My Long lens bag
Anyone who has gone on a photographic safari in the wilds of India or Africa will realise how dusty it can be. Despite wrapping around our expensive cameras and lenses, you find dust everywhere. I normally carry a green colour beach towel which is wrapped around my lens. However, during the bumpy safari ride when the lens collar bounces off your body, you will realise how painful it can be. I tried many bags, however, the time lost in taking out the lens from the bag resulted in missing many photo opportunities.
So I was looking for a bag which can house my camera and my long lens (Canon EF 400mm f2.8 L IS USM) in shooting position. Finally, I found my lens bag. It’s the Kinesis Long Lens case 622.
In this image, you can see how tall this lensbag is. One side of the lens bag is flat and the other parts are curved. Its like a cylinder cut off vertically on one side so that the flat portion can rest on a flat surface without rolling.
It is made of semi-rigid polycore side walls and the base is rigid polycore with a thickness of 19mm. The height of the bag is 70.5 cm. The interior height is 67cm.
The bag is designed keeping in mind a single ready to use camera and lens. So the bag is called the Long Lens Case. The design is modular and one can attach extra pouches for carrying extra camera body or lens etc.
I found the Small Multi Pouch M330 to be useful for my trekking trips. It is the small pouch that is attached at the bottom. It can safely hold a Canon 1 Series camera without lens. Or You can just divide it into two compartments and keep a lens like the Canon EF 24-70 f2.8 L USM and a LCD viewfinder for my filming needs. There is a small pocket as well to keep a few items.
There is a pocket on the inside of the top cover to keep a document or something. You may miss out on this one if you don’t inspect your bag carefully.
The attachment clips are neat and one can easily figure out how to attach all the buckles.
My first observation was that the cloth covering the polycore is slightly loose at a few places. The only way I can describe it is like a badly made shirt collar. Well, in such a large bag one may ignore it. The issue is minor. On second thoughts, I am not sure if it is due to hand manufacturing or because they have given some allowance for the cloth to shrink if at all.
There are two side nettings to place water bottles as well as cables etc. I use one side to place my microphone cables for sound recording.
I would have liked to have the lid made of a harder substance than the polycore. That would have helped as a stand. I have placed the lenscase horizontally on my lap and have placed the long lens over it and have got sharp shots at very low shutter speeds.
If you want to carry the lens case on your shoulders like a backpack, then you need to buy the harness. The H245 harness is meant for medium built, which I ordered. The H250 is for large built person. I had paid a grand total of 372 US dollars for the Lens case and harness. However, I am not too happy with the harness, as I find the harness to be a bit tough. It needed more of padding. The padding of the harness of lowepro bags are much better in comparison. While trekking I would prefer to use some more padding inform of a thick towel below this harness.
One negative is that you need to pull up the camera and the heavy lens attached may make take the toll on the mount. Take a little bit of care, and it should be ok.
A word of caution: This bag is huge. I don’t think they will allow you to carry as cabin baggage. So you may need to check it in. In the past I have removed the harness and covered it with newspaper and packed it and checked it in with my other luggage. Also, if you are carrying this in a small car like a Maruti Zen etc, then you are likely to have problems in packing it along with other luggage.
In Summary: I like the Kinesis Long Lens Case 622 as it solves the primary problem of protecting my Canon EF 400mm f2.8 L IS USM lens from dust as well as keeping it in shooting position with hood on and the camera attached.
You can buy this Kinesis Long Lens case from B&H by following this link and avail prevailing discounts and help support our site: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/Kinesis_622/Ntt/Kinesis%2B622/N/0/kw/search/BI/19990/KBID/13252/DFF/d10-v1-t12
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Thanks for all the lovely information, Budding photographers are lost in selecting things and always look for information from reliable source and from those who have tried and tested stuff. Thanks again and looking forward to more informative articles and reviews.
I am posting a message from Richard Stum, Proprietor of Kinesis regarding the Long Lens case. It is a Product recall.
Sub: Kinesis L622 Problem
Dear Customer,
After making bags for some fifteen years, I thought I would never have to make such an announcement…a product recall.
Recently, we have discovered that one or more batches of our L622 PolyCore Long Lens Cases have a sewing defect (manufactured between 2009-2010). The defect is only related to those cases that are used as backpacks with either a H245 or H250 Padded Harness attached. The lower D-rings, which the 1-inch harness straps attach to, were not reinforced properly, causing a possible failure of the harness. The reinforcing seam is hidden, so it is difficult to preview the integrity of the stitching. If you are using your long lens case with a harness, or may use this case with a harness in the future, please do the following:
1. Perform a self-check of the D-ring strength per the instructions on this page (http://www.kgear.com/store/case-failure).
2. If you feel your case is defective, request a pre-paid UPS shipping label from us (US customers only) and return the product for us to repair. You will need to source out a shipping box. The typical turn around time, once the product reaches us, will be about 1-2 weeks. We will return the case to you via UPS Ground at our expense.
While we have not had any reports of failures of other cases, like the L321 or the popular L521, they are also susceptible to the same problem, so it would behoove you to check all your Kinesis long lens cases in this same manner.
Once again, I apologize for this oversight and hope this will not inconvenience your upcoming spring and summer shooting schedule.
Cheers,
Richard Stum, Proprietor
Hi Sabyasachi,
Your reviews have always been very descriptive and helpful.
I just got myself a ‘Lowepro runner 300aw’… It proves to be very useful so far 🙂
Cheers and happy clicking!
Kunal
Kunal,
Lowepro bags are good. A bit on the heavier side. The harness is good. They come with a raincover as well. Since these bags are available in India, a lot of people buy it. However, one needs to be careful about the present as well as future requirements while buying bags. I have half a room filled with bags and have been trying to dispose of bags whenever the opportunity arises. So one needs to be sure about the usage before buying the bags.
Sabyasachi
I am new in this field as I bought a DSLR 3 1/2 months back. I bought a Canon which came with bag but since I have purchased a new lens I am looking for a lens pouch or a new bag which will accomodate my camera and all lens etc . Any suggestions? Are Kensis bag available in India? If yes where?
Kinesis bags are not available in India. I had ordered it from US.
If you can tell me which lens, then I can guide you to the right kind of lens pouch.
If you have a Canon 100-400 lens then the right pouch would be a E280 – Large Lens pouch. I am giving the link to their store here: http://www.kgear.com/store/e/e280-1.html
You can find various pouches in their store.
Sabyasachi
Hi Sabyasachi, currently I have Nikon D90 + Nikkor 18-105mm + Nikkor 300mm f4 + Nikon 1.4x TC and Manfrotto 055xprob tripod with 498RC2 ball head. I also plan to buy a wide angle lens soon and a bigger tele lens in 3-4 years time. Looking at these, which backpack you can recommend? I went to a store and had a look at Lowepro 350AW but am not sure whether it is right one or I should be looking at something else.
Bhavin,
You need to decide if you plan to acquire any further lenses later. Else, you will soon discard this and move to a bigger bag. The challenge with lowepro bags is that the zip fails, the stitchings come open. So it becomes difficult to use it with confidence later. I like the straps of the lowepro bags as the pads provide comfort to your shoulders. You should check the bags from Kata which are well made. There are also bags of Kinesis (small lens cases) where you can place your camera with the 300mm with TC attached in shooting position. You have to first decide how you want to use your bag. After that you can zero in on the bag.
Sabyasachi
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