Shimoda Explore 40L Travel Backpack - Waterproof Hiking Backpack for Outdoor Adventures, Camping & Photography Gear (Sea Pine Green, Model 520-002) | Perfect for Hiking, Travel & Professional Photographers

Overall, I find this to be a great camera bag with only a few small annoyances. The ICU is thinner and easier to manage than the thicker F-Stop ICU. However, I do find that the Shimoda unit would benefit by being about 1/4 of an in shorter (less tall) and a bit more flexible as it would make the ICU a bit more flexible.The shoulder straps are brilliant and very comfortable. They are a tad annoying if using the Peak Design Capture Clip given the width and thickness of the strap coupled with placing the clip in a comfortable position. I am 6' tall and longer in the torso than legs, so maybe that's the reason.I did give it a good test with an 8-day hiking trip and could carry all my kit pretty well - A full-frame DSLR, 24-120 lens, sleeping bag, clothing article and various bits such as a battery recharger, tripod, intervalometer, a few filters, and cloths. It certainly manages all the camera kit I need for day hikes and trips.Been using it at least twice a week for almost a year and it’s great. It’s usually holding my Nikon d810 camera, 15-35mm, 24-70mm, 150-600mm, tripod, filters, and other odds and ends. It’s very secure and comfortable holding around 30# weight and there’s still enough room for a tent and sleeping bag.So far I have hiked roughly 15 miles with this bag weighted down with camera gear!! I cannot complain about the functionality at all! If I had one complaint it would be I wish there was a little more in the way of side pockets on the waist straps! I will eventually get the larger pack for more than one day hikes!Very comfortable!Holds my kit without a problem plus my camping gear.Flexible (I also bought the medium ICU) I can carry a lot of camera gear by combining the midium and one small ICU, less by just bringing the midium or eben less by just using a small one.Very well thought out design.In short I am a happy customer!Bought this beautiful bag for a trip to Belize. Didn’t realize the cores were sold separately. My fault for not reading the fine print. Returning and buying an Atlas (camera bag) with the cores included.I got this because many YouTube vloggers raved about this backpack. Not sure how much they used but this configuration is not ideal for a photography field trip. It's good for travel on flight but once you get to your destination and want to take it out for landscape photography hike or trip it feel cumbersome to arrange camera and then take out every time you want to take pictures. Maybe it would have been better with a medium core unit which means I have to spend another $79.After using for couple of trips, I feel this bag is over designed even the build quality is outstanding. I keep going back to my old and trusted Incase DSLR pro backpack every time time I go out for hike for landscape photography. I also tried my friends Mindshift Backlight 26L and Lowepro Protactic 450 and they both are more practical for going out to shoot than Shimoda. I regret spending way too much for this bag which now needs another $80 to make it decently practical.I am worried if lot of these shimoda backpack reviews on YouTube are similar to online mattress review videos.This is so close to the prefect camera backpack bag. However it’s has some truely epic failures in design that no one has mentioned. I’m a photographer and a backpacker. I want to bring my camera gear. I’ve owned some great backpacking bags for through hiking. This is not a bag that can compete with those.This bag does not have a frame. An aluminum spine in a hard plastic plate that can be bent to fit the curvature of your spine. Standard in backpacking bags so the bulky, oddly shaped, hard edge items in the bag don’t dig into your back for 30 miles. Foam is not a frame.Orange is need to have, not a want to have color. It’s standard on hunting gear because deer, elk, and moose can’t see orange. Hunters can clearly. Don’t want to get shot while your shooting the elk rut? Wear orange.The hip belts are attached to the fold away back hatch. You have to take the bag off, set it down on a rock, mud, or snow to get to your gear. On most others the hip belt is attached to the bag. Loosen them up, turn the bag around and let it hang off of you while accessing your gear or changing lenses.I don’t know what the other people that reviewed this bag are thinking because I’ve used over 5 different expensive camera bags and this has by far been the best one I’ve used so far. You can tell they put a lot of thought into the design and it is hands down the most comfortable bag I’ve bought.