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I gave up waiting and ordered a Lowepro SlingShot 300 AW from Adorama. I'd have gotten it from B&H, but being run by the religious folks, B&H was closed for a good length of time over Easter. I wanted to try it out first and see how well my gear fit, but frankly, I was tired of waiting and from what I'd read, I was rather confident it would work out just fine.

Click through for some pictures of the bag with my gear included.

The Outside

Seen here is the entire backpack. Since this is mostly about what's inside, I didn't care to get the greatest outside shot. Still, you can see how deep the bag is as well as where the bag opens up on the side.

The SlingShot features a single sling that goes over your right shoulder, ammo-sling style, with a waist belt for support on longer walks. It "slings" around quite easily. I'm used to carrying something on one shoulder having golfed (and carried a bag) for so long. Getting it on and off is rather easy, though I go a little slower with a hat and glasses than some might.

Finally, the top grey sections have what feels like a very durable plastic piece. I'm not sure what the purpose is - to clip something? What?

I have only two complaints about the bag itself. One is that the straps are so long. I might cut them off, because the included elastic straps don't hold the extra strapping very well. I don't like all the straps dangling around. The second is that there's no monopod straps. I'll probably sew on some velcro loops to solve that problem.

The Front Pocket

The front pocket contains a lot of sleeves. I tucked my two Singh-Ray neutral density filters here along with the graduated neutral density filter. I'll probably move something else down there as well - like the WhiBal card - but right now I just have the neoprene cover for my ball head in there to offer a little padding. It's probably completely unnecessary.

The Top Pocket

Now I have the "Hot Pockets" song stuck in my head…

Anyway, the top pocket contains two mesh cargo areas. In the bottom one (which you can't see here), I've put my memory cards. I don't switch frequently, so, they're fine there. Maybe they could move to the front pocket too. In the top mesh area I've put my extra batteries, my Really Right Stuff camera plate, and some empty CompactFlash holders.

The main portion of the pocket contains my homemade tin-foil flash snoot (from a mac and cheese box), my Hoya circular polarizing filter, my WhiBal (both of which will probably swap places with the neoprene cover in the front pocket), my Cokin rings and bracket, my 58-77mm step-up ring, and an extra lens/body cap joined together. I also store a mesh bag in there to help keep rattling down.

The Main Compartment

The main compartment houses my 5D with the RRS L-Bracket attached to the 70-200/2.8L IS lens with the hood cap reversed (and the tripod mount in place). I might take that top grey bumper off, though - it probably doesn't serve much of a point.

Clockwise from the front left slot, I've got my 24-70/2.8L lens (in the bag) with the hood reversed and then a 430EX flash. Beneath the 50/1.4 I have my three Kenko extension tubes, and in the front slot (that appears empty) I have the 85/1.8. There's room to put something else in that pocket, but I don't need it.

All Told
The bag works well, from what I can tell in the limited testing I've been able to give it. I didn't mention the all-weather cover (which comes out of a velcro-sealed slot on the bottom of the bag), but it looks about like you see on the site, so no surprises there.

The bag is pretty big, but it holds a lot as well. This may not be a great pack for a woman (both because it can get heavy and because I'm not sure the slingshot strap wouldn't smoosh a woman's breasts), but it will probably work out really well for me. I'll post more later if anything else comes up.

P.S. For obvious reasons, I took these pictures with my Canon Rebel XTi on my old cheap plastic Kodak tripod in my basement. Exposures were about five seconds at f/5.6 and 28mm (x1.6). I white balanced with the WhiBal.

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