Gear Review: Crumpler Karachi Outpost

Bought this bag today. But after some measuring, and fitting, I have decided this bag is just too big for what I need it for. It actually exceeeds some airline carry-on limits. If I wasnt looking for a bag that was for travelling, then I would have kept this. It's just too big for my current needs. With that being said though, this is the MOST COMFORTABLE BACKPACK I HAVE EVER USED (put on)!!! And I have back problems too!! Crumpler really went out of their way to design the straps and the part that rests on your back. This thing gives VERY good back support.


Here you can see the size compared to my Manfrotto. It's pretty tall. The bag itself sits at about where my knee is.  I compared the measurements of this bag with what is allowed by most airlines as a carry on. This bag IS LARGER! So take heed for this warning. The airliner might not let you take put this bag into the overhead compartment. If you are flying on a larger plane with larger compartments, this will fit no problem despite it being oversize slightly if you measure it. But if you take this onto a smaller aircraft, with smaller overhead compartments, this will definately have trouble fitting.

 
The Crumpler Logo and the tag that came with it. Well made rubber logo.


Front of the bag. There is a top compression strap, and the bottom "normal" strap which is quite useful for holding a tripod/monopod.


Back of the bag. You can see the firm support that the bag offers. Notice the grove down the middle of the bag, this takes the pressure off your spine while carrying a fully loaded bag.


Amazing zippers!!


How the bag looks when you open it. One concern is you must be careful if your notebook is loaded into the sleeve here. It is fairly secure, but if you open the bag too fast, the notebook (while in the sleve) can slam to the ground, or anything else in the way.


Zippered mesh to keep everything in. You cannot remove the mesh. It zips all they way down, and is fully attached on the bottom side. You can however, remove the entire camera compartment shell and use the bag as one HUGE regular backpack.


This thing can fit half a studio! All dividers are removeable. Only gripe I have with them is that they are slanted at the bottom to accomodate for the concave design of the bag on the outside. This normally wouldn't be too much of a problem, but the angle changes from the top to the middle, to the bottom. Making some of the dividers hard to move around or hard to fit, or stick out slightly in some cases. Not a HUGE problem. But it does get annoying when you are trying to fit a lens into some of the compartments, since the bottom of each division is the shape of the outside of the bag. Meaning the sides of the bag are angled at the bottom of each compartment.


The top accessory compartment removed.


Size comparison. This would be near impossible to open in a small space, ie. In a plane (if you are in economy like me).


Detachable 17" notebook sleeve.


VERY well designed laptop sleve holder. In this shot, there are double velcro setups. So if you remove the laptop sleeve, you can fold that top part onto the bottom part and keep the velcro from catching anything else in your bag.


Attention to detail.


The top handle slits into the grooves.


Note to detail. When this bag is sitting on your shoulders, it is pretty hard to unzip it. Actually. it's just plain impossible unless the straps are cut, or you take the bag off.


Again.... SOLID zippers!!!


Side pocket can fit my hand, but just BARELY. The two of these pockets on the side are quite useless in my opinion. They're just too narrow to fit anything in. Not to mention your hand might not fit.


I don't have huge hands, but I also don't have small hands either. My hands would be medium to large. I have quite a hard time trying to get my hand into this side pocket.


After some forece, my hand can fit inside the side pocket. But once inside, it is so tight I can't move it around. so essentially, even if I put stuff in here, I wouldn't be able to retreive it.


Thats a Manfrotto tripod. This should tell you how tall this bag is.


Very well designed, these little built in "loops" are very well designed, very strong. They're so you can prop up the bag when it's on your back.


The bag itself looks quite nice. The lines flow well unlike Lowepro bags, which are often ugly rigid boxes.


You can see the curve to the outer shell.


I'm not a skinny guy either, and the backpack is buldging thicker than I am!


If you know me, you'll realize that this backpack is huge! Again, I'm not a small guy at all, and this thing pretty much covers my entire back!

Overall, amazing backpack, just absolutely amazing. But because of the sheer size of this... it makes it quite difficult to travel with. The rounded front part of the bag, which gives it that oh-so-sleek look, is also a major issue when trying to fit gear, just because it affects the dividers on the inside. If you have a ton of gear to lug around locally, and want to do it in style and comfort, this is your bag.