Gear Review: F-Stop Satori Photo Backpack
Finding the right backpack is a constant task for many photographers. I have tried quite a bunch of backpacks and was never really happy with any of them. They were either too small, or not flexible enough in offering space for non-photo gear. If you’re on a trip for several days in the mountains, it’s essential to be able to carry additional stuff… Now it seems that I have found the perfect backpack.
I came across the website of F-Stop which is a very popular among outdoor photographers – however the US brand isn’t widely known in Europe. F-Stop describe their photo backpack Satori as their largest expedition-sized backpack. These backpacks are targeted for outdoor and adventure photographers who need to carry their gear in remote areas.
The Satori backpack has a large internal compartiment for a notebook. In fact, it takes a MacBook Pro 17″. On the outside of the pack, there are attachments for clothes, or a tripod, and pouches for a bottle.
Internal Camera Units (ICU)
One of the main features is the removable internal camera unit (ICU). These ICU are available in various sizes from small to XLarge – the latter is standard for the Satori pack. After discussing my needs with Druid, the head of F-Stop, he recommended replacing the XLarge ICU for the Large ICU to make more space available for non-photo gear.
The Large ICU is only a bit smaller than the XLarge ICU and still takes quite a lot of gear. It allows to store significantly more stuff like clothes, food and drinks, and so on, which makes a difference for longer trips over several days.
One photo shows the XLarge ICU with typical photo material. That includes a camera body, three zoom lenses, a tele converter, and a lot of small stuff. Also included is the Elinchrom Quadra flash system with two flash heads. The whole unit as shown weighs 12 kg.
The Large ICU is shown in the other photo. There are two camera bodies, several lenses, filters, an interval timer for time lapse photography – and a Holga. In fact, there is still space left in this configuration.
XLarge internal camera unit (ICU).
Large ICU with two bodies, several lenses, and stuff.
Comfort and Use
For a backpack, perfect fit is essential if you want to hike without pain. As I’m quite tall (1.93 m), I need a nicely adjustable hip belt and shoulder straps to feel comfortable. The Satori feels very nice on my back, also when hiking over several hours.
The design of the backpack allows to take the internal unit out of the backpack. That’s useful for flying – in fact, it allows to take the camera gear as hand luggage.
In Conclusion
Overall, I’m very content with the Satori backpack. What I like:
- The backpack is very comfortable. In fact, the backpack itself without the removable camera unit is a nice piece of outdoor gear for non-photo trips.
- Different internal camera units offer flexibility.
- There is enough room even for a lot of gear including camera bodies, large zoom lenses, and a flash system.
On the minus side is: the padded dividers for the ICU only have velcro on one side.
[...] whole Quadra flash system fits in my Satori photo backpack, together with lenses, filters, accessories, and the camera! The photo pack as shown weighs 12 kg. [...]