipment and was designed for photographers. Surely this would mean the end of shoulder pain, squishing my equipment into bags that didn't quite fit, and risking everything falling out as the bag began to fall apart. A suitcase was what I had been after all of this time.

Unfortunately, my relief was short-lived.

Soon after beginning to use the suitcase I started to run into more and more problems. It began with the inconvenience.

I'm someone that travels often. Partly due to my job, partly due to living 200-odd miles from my family and friends that I grew up with. This is where I thought a suitcase would come in handy but, as it turns out, maneuvering around the London underground with thousands of pounds of equipment in a suitcase is not as easy or reassuring as it sounds. I found that I was having to carry my suitcase more than I was having to push or drag it, to get over the curbs and down the escalators without bashing everything around inside the bag.

Secondly came the back pain. I'm no stranger to back pain. I think that most photographers will agree that it seems to be something that comes with the job. Naively, I had thought that a suitcase would help minimise this pain since I wasn't carrying all of the weight on my body. What happened inside was that the strain on my lower back and hips became worse than any of the pain I had previously experienced in my shoulders and upper back, arguably more debilitating and harder to treat too.

As if the inconvenience and the pain wasn't bad enough, the suitcase that I had bought wasn't as durable as it had first seemed. On not one but many occassions, the suitcase handle completely detached itself from the body of the bag, meaning I had no choice but to lift the bag up and carry it anyway.

It was around this time that I decided I had to finally do the research and be willing to invest in a camera bag that suited my needs.

Now introducing, the WANDRD PRVKE 21 litres bag. Here are some of the things others had said to me about the WANDRD backpacks when I was searching for my new bag:

I opted for the WANDRD PRVKE 21 litre version as, like I mentioned earlier, I'm not the tallest of photographers. I felt as though anything bigger than the 21 litre version would look quite ridiculous on my frame, but I was initially worried about the smaller size of the bag. WANDRD also sell bigger bags, at 31 and 41 litres, but it was a welcome surprise that the 21 litre bag was more than enough for what I need it for.

The bag effortlessly fits two cameras and two lenses. Whether that's a big camera like the Mamiya RZ67 and a smaller camera like the Sony a7III, or two small cameras like the Sony's, I've had no problem fitting two -- and sometimes even three -- cameras securely into the bag, alongside lenses and accessories.

One of my favourite things about the bag is that it also fits my 15" Macbook Pro, which is arguably quite a big laptop to fit into a bag, in the laptop sleeve. I often need to take my laptop with me, whether on work trips or to shoots themselves, and so having the ability to pack both my camera equipment and my laptop in one bag has made my life much easier.

Comfort wise, the bag is padded nicely and the adjustable straps mean that you can easily move where the bag is sitting on you to avoid injury.

We all like pockets and the WANDRD PRVKE bag comes wth plenty. Not only does it operate with a clamshell back, which helps to keep everything very secure and safe as I travel around, it also has a side access pocket, which I haven't used massively but is handy to have regardless. It's adorned with lots of smaller pockets, like my favourite one positioned on the back of the bag, between the roll top and clamshell back, that are perfect for your everyday carries or spare batteries, SD cards, lens filters, etc.

The roll top bag has been so useful when it comes to travelling. Not only does it mean that I can safely transport my equipment when I travel, but it means that I also have a small amount of space in the top of the bag for a change of clothes or personal items.

Overall, the WANRD PRVKE 21 litre bag has been the one for me. I bought the Photography Bundle version which comes equipped with a camera cube in the main section of the bag, which provides even more security for your cameras and equipment, as is something I'd massively recommend.

To see more about the bag, you can watch my review here:

To browse or buy the WANRD PRVKE 21 litre bag, click here.