The Defy Insidious Bag
I know I am no different from most photographers in that I have a serious bag problem. A never ending quest to find the perfect bag for each and every situation. Of course, as I say, with any problem, awareness is the key to understanding and dealing with your issues, and for me, at least as it relates to bags, I am aware that I have a problem….
As a long time fan of Defy Bags, out of Chicago, I have watched patiently as they built up the release of their sling bag, the Insidious. I currently own several of their travel oriented bags, so it was with great excitement that I watched the launch of the Insidious unfold.
For those that don’t know, the Insidious is their first sling bag offering and I was extremely excited about this because I love sling bags for urban environments. Places where I don’t want a backpack taking up space on my back, banging into people as I attempt to move through crowds and a bag where I am at most carrying two bodies and a small table top tripod. When the Insidious was finally released, it was met with great fanfare on their social media pages. As a urban carry, it was sure to deliver, but the problem was, I could not tell how much it could hold.
I waited and watched, hoping that some photographer would enter the scene and show me if this bag was capable of doing what I wanted. I scoured the web, and dug deep into the reddit scene, but I really could not find what I was looking for. This meant only one thing, I needed to just take the plunge, purchase a bag and see for myself what it could do.
Like all things that Defy Bags makes, the bag arrived and blew me away. The attention to detail and overall craftsmanship is simply amazing. I don’t know how they do what they do, but the bag is simply beautiful and incredibly overbuilt.
Now, with bag in hand, I set out to see for myself what the sling could carry. For me, the optimal configuration was going to be carrying my Leica Q and my Leica M10-P with batteries, possibly one other M lens, and other small bits. Fitting in my
iPad Pro 12.9 inch with memory card adapter would be a bonus. If I could at some point simply carry the Leica SL with the 75 APO Summicron that would be a icing on the top. The SL, while not huge, is definitely a bit bulky especially when paired with the 75.
With my goals in mind, I grabbed my gear and began to see what would actually fit. Now by fit, I don’t mean cram stuff in and say it fit, I mean does the gear fit in a functional way, that allows one to actually carry said gear and work out of the bag. The first thing I noticed when sorting out what would work is the amount of actual space that exists in the Insidious. This is definitely not something at is easy to tell from the web site and thus I was incredibly excited. Without any dividers, my SL with 75 and my M10-P with the brass 50/1.4 and hood, both easily fit into the bag. Given that this would be the most extreme of my carry options, I was super excited to see that this could work. With the addition of my slim inserts to keep gear from banging against one another, it was clear that this bag was going to meet my expectations and then some.
Knowing that the combination of the M10-P and the SL was the most difficult pairing, I knew that the combination of the M10-P, Q and spare M lens would be know problem at all, and obviously simply carrying one body out of this mix would be trivial.
The bag has plenty of inserts and slots to hold all of the other miscelaneous items that I would wander the streets with and much to my delight, it even easily swallowed up the IPad Pro with keyboard case attached. So now that I know this all works, it is time to put things to work and see how an actual trip handles this varied set of kit. I am heading off on the road starting this week for a two week trip and this will be my daily carry combination. I will update this post with more thoughts and images as the week progresses. Be sure and check out Defy Bags and see what they have to offer. Truly a great company with an amazing set of craft made products.
I wrote this review over a year ago, so as an update, my love for this bag has continued to grow and grow. It is one of the few bags that I own that has gotten better with age. Don’t ask my how, it just has. The bag is my daily carry, shouldering journals, chargers, batteries and my iPad Pro. I don’t really use it to carry camera’s right now because it is always loaded out with my daily office needs. So, what does this mean, well it means I am ordering the Insidious Jr., as a dedicated small camera carry sling. These bags are gorgeous, will stand up to whatever abuse you throw at them, and are just damn nice! I get nothing from Defy, just a huge huge fan of quality gear, and there gear is just that.
www.defybags.com
