Rain cover

Awkward, small interior, small pockets, unstable, uncomfortable, bad design of flap leaves things open to falling out.

The Lowepro AW 100 is a surprisingly poorly-designed camera bag. I
must admit to being perplexed by the positive reviews I've seen. I have to
conclude they were written by people with small amounts of gear who
didn't need to carry it far, and did not need to get at their equipment very
often while carrying it.

It's a small bag, and might do if you have one small body and a couple
of lenses. The "generous" outside pockets (described by the
advertising) are anything but. The front pocket was just big enough for
two polarizers, a notepad and a pen, and I had to pry into the corner to
get at the pen, and take the front polarizer out to get at the one behind it.
In the top pocket I was able to cram an auxiliary point-&-shoot, 4 thin
grad filters and a spare roll or two of film. Oh, and a spare key in the
pocket behind.
The main part of the bag has velcro-tabbed dividers with room for one
small lens and one bigger one; these are not really adjustable. Between
them is space for a camera with another smallish lens, but since the
dividers are not of equal height, the camera body sits crooked across
them.

Right from the start, I found this bag awkward. It hangs over one
shoulder, and carrying bags that way usually
requires hanging onto the strap. This bag has a "stability strap" which
is basically a thin little strap that goes around your ribs on the other side
and up to the shoulder strap. This is awkward, and doesn't really stabilize the bag. If you wiggle a
bit, it will still slide down off your shoulder. I would not want to climb over
difficult terrain with it. I think it could very easily slip and unbalance the
wearer.
In 10 or 15 minutes of messing with it I could not make the bag slide
around the way it's illustrated in the picture on the card; it appears that
the company has printed the picture backwards.
It does slide under your (other) arm. You can half-unzip the main compartment
to get a camera out. However, you can't get at lenses without unzipping
further, and herein is a huge design flaw.

My biggest problem with the bag is this central compartment. This is
truly the worst-designed idea for a camera bag I've ever seen. The bag
is shaped like a knapsack. It sits upright like a knapsack. The flap,
however, opens sideways like a cupboard. This means your lenses are
sitting on these little velcro dividers, wide open to falling out. If you use
the "zip stop strap" it will keep that flap from opening farther, but then
you can't get at things deeper in the bag. The bag is not suitable for
frequent lens changes because you really need to put it down to open it
all the way. Even this is not safe. Thanks to this poor design, my best
lens fell out of the open flap onto a cement wharf, denting the filter ring
into unuseability. The bag was already on the ground
and I had just taken hold of it and begun to move it. This would never
happen with a bag that opens from the top, with equipment tucked
securely down inside.

After the accident I showed the bag to two people. One knows so little
about photography that she asked if the lens falling out had hurt my
pictures. She thought it was a poor design. The other is a long-time
camera club member/judge and a draftsman by trade. His comment
would be censored by this website.
I'm not sure why I'm giving this bag any stars; I guess because it's better
than nothing if you only have a small kit and don't need to get into your
bag often. Or, maybe for the rain cover that untucks from the back -- it
covers the whole bag.

I had to mail the damaged lens to a repair centre. The total bill came to
$100.59. The accident was a direct result of the design of the bag and
Lowepro will be getting a copy of the bill. I do not really expect a reply.
I will not be using this bag again.

Customer Service

I hope to get some.

Similar Products Used:

My other bag is a Lowepro Off-Road. It has a secure waist belt and opens from the TOP.

Perfect

None! If you need more room they come in larger sizes.

I have been looking at camera bags for a while now; and finally found THE camera bag!! I bought the 100 for a simple reason. I am a "hobby" photographer who always has my camera with me. Prior to getting this bag I had a backpack with my camera in a small case, and all my lenses in another case. It was a pain to pull it off my back unzip, unzip, unzip...then zip,zip,zip. only to have to put my camera back and go through it all over again. The slingshot makes it so easy to have my camera right at my finger tips in seconds and back in just as fast just by sliding it around to the front.!! It is comfortable and light and fits all my gear. I keep my 70mm lens attached to my camera, a 300mm in one compartment, and a 200 mm in another compartment. I have a tabletop tripod attached to the back. And all my filters and my shutter remote fit in the top compartment with a lot of room to spare. I could easily fit a flash in the top compartment as well. I love the fact that it has an all weather pull out built underneath incase it rains. All I can say is if you don't like this bag, there is no pleasing you! I will also say. it is small, which I like but you should look at one of these in person to decide if you want the 100, 200, or 300. 100 being the smallest up to the 300 which I am guessing is very big. so in conclusion, if you are a hobbyist or pro this bag is great! Convenient and comfortable.

Perfect shape and size for easily retrieving your camera
Good size compartments for an extra lens, some filters and a battery
Tough enough for most situations
Great sling design!

Takes a little getting used to (it's worth it though!)

I bought the LowePro 100AW because of its size (big enough for a body, two lenses and a small amount of extra gear) and its sling design. The idea of keeping the bag attached to me while retrieving the camera really appealed as it felt more secure, particularly in cities or when climbing through the west Wales wilderness.

I haven't been dissapointed so far. Access to the camera-only part of the bag (which is the whole point of the twin buckle design!) makes it safe to open the side panel when using the sling design. Your other gear remains safely tucked away and won't end up spilling into the mud or into a stream (or whatever I'm hovering over to get the best shot).

If you need to get at the rest of your gear it is no harder than using a regular bag... take it off your shoulder and undo thezip all of the way. It's not complicated and anyone who complains about this really should consider the consequences of having all of your gear accessible in some of the perilous situations you can get yourself into. If you need to change lenses for a shoot you should be trying to plan ahead, or lay the bag down like any other bag and access the gear like you would normally.

The bag also rides high up the back, so any mishaps like falling down muddy slopes on your behind are likely to leave your preciuous camera unscathed. Not that I've had experience of that you understand! ;o)

The extra pockets are handy although you shouldn't expect a vast amount of space. This is a small SLR bag, not a suitcase! The extra rubberised loops around the bag are extremely handy for velcro pockets... like the sort you might use for a mobile phone.

It all feels well made and tough enough for some pretty rough treatment. Mine will get quite an easy life so I expect it will last pretty much forever!

Customer Service

N/A

Similar Products Used:

Regular rucksack (bad for camera, bad for the photographer!)
Aluminium case with inserts (tough but cumbersome and not very accessible at speed)

SUPER quick access to camera
Very stable for skiing, snowboarding, Mtn Biking, etc
Great rain cover
Excellent warranty
Low price

Not good for heavy loads for a long time
Construction quality not that great

The photojournalist is right on about this bag. It's perfect for shooting on the go in all sorts of weather.

I use it for shooting skiing and snowboarding ON the mountain and I am riding a snowboard the entire time I am shooting. There is no other bag I have found that can be cinched down tight enough to stay put while I snowboard and still be ready to shoot in just a few seconds.

I have a Slingshot 100 for a photo only kit and a Slingshot 200 that gives me room to bring along a compact video camera at the same time. Overall size might be small for some but it's perfect for me because it stops my gear from bouncing around inside the bag.

Another great feature is the pull out rain cover. With the rain cover on everything stays dry and access to the camera is not limited at all.

In my opinion this is NOT the bag for loading up with a lot of heavy gear and hiking all day. Putting the weight on one shoulder is uncomfortable after a couple of hours and you really need a bag that puts the weight on your hips for that anyways... But for any situation where you want QUICK access to your camera this bag is awesome!

Lowepro's quality is unfortunately not that great... The design is awesome but construction materials is only OK. I've been through 3 of these bags in 2 years dues to failing zippers and stitching coming apart. Lowepro's warranty has been excellent and they have promptly replaced the bags with new every time but it would be better if the bag never failed to begin with... I would gladly pay $100 for this bag if it was better made.

Similar Products Used:

Tamrac shoulder bag

Compact, fits nicely to body.

Quick acsess to camera, without opening the full bag, is a nice feature.

Plenty of room for a good-sized camera, flashes and 4-5 lenses.

A great bag for the price.

The lens compartments are a bit small for larger lenses (they work nicely for primes).

I'm a photojournalist and this bag was made for photojournalists.

It's compact and wears tight to the body.

Works well as a slingbag or backpack-type.

It works nicely to carry minimal gear in for photo assignments.

I think it's gone down in price too, around 60-80 now.

For the money, it's a great bag for what I want out of a a bag.

Customer Service

none needed.

Small size
Fits high on the body so I don't knock things over behind me
Like a side pack - easy to get camera out without taking pack off
Impressive capacity for camera gear - takes my D200+18-200 with no problem
Pretty secure - difficult for pickpockets to get into
Replaces my small shoulderbag
AW cape but so far I haven't needed it

Too small to put extra clothing, guide books, purchases
Really limited to point missions in the city wher I don't need a lot of gear

I'm surprised at the poor reviews others have given this little bag, but perhaps we don't have the same expectations. I use the Slingshot bag to carry a minimum of gear IN CITIES. It fits close to the body and with it on me I don't go bumping into people in the subway, knocking things over in shops, etc. It took me a while to get used to it - I had to downsize my wallet, notebook, etc to make it all fit in. This bag is definitely not my choice for a holiday where I need to carry around extra clothing, guide books, etc. The Rover light is clumsy by comparison but I can put much more gear in it.

Customer Service

Not needed

Similar Products Used:

Lowe Rover Light
Lowe Mini Trekker
Hadley Billingham
Hadley 335 & 445

The sling design concept.

Access to contents and compartment layout.

I purchased this because it seemed like a great concept: carry it on your back and slip it around to the front to access. In actual use I did not like the design. The side open access provides a small opening and makes it hard to access anything from the "sling position" other than the camera in the main compartment. I did not like the design of the internal compartments and conacted Lowepro to send me a replica of the right angle divider so as to make an additional commpartment. None of the compartments were big enough to store my camera's manual (Nikon D70) without severely bending it. I ended up selling it to a friend who seemed to like it better than I did.

Customer Service

Excellent.

Similar Products Used:

I have owned 3 other Lowepro bags and have been happy with all of them.

Compact but roomy enough for 1 body, 2 lenses and a few accessories. Has soft fabric to protect the back of the camera body (very useful for digital camera owners). Has a built-in all-weather cover - never had to use it yet.

As mentioned above: the sling strap was not well made to handle normal load. The top part of the strap gets the most pull from the gear weight, yet there doesn't seem to be any additional strengthening stiches or material.
The bag doesn't slid easily from back to front as advertised. The strap must be loosened in order to slid the bag back and forth, but in doing so, I found that the bag would slid off my shoulder or swing around when I bent over or ran.

I bought Lowepro Slingshot 100 AW Slingbag on 10/14/2005 ($60, excl. tax and s & h). I hardly used it until this June 2006 when I went abroad for 3 weeks. I was very disappointed when I saw that after the 1st week of the trip the top part of the sling strap came apart halfway through its width. I didn't overload the bag. And I'm a petite woman of 5'4" (with a bursitis on the right shoulder), so I don't like burdening myself with a lot of stuff and not enjoying the picturemaking.
These were the items I had in the bag: Nikon D70, 2 lenses, 1 extra rechargeable
battery, USB cable and small cleaning kit. And most of the time the camera was hanging around my neck, of course with one of the lenses attached to it. When the camera (the heaviest item mentioned) was inside the bag, the bag usually was laid down, not hung.
I always thought that Lowepro's bags were made with care and high quality stitches. I had another Lowepro bag I bought when I just started using SLR in '98 and it's still in good condition. I bought the Slingbag because my current camera (with the lense attached) didn't fit in my old bag and I thought the design of the Slingbag would give me easier access to my camera gear and help with my bursitis. But I was wrong and am very disappointed.