My Long Lens bag – Kinesis

My Long lens bag

MG 20110814 8550

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.

Me and my Longlens case

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.

Inside pocket on the top cover

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.

Top Cover of Kinesis Longlens CaseThe attachment clips are neat and one can easily figure out how to attach all the buckles.

Loose folds

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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