Photo answers review
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If you own a serious amount of photography gear, it’s important you use a bag that’s big enough to swallow it all up. While some people prefer a conventional backpack, which evenly distributes the weight across both shoulders, a shoulder bag is often a much better option for day trips. The greatest thing about a shoulder bag is that they offer much faster access to your kit, and save you fussing around with a backpack, taking it on and off every time you want to take a shot.
Lowepro’s Magnum AW series has been re-designed for photographers who require a durable shoulder bag that can hold a hefty amount of gear. The materials used on the exterior are first-class and it instantly feels like it’ll survive the rough and tumble of life for a number of years.
The Magnum’s main flap is secured with two fastex buckles at the front, and if you want it to be more secure, there’s a pull-around zipper to keep it firmly shut. The front flap neatly folds over the zipper, preventing any of the elements creeping in and should the weather worsen, there’s an elasticised all-weather cover that can be pulled over the top. Also on the exterior, you’ll find two excellent side pockets, which are softly lined, and at the front there’s another spacious pocket for all your personal documents, pens and notebooks.
The Magnum’s grey interior is as impressive as the black exterior. It easily accommodated our test gear, which consisted of one large sized D-SLR, four lenses and a flashgun. There was still plenty of room for extra accessories in and around our kit, and the two inside pouches would be a good place to store filters or any other accessories. Like Lowepro’s Classified 200AW, the Magnum AW features soft LCD screen protector flaps, and all the inserts are removable, so you can custom build the bag to suit your kit. One of our favourite features was the removable accessory pocket, which made an ideal place to store four memory cards and a stack of AA batteries for our flashgun.
With the bag fully laden, it remained comfortable on the shoulder, even after a long day’s shooting. This was very much down to the well-padded and sizeable shoulder strap. The additional straps on the top flap came in handy for securing our carbon fibre tripod on the move, and the soft carrying handle made for another comfortable way of moving the bag.
If multiple numbers of the Magnum AW are purchased, they can be stacked one above another, and on the back there are sleeves, which makes it easy to transport around airports on luggage trollies.
Lowepro’s Magnum 400AW is a fantastic bag with a massive capacity. Surprisingly it isn’t the largest Magnum in the range and if you’re a professional photographer, requiring more space, for up to 2 bodies and 10 lenses there’s the Magnum AW 650 priced at £162. If you don’t have the kit that we had to fill up the AW 400, there’s a smaller 200AW (£119), which meets most airline carry-on size requirements.
To watch a video on the Magnum series visit Lowepro’s website by clicking here.
Photoanswers Rating: 5*