Lowepro SlingShot 350 AW Sling Bag Review

Great bag for traveling

"This bag is great for what it was designed to do. It is designed to give a photojournalist the ability to take a large enough kit to handle the majority of the work and head to a coffee house to write the article and shoot it off to the publisher with the laptop you have tucked away. I carry an aluminum body 15" Macbook computer and it fits in the slot just fine. If you have a thick 15" laptop, you'll probably find it too snug to fit.



I am an airline pilot and I bought this bag to help me carry my kit comfortably, meet carry-on requirements and still have a little room to grow. I currently have a Nikon D300 and I always have my battery grip attached. Finding a bag that could support a "pro-sized" camera was important. I also wanted the ability to grow my kit. I know in the future that I'll be purchasing a 70-200 f/2.8. When I get that lens, I know that I'll be able to leave it on the D300 and stow it in this bag attached and ready to use at the drop of a hat. I currently carry my D300, battery grip, 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 lens, SB-900 flash, flash diffusers, 50mm f/1.8, 85mm f/1.8, P-series Cokin adapter, two expodiscs, leather hand grip, polarizer, three Cokin P-series filters, extra memory cards, cleaning pen, AA-batteries, A/V cables, Canon G10, battery chargers for my Nikon, Macbook and Canon. The best part is I still have room to grow my kit without having to purchase a new bag.



The bag isn't the most comfortable on the market but then speed and agility come with a price. I looked at backpacks but none could deploy fast enough as the slingshot series. With my bag fully loaded, I'll definitely use my hip belt to support the weight and the shoulder strap to keep it snug to my body. I can stow my hip belt slings enough so that when I'm traveling light, they don't get in the way.



I really like the flexibility the Slingshot 350 AW gives me when out I'm walking and I see a shot develop right before my eyes. I can quickly unbuckle, sling it around and remove my Nikon D300 to get the shot. It is superb for this type of shooting. Additionally, if I want to shoot for half the day and then retreat to a coffee house to play on my laptop and chat with friends, I have that ability with this bag. Another thing I really liked about this bag is the ease at which you can obtain your items. On the bad side of this argument is the fact that thieves may be skilled enough to get access to your kit as well. The zippers have pull loops threaded through the zipper mechanism instead of traditional zipper pulls. Traditional zipper pulls have a big hole on the end so you can zip up your zippers to prevent someone from gathering your gear on the fly as you walk. Personally, I doubt this will be a huge issue unless you're in big crowds. Then all you'd have to do is to slingshot your bag around in front of you to prevent this from happening. I can see this might deter some from buying this bag but I think it is a great bag and it is made for the traveling photographer/photojournalist."