It’s safe to say that with over 40 years of experience, the folks at Lowepro know a thing or two about camera bags. Their bags are well known for their durability, functionality and ability to protect your expensive camera gear from the elements. Although these things are extremely important in a camera bag, sometimes you just don’t want people knowing you have thousands of dollars of gear inside a bag. That’s where Lowepro’s new “Classified Series” comes into play.
Heading Undercover with the Lowepro Classified 250 AW
Lowepro’s new “Classified Series” is a family of four bags that fit varying degrees of gear. All of them feature a distinct look that marries all of the things that are important in camera bags, with a design that doesn’t scream come and steal me. All of the bags are equipped with Lowepro’s All Weather (AW) cover system.
The largest bag known as the Classified 250 AW, the subject of our review, is a shoulder bag that not only carries multiple lenses and flashes, but it also has room to carry your laptop along with you. The design features soft edges, leather accents on the bag, even the zippers pulls and a much slimmer profile than traditionally designed camera shoulder bags. This allows it to blend in and look less like a camera or laptop bag and more like an overnight bag.
It comes in two colours which are sepia (as shown) and a traditional black. The bag measures 18.3W X 11D X 14H inches or for the more refined metric types, 46.5 X 28 X 35.5 cm. During my trip to CES, I was able to easily fit this bag packed with gear into overhead compartments and tested it in most of the airline carry on size testers with no problem. The bag is recommended for one to two professional DSLRs with 70-200 f/2.8 lens attached plus two to three additional lenses or flash unit, plus one widescreen notebook up to 15.4 inches.
You can find the Lowepro Classified 250 AW at most retailers for around $209 US. Let’s see if this bag is worth the green.
Taking Care of Minor Details
One of the first things I noticed on this bag was the buttoned leather handle that adds a bit more security to the stuff inside. It’s also quite comfortable and the buttons release and lock with a solid snap.
One of the places that the Lowepro Classified 250 AW tries to improve upon is the carry strap. The strap on this bag includes a small leather flap that keeps your camera on your shoulder when you’re running around with it trying to get that shot. It is also anchored solidly with detachable metal attachment hooks to metal D-Rings. I found that this came in quite useful for the stock camera straps that tend to be thinner, but if you wear a thicker strap like the ones that Lowepro makes, it doesn’t seem to work as well with them because they don’t quite fit under the flap.
The other feature of the carrying system is a cross strap that is borrowed from bicycle courier bags. This piece attaches to the shoulder strap and greatly enhances the stability of the bag when worn and can be setup for either shoulder. More on this and the strap a bit later.
Storage On The Outside
The front flap on the Classified 250 AW is secured by two stealth clips that are hidden underneath the flap. This makes it much more difficult for someone to do an unclip and grab of your gear. It also reveals some extra storage for your stuff.
Underneath the flap you’ll find two main pockets that are secured by velcro flaps. The pocket on the left is lined with fleece and is great for things like your digital photo banks, touchscreen phones and MP3 players. The one on the right ditches the fleece for pockets for organization. There are pockets for pens and other things that you need on the go.
Behind both of the main front pockets is one single larger pocket for even more of your stuff. There are two keychain hooks in this compartment and one of them is attached to a memory wallet that is included with the bag and holds up to six compact flash cards. It’s detachable just in case you want to put it somewhere other than where Lowepro put it.
Behind the pockets is a zipper that doesn’t open up a new compartment. Instead, it expands the main equipment pocket, giving you quite a bit more space for multiple pro-DSLR bodies or big lenses. We’ll be looking at the equipment area very shortly.
Moving to the back of the bag, we see another compartment which is extremely handy for stowing your reading materials and is also zippered in case you’re transporting sensitive files. The black mesh takes a bit of the heat off your body and wicks away moisture easily and also doubles as a slot for the handle of your rolling suitcase. Beneath this is a velcro compartment that stores Lowepro’s patented “All Weather” cover.
Still The Best All Weather Cover
Unlike a lot of weather covers out there, the Lowepro one is still one of the best out there simply because it not only does what it is supposed to do, but it still allows you to use the carry straps properly. With the Classified 250 AW, all you need to do is pull it up, unclip the carry strap, and just feed it back through the two reinforced slots in the cover. Thankfully, I didn’t need to use this a whole lot, but it is there for that unexpected torrential downpour or sand storm.
Inside the Lowepro Classified 250 AW
This bag is deceptively large, harbouring up to 15W X 6.3D X 11H inches (38 X 16 X 28 cm) of storage for your gear.
After unbuttoning the leather handle and unzipping the main compartment, you gain access to the inside of the bag. Although annoying when you want to take a picture of it, the compartment doesn’t fully expose when open, giving your gear a little bit of protection from prying eyes. The interior is fleece lined to keep things from getting scratched and the light grey color also makes it easy to find things. The dividers are attached to the interior with velcro, making them easily customizable to suit your needs.
Microfiber cloths stitched into each divider come in quite handy allowing you to drape them over the sensitive displays on your DSLR bodies, providing a bit of scratch protection. They are also handy for a quick wipe of lenses and other items that tend to get dirty like your glasses.
Lowepro says that the equipment compartment easily fits one to two professional DSLRs with 70-200 f/2.8 lens attached plus two to three additional lenses or flashes. However, with a grip attached or if you own a NIKON D3, you will need to use the expansion zipper on the outside to get the additional room you need to fit them both in. It’s definitely deceptively cavernous inside.
Instead of two DSLR’s, I was able to pack around at CES, my D200 with grip and a f/2.8 17-55mm attached, a Canon HF100 HD Camcorder, a flash unit, three more lenses (35mm/60mm/50mm), extra batteries for everything, chargers, cellphones, 80GB ZUNE, laptop and full sized monitoring headphones with room to spare. I ended up packing all of the USB and paper press kits around in this bag so that I could work on articles when I had a spare moment. Overall, I’m very impressed with the capacity while maintaining a svelte silhouette.
Finally, we get to the laptop compartment which snugly holds my 15.4 inch MacBook Pro. Although there is a little bit of adjustment with the velcro that attaches this compartment to the bag, I have to say that it is quite tight. If your 15.4 inch widescreen notebook is much thicker than the MacBook Pro, then you might have a hard time stuffing it into the compartment. Most 14 inch notebooks should be comfortable though.
Durability in the Field
After drop kicking this bag in the field for over a month and through one big and crazy trade show in Vegas, the bag doesn’t even look like it’s seen a day of use. There are no frays and no stuck zippers. The luxurious leather accents are also pristine.
Despite the fact that I’ve noticed that the bag uses slightly thinner padding in comparison to other Lowepro bags I’ve reviewed in the past, it still managed to keep all the things I care about safe and undamaged. The thinner padding also helped in maintaining a slim profile while maximizing storage space. They truly got the formula right here.
Room for a Bit More Comfort
After lugging around this bag for quite a few long days (and many short days), I’ve come to both love and hate some aspects of the Classified 250 AW.
I found the strap far too stiff and the shoulder pad portion far too short, causing the thinner nylon portion to dig into me, especially when carrying the maximum load of gadgets. The pad was also sewn to the strap, making it impossible to adjust on the fly. Even though Lowepro did include that little flap to keep your camera strap on your shoulder, I do put the priority on comfort and this strap did not do it for me.
While we’re on the subject of the strap, I feel that Lowepro is on the right track with the cross strap. It definitely made a big difference when carrying more weight. However, it can easily be perfected with just a couple more ideas borrowed from well designed bicycle courier bags out there. It just needs to be wider at the attachment point so that it doesn’t pinch the strap. Good courier bags use a wide triangular piece to attach itself to the shoulder strap which makes a huge difference for adjustment and comfort.
Final Thoughts and Conclusions
So what’s the final word on the Lowepro Classified 250 AW? The mix of durability and protection for your gear is fantastic despite the slim profile. I also appreciated the extra storage room that seemed to appear out of nowhere and enjoyed the fact that it doesn’t look like a camera bag, making you a target for theft. However, when you have an opportunity to take this bag out for hours, you do start to see where improvements can be made.
For me, all Lowepro needs to do to turn this into a bag that I could just fall in love with is improve the strap. I know they are on the right track because they did include the cross strap to make the bag more stable when running around, but it just wasn’t comfortable when you do end up wearing the bag all day long, especially when you fill the bag to capacity. For people that go point A to point B, then drop the bag, it’ll treat you well.
Pros
- Slim and tasteful design allows you to run incognito with your gear.
- Tons of space for all your gear and more.
- Excellent durability and protection for your gear.
- Fantastic All Weather Cover.
Cons
- The strap needs improvement to increase comfort as the bag loads up (or as you fall in love with it and use it more).
Overall Rating: 8.5 / 10.0
