Capture Camera Backpack 26L

The bag itself is well designed and of solid construction with heavy duty materials that’ll last you a long while. The unlatching system works fine and you’re able to give the main body enough slack to swing it round and load and unload the bag with relative ease, when securing the bag by pulling down the draw handle it holds tight with no worry about it coming loose. The issue is when you load the bag up with any decent amount of items. The securing system doesn’t toggle no matter how much you tug the handle down and whatever speed/ force, it downs work. There is a silver toggle button on the inside of the hood on the shoulder which isn’t accessible that secured the main body, however as I said it isn’t accessible and needs to be redesigned. The bag works if you keep it very light, any weight and you end up looking like an idiot with a swinging bag while you get frustrated as you pull it up and down.

I am genuinely upset to have to leave such a negative review. I love the idea. I really believe they want to make a great backpack, and maybe one day they'll get there. But right now there are 2 critical flaws, and an annoyance. The #1 problem is that the latching mechanism simply isn't reliable enough. Initially I'd had times where it had refused to latch, but letting it all the way into the "hood thing" on the shoulder would correctly reset it and then it would work. However today I must have tried 30 times before it finally latched. I don't know if it's load or angle or wear or just the phase of the moon, and frankly I don't care. If I'm up a mountain or out in a city and this happens, it will ruin my whole day. When paying 2x the price of a regular decent backpack it needs to be perfect. #2 is the special handle. It's inexplicable how they got this so wrong. They modelled it on a bar of soap. I'm not even kidding. They carefully contoured it so that there is no hint of purchase except the big red release leaver. This is of course a trap. If you press this as you are attempting to pull the bag back up onto the harness, it will think you want to release it, and promptly refuse to latch. Also, as it's billed as a camera bag, you can guarantee this is going to be heavy; after-all, that's why you went with a ruck-sac, right? So why make the handle disappear inside a close fitting hood, out of sight well over your right shoulder, then make it a grip-less as possible, and top it off by booby trapping it with a button that stops the mechanism working. It's possible to grip it hard enough between finger and thumb to haul the several kilos of backpack up, yes, but it isn't pleasant or easy. You do need a fair amount of grip strength to manage this with a full pack. I simply cannot wrap my head around how they got to this position during the design process. And that's the thing, you can tell it's been lovingly designed. This makes it all the more baffling when it's primary feature is implemented so poorly to render the entire product pointless. Here's an advanced design tip for the team building it, try adding spurs to the sides of the handles, you-know like on a life jacket handle. That one's for free, it'll transform your product. So those are the two critical flaws that render it useless. For completeness sake, I'll mention the annoyance. When it's latched and working, the backpack doesn't actually sit snug to the harness that you wear. They carefully avoid showing this in every video and photo they post. The pack is suspended by ultra-strong cords that remain about 2 inches long at the top anchor point and probably half an inch at both of the lower ones when locked in place. This means that it sits slightly away from your back (looking a bit odd), and sways slightly as you walk. Walking this is a bit annoying, but you get used to it. If you try and run, it gets completely out of hand. Simply don't run/jog with it. I didn't get a chance to try this hiking before returning it, but I'd anticipate that this sits so far off your back that it would unbalance you when negotiating rough terrain. It should be made clear, that unlike many other bags (cheaper ones) it doesn't come with the rain cover that you see in some of their promotional material, so you'd have to purchase one from Wolffepack at additional cost. If you got this far, well done. Now for some positives. The overall construction is very good, and the materials feel premium. The pockets are excellent and you really can store a lot of camera gear in there. Contrary to it's advertising, I wouldn't try to use this with a DSLR, and certainly not anything approaching professional gear. It did however fit my mirror-less Sony A7II with 2 spare lenses + bits and bobs just fine. There's no camel back hydration setup, so again, not really targeting hiking. It feels more like a bag you'd take for a day shooting in a city where you can avoid bad weather and not need to negotiate rough terrain. The straps that hook the bag temporarily in front of you to allow you to sort through your gear are good and I didn't have any real problems getting it to hook on. So in summary. A brilliant idea, one that needs pursuing, but the execution needs to be far better on their novel mechanism. Gutted. Sent mine back.

Officially a photography bag, but as a freelance developer I've bought it to be my portable 'office'. Easily fits my laptop, portable monitor, mouse all associated chargers and cables, as well as my stationery kit and make-up/first-aid kit plus other bits and bobs. I needed a new bag as my old one had little support and was killing my back - this is very comfortable and doesn't pull down. Easy access once you get the hang of how to release it (doesn't take long to get it), and great on the tube. My only minus point is that as a female, the sternum strap is too short - could do with a longer strap.

EDIT: after a few of my friends bought this at £20, the price has now jumped to £50 (supply and demand?). I would NOT especially recommend buying at this pricepoint since I think the quirks become harder to ignore. Very important to preface this review with the fact I bought this in 2022, at £20, and not the original £170 selling price! This makes a massive difference. Wolffepack was a noble failure and it seems the remaining stock is being burned out cheap. If you're looking at the Capture you're probably interested in camera bags. I'm camera bag geek with a frankly frightening collection, so I couldn't resist. And honestly, as a dedicated camera bag this isn't spectacular, but as a general purpose backpack to carry everyday stuff plus a small camera kit, the quality is unbeatable for the price. The camera pod isn't huge, just enough for my Sony A7R3 (with a 35mm 1.4 attached), an extra prime lens and maybe a small flash. The section below fits a bunch of stuff but you're absolutely not going to be using this to carry a big kit. If they'd added a second optional insert for the lower half (like the wandrd prvke etc), it would have actually made a decent gear bag for medium loads. Ok, what about the big gimmick? Unlike other reviews I've had no real issues with the crazy cable release system. It's very fun and satisfying, and there is legitimate utility in being able to get your gear without putting it on a surface. I can actually see it being very handy for things like urban exploration, so you don't have to put your bag down in a bunch of pigeon muck. It's not 100% reliable but the vast majority of the time it works for me. When you're fully loaded, pulling it back up to the locking position really can be a slog though. I'd mostly put it down to the shape of the handle (a little stirrup like you'd get on a crossbow would give much better grip). One other thing about that.Il If you travel on public transport or visit government buildings - particularly if you happen to fit certain profiling criteria - you might see the potential issues with carrying a bulky backpack featuring a cord connecting to a handle with a red trigger.... I'm only half-joking here; I think drawing attention to the mechanism in certain places could lead to some 'see it, say it, sorted' drama. The gimmick is cool but it's not worth being targeted by police marksmen over. Talking of that mechanism - I saw one review mentioning the pack wobbling from side to side since it's basically dangling on the cords. I've not really had any issues with it and actually find the pack very comfortable. Though you can permanently attach the backpack and the harness using the two straps designed for chest mounting, and it's still comfy. I'm pretty impressed with the comfort overall. The materials used really are very high quality and the fit and finish are lovely. For £20 it's a bargain for an everyday backpack with lots of customisation and tech carrying options, would highly recommend picking one up.