The Great Backpack Hunt

[ThatBeardedDroneGuy]

I decided to share my experience with looking for the "best" (for my needs) backpack to handle my Air 2S and other gear.

Background: My wife surprised my son and I with a two-week trip to Hawaii. Since I have a photography background, I want to make sure I have enough gear to weigh me down and come back with some great memories captured.

Challenge: I want to carry as much on the plane with me as possible and I have a 16" Macbook Pro which proved to be a challenge fitting.

Contenders: Pgytech OneMo 25L and LowePro DronePro BP250.

Pgytech OneMo
This backpack seems to be the bees knees to many. It gets great reviews both in articles and Youtube. It's also expandable.

The Good
The fit/finish/build of the pack seem great. I love the feel of the material. As others have mentioned, I don't get why you make a black pack and give it a green interior, but, whatever. Things I like include:

• Dual side-access doors.
• Hard divider between top and bottom (where shoulder bag fits). This can be laid flat if not needed.
• Tons of room.
• Easily fits my laptop.
• Shoulder bag is nice so you can carry a smaller pack if you don't need everything.

The Bad

• Tons of wasted space. The top of the bag angles so the bottom isn't flat. I found this makes it hard to lay things out to maximize storage while also maximizing protection. You can see in the pictures below there is a lot of wasted space.
• The dividers are way too stiff. Normally I think this would be a good thing, but it makes it even harder to tighten things up so the gear fits snug.
• Have to open the backpack to get to the laptop. Not optimal for grabbing it on the plane.

Lowepro DroneGuard BP250
As I mentioned, I have a photography background and I'm very familiar with Lowepro. I have a camera backpack from them that I love for my DSLRs. I didn't consider this for the trip, though, because even Lowepro themselves told me it wouldn't fit my laptop. I decided that while it might not work for the trip, maybe it would work around town where I tend to leave the laptop at home. I was very pleasantly surprised to discover that it fits a 16" laptop beautifully!!

The Good

• Fits my 16" Macbook Pro despite what multiple people told me.
• Laptop/iPad pockets can be accessed without opening the entire backpack.
• Very snuggly fits the gear.
• Flexible dividers make fitting openings to the gear (see above).
• Seems to fit everything I need with a little room to spare.
• Hard outer shell gives me a little more peace of mind.

The Bad

• It's a small pack, so you need to plan accordingly.
• I wish it were a little deeper. The Smart Controller height gives me a little concern.
• Side pocket doesn't fit my tripod w/o leaving one leg outside.

The Verdict

Pgytech - I really wanted to love this pack, but I don't think it's going to work out.
Lowepro - I'm so glad I didn't discount it. I think it's going to work out perfectly for me.

Gear List

• Air 2S with Smart Controller
  • 2 spare batteries (soon to be 3)
  • 1 set of props
  • spare sticks
• Mini 2 with Standard Controller
  • Charging hub with 3 batteries
  • spare props/screwdriver
  • spare sticks
• Sony A6000
  • 50mm Lens
  • 55-210mm Tele
• GoPro Hero 10 Black
  • 2 GorillaPod tripods
  • 1 floating handle
  • 1 charger/2 spare batteries (not shown in pics)
• Misc cables
• ND filters for both drones
• Sunshade for Mini 2

This was a long search for me. I've looked at a dozen or more backpacks and read/watched a ton of reviews. What I didn't find was a lot of examples of how the bags look when they're packed. Hopefully this will help someone else on a similar journey.

 

[MA2 317]

Awesome rig,

I don't get why you make a black pack and give it a green interior, but, whatever.

Probably to help locate items easily when you're looking for them.

I'm guessing that over 90% of camera / drone gear is black and makes it easier to find in a case.

This was a long search for me.

Thanks for sharing your results.

I've been exploring the backpack options for my MA2.

.

 

[ThatBeardedDroneGuy]

Hmm. Didn't think about that. I can see the color contrast working so things don't blend in.

You're welcome. Good luck in your search!