Peak Design’s 10L Everyday Sling is just the right size for carrying a smaller amount of photo gear with you around town. The Sling is ideal for a mirrorless body, a few lenses, cards, batteries and a few other accessories. I am able to fit all the gear I need when I want to head out the door and bike around taking photos. Peak Design’s Range Pouch , which was their first product in the lens protection field, is a robust and flexible lens pouch and comes in three sizes allowing you to find the right fit for your lenses.
Everyday Sling
I love wearing backpacks, but I find the Sling design is particularly great for carrying around just enough gear to get the shots I need when I don’t need to be lugging all my gear with me. This bag allows me to get to my gear quickly and forces me to not carry more than I need, which is definitely a good thing as I sometimes bring way more than necessary just because I have the space.
What it Holds
The first picture shows Peak Design’s ideas of what fits into the bag, and the second one shows what I fit into my Everyday Sling. Everything in both pictures will easily fit into, or in the case of the tripod, onto the Everyday Sling. I would suggest, however, using a smaller travel style tripod like the one I have in my picture below.
Inside my Sling is a Sony a7r II with adapter and Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM Zoom Lens attached, a Sony FE 55mm F/1.8 , a medium size filter pouch, SD cards, battery and charger , iPad mini , a bike light, and separate pouches containing a Sennheiser Wireless Lav Set , a Tascam DR40 audio recorder as well as assorted audio cables. On the outside of the Everyday Sling I carry a CapturePro Camera Clip attached to the dedicated attachment point and a Manfrotto BeFree Live Tripod strapped underneath. This amount of equipment is perfect for almost all of my photo and some basic video shooting needs. I also still have a bit of room for a water bottle or something of similar size in the front pocket.
Design
The design is great for biking as the quick adjusting strap, which is based on their popular Slide Camera Strap , allows me to keep the bag tight against my back while biking, yet still be able to quickly swing the bag to the front of my body and access my gear without having to take the bag off. I prize gear accessibility very highly as many amazing photos I have taken were ones where I had to get to my camera quickly before the moment was gone. Peak Design has definitely kept this in mind with all their equipment, starting with their first product, the CapturePro Camera , which attaches to the Sling via the dedicated Capture attachment point. The Capture Clip allows you to carry your camera on the outside of your Sling to access your camera even faster than having to go into your bag. This is perfect when you know you will need instant access to get a shot.
This bag is designed to handle the elements without having to worry about rain covers. The outside is made out of DWR-coated Kodra synthetic nylon which will hold up very well to some tough weather. The external zippers are weather sealed, further protecting your gear. This bag was well designed to keep your valuable gear safe.
The inside of the bag comes with two FlexFold dividers, which are rigid and can fold to stack your gear. This is really a great system that I have loved since they introduced it in their Everyday Messenger Bag. It allows you to position your equipment just the way you want without the hassle of all that terrible fluffy Velcro.
There is an expandable zippered pocket on the front of the Sling that can hold a water bottle, accessories, or a thin jacket. When not fully expanded, the compression straps can flatten the pocket. On the inside of the top cover is an organizational pocket that is the perfect spot for keeping your memory cards and batteries in order. Both of these pockets come with a bright backing, making it easier to find things when there isn’t a lot of light. Aside from these pockets there is also a sleeve that can hold up to an 11” tablet or a smaller laptop (make sure to check the specs for laptop sizes).
For those times when the inside storage isn’t quite enough, the bag has external carry straps that act as perfect lashing point for a tripod, umbrella, or even a yoga mat. These external carry straps also act as compression straps for the front pocket to keep the Sling flatter when the pocket isn’t filled out. On the back side of the Sling is a carry handle that doubles as luggage strap allowing you to easily transport your Sling through airports and when on vacation.
Thoughts after a few weeks
This really is a great grab and go bag when photography is your main goal. If you plan to be getting groceries on the way back from shooting I would either go for something a bit bigger such as Peak Design’s Everyday Backpack or simply stuff a reusable bag into the front pouch. This bag is very comfortable and, as I mentioned before, allows the equipment to be quickly accessed. I find this bag carries just the right amount of gear for everyday use and I will definitely keep using this to take pictures as I bike around town.
Range Pouch
New take on an old idea
The Range Pouch is Peak Design’s new take on the lens pouch, which has for the most part been a canister style protective case. Peak Design went with a flat folding, tapered shape that takes up less space when not in use while still providing excellent protection. The outside of the pouch is also weatherproof, which is definitely a great feature. There are three sizes of pouch, small, medium, and large which accommodate lenses from small primes all the way up to 70-200mm telephoto lenses. The small size is also a good fit for a point and shoot and the large size is a perfect fit for the DJI Mavic Pro . All three sizes are also capable of cinching down or expanding using the front velcro strip, allowing the pouches to be used with slightly different sized lenses. I received the large pouch for review and it fit a 70-200mm perfectly.
Dividers and interior pockets
Within the Range Pouch is a felt divider with protects the lenses and can be used to divide the interior space into two compartments for two lenses or a body and a lens. It also has two interior pockets which can fit thin items such as lens caps, filters and other smaller items. I was easily able to fit my Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM Zoom Lens and a small prime lens. Another useful configuration is to store my a7r II body and a prime. This allows me to place both a body and lens into any backpack and not worry nearly as much about damaging either.
Carrying the Range Pouch
There are a few ways to carry the Range Pouch. There is a belt attachment point that opens quickly using velcro, yet is sturdy enough to not worry about the pouch falling off your belt. There are also two steel eyelets attached to Peak Design anchor links which can be used to attach to a PD camera strap.
Great lens protection
This is a great product that allows for maximum flexibility in a very protective package. While I love mine, the only downside (and it’s a minor one!) is that it doesn’t stand up on its own due to the tapered bottom design. This design was made to allow the pouch to pack down small when not being used, so it is a decent trade off.
