This is a follow up bag review to my previous general article on the buying considerations for a camera bag for travel. This particular bag under review falls under the second category of bags that I referred to - Getting around with your camera gear. After much research, I finally settled on Think Tank Photos' Urban Disguise 30 as my bag of choice to carry my camera gear around while I'm at my destination.

Construction Quality

The first thing that struck me with this bag is its construction quality. Think Tank Photos is clearly a company that's serious about the quality of their products. A variety of materials is used to make up the final product and I'm hard placed to name them with any accuracy but suffice to say that the overall feel of the bag is very good. 

High quality YKK zippers are used in the bag's design but strangely enough, I do find the main zipper to be quite stiff. It's not as smooth as I would like to open and close the main section. My only other complaint with the design is that I wish the should strap was a little broader for better comfort as the weight of the bag can then be distributed over a wider surface area. 

Utility

This bag has pockets galore ! I do generally prefer to be able to compartmentalise my bag's contents for ease of access and organisation and this bag is definitely ideal for that. For starters, there are two stretchable side pockets which are useful for storing a small water bottle or even a foldable umbrella. There is a front pocket that is zippered which I use to hold lens caps and spare memory cards for easy access. The pocket runs the entire width of the bag so conceivably you can put anything you want in here such as maps or even a small guide book.

When you open up the front flap which is secured by velcro and a plastic clip (I actually think the clip is redundant), you will find another expandable compartment and a zippered organiser section. The expandable compartment is useful for large drop in items which you want to get to easily. I keep my dust blower in there for easy access. The organiser section is great for storing smaller items in its many compartments.  Other memory cards can be kept in here though I keep one in the outer pocket for quick access.

The main compartment is accessed via that stiff zipper I referred to earlier. The compartment is deep enough to hold a Canon 70-200mm lens and quite a few velcro separators are supplied with the bag for you to sub-compartmentalise this section to your liking. This compartment is also lined with felt to protect your camera and lenses. My main complaint with this main section is that the opening is a touch too narrow. You have to be careful when taking your camera in and out of the main section as the zipper can easily scratch the camera. Lenses are fine as they are not as wide as the camera body (don't know about the 70-200mm though).

The main section also contains another pocket where the supplied rain shell is held. I actually took the rain shell from that inner pocket and put it in the outer expandable pocket instead for easy access and also to free up room in the main section.  

Price 

For some reason, bags nowadays are quite expensive. The Urban Disguise 30 retails for US$130 which I don't consider to be cheap but it's also within range of how much you would pay for bags nowadays.  Furthermore, the customer service was fantastic. I bought this bag online directly from Think Tank and I asked them to expedite my shipping as I was only going to be in the US for a number of days and I wanted the bag to be shipped to my hotel. They arranged for that immediately and the bag was ready for me to pick up when I checked into my hotel.

Summary

Overall, I'm quite happy with this bag and it does meet all my needs. There are a number of items mentioned above which would have made this an even better bag.

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