More than just a camera rucksack

aVdub

Looking to replace a few rucksacks I have and am looking for something I could, if possible, use as a bag to transport camera's, laptop, lenses, chargers and drone if needed for me to the locations I visit and stay at and then remove sections of this rucksack and use it as a smaller rucksack when I then venture out from where I am staying.
I know I could take one of my large rucksacks and another smaller rucksack, but ideally I would prefer something that I could add or remove section.

Price I'm looking at no more than £180 and would love to hear if this is possible or if not when will someone start making it

TIA

Strobe

I’ve been after something similar and came across this...
gitzo adventury 30l - Google Search
Speedgraphic have it for £187. I was after a medium size bag to carry DSLR, 3 lenses, and filter pack, spare bits and pieces, and somewhere to carry spare jacket, food, etc.
The camera ‘compartment’ is removable.

aVdub

Not bad....but not exactly what I was looking for.

I've got a feeling what I am looking for may not be out there as yet from my searching.

For me a large camera bag that in a zip or 10 can become a smaller camera bag and with another zip or 6 could turn into a shoulder bag for walking around a city and even another few zips become a small waist bag for gigs and the like would suit me right down to the ground.

If it's not out there, there surely has to be a market for something like this?

HouseTonyStark

So, I've been thinking about your design, and from a materials perspective you've got some issues in that, you want a bag to be 'everything' and also be good right.

some problems occur when you start to think about how the bag composition would be affected by all the modularity/flexibility you want, in that
A- you would have an awful lot of complexity in terms of joins seams and zips etc which would certainly Add to weight
B- in order to allow the flexibility to compress the bag into various sizes and shapes you would compromise structural integrity.

im gonna focus mainly on the integrity thing because, in order to provide a 'bag' like shape you tend to have a few large pieces of material stretched and structures such that they maintain a particular shape through the life of the bag. With your suggestions, you very much would be requiring a material that is super flexible and foldable in order to facilitate the shape/utlitiy of the bag, which means thinner materials that can withstand a lot of compression and bending without material failure.  This is great for internal linings such as pockets and things, but very bad for an external surface which would likely need a thicker material to facilitate waterproofing and general wear and tear.

a final point to note is that all that complexity massively increases fabrication times and material costs to the point that while yes, possibly someone somewhere has designed a bag such as yours, it would be prohibitively expensive to produce, and as such not worth the effort..

ultimately when it comes to photography and travel bags i would be considering a decent travel bag, and finding a camera insert to fit, as that seems to fit your requirements better!

thats just my opinion mind.

aVdub

Thank you for the reply and I have added my replies in Bold to the quoted post above.

Faldrax

I have a camera backpack where the bottom half has a camera insert, and the top half is a general purpose section.
You can also fold down the general section, and zip it in place, to turn it into a shoulder bag for just the camera gear.

The problem is, the extra bulk of that unused section folded down means it's actually pretty poor as a shoulder bag, so I never us it that way, and as a camera bag it's fine when lightly loaded (A6000   16-50, 55-210 and 50 f/1.8, plus assorted bits and pieces), and the top section is used for semi-bulky but relatively light bits, such as a fleece, but gets uncomfortable if you put too much weight in it.

Bigger bags need correspondingly larger and more padded backs, straps, etc - with waist belts & sternum straps at the higher end, which would be just XS weight on a small bag.

There are a huge range of bags available these days - the reason why variable size bags aren't widely available is that, in most situations, a fixed size bag will do the job better for most people.

doug56hl

I use the likes of this with ordinary rucksacks as I've never found a camera rucksuck with enough space for everything else (rainproof jacket, water, food, etc)  https://www.amazon.co.uk/S-ZONE-Waterproof-Shockproof-Practical-Protection/dp/B01LYZRPQH/ref=sr_1_7?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1545755743&sr=1-7&keywords=camera insert for backpack

If you also use it with a flexible thin easily fold up unpadded bag you can then transfer the insert to that for a carry around just for camera/lenses type affair. Cheap and does the job and I store lenses in them when they are in the house.

aVdub

That's not a bad idea actually
Cheers