Bagman – F-Stop’s new Guru photo pack

Okay so I may not be a corrupt police officer taking bribes from the mafia; in fact I’m nothing close, I’m just a guy that likes looking at camera bags. I spend way too much time looking, mainly because nothing out there does what I need it to do. I’m not at all happy with my LowePro. It blows zips all the time, is super hard to get into when I have a tripod or light stand attached and it can’t take a bladder. With a bunch of buddies and Spoke contributors (Sven Martin, Camilla Stoddart and Tim Pierce) getting on the F-Stop train I figured they must be onto something. They are. It’s been a little while in the making but F-Stop has just released the Guru. It’s basically the perfect sized bag for a three–four hour ride; not too big (that just encourages photographers to squeeze more unnecessary gear in) and not too small (that you have to leave important gear out).

F-Stop sells the bag separately from its internal—the ICU—and the Guru fits either a small or a medium ICU. I opted for the larger. The ICU fits my normal kit of four lenses plus a couple of Pocket Wizards, the space left above the ICU provides room for my flashes and yes there is even a sleeve for the all important bladder!

The external pockets then provide ample room for spare cards, batteries and lunch. The bag is ripstop nylon and so far the only downside I can see is that it doesn’t come with a rain jacket. However it does come with a pouch for a rain jacket underneath the base.

Time will tell how the Guru will cope with New Zealand conditions but on paper (and on my back) it looks perfect and ticks almost all the boxes.