The problem is, the lip doesn’t entirely cover the zipper, especially when the pack is filled to the brim with gear. For the top entry of the main compartment, the zippers are tucked beneath a fabric lip, of sorts, which I presume is designed to carry the rain over the non-sealed zipper. The larger zippers, on the other hand, didn’t offer the same kind of protection. The outside of the bag repels water as it’s designed to and the waterproof zippers work much better than I was anticipating, especially when tucked inside their designated pockets (shown in image above). The bottom of the bag is as durable as almost anyone will need, even in the most difficult terrain. Everything seems to be placed perfectly to provide as safe an environment as possible for your camera gear and other gear inside the bag. Remember, this is a review, which is, by design, subjective and based on my own thoughts and experience with the bag. Knowing now almost every detail of the bag, what environment it was tested in and what I was carrying, it’s time for observations now that I’m back home and out of the rain. The weather-resistant shell is made up of an oxford-weave ripstop nylon - the same material used in parachutes and hot air balloons - coated in Advanta’s thermoplastic polyurethane film designed to shed water off the outside of the pack while letting the inside of the bag ‘breath’.
#F stop loka series
The f-stop Lotus Mountain Series pack is made up of a collection of materials, each of which is chosen for a designated purpose and placed in a designated area of the bag. If you want to leave your camera behind, you can just remove the ICU and utilize all of the internal volume for backpacking/hiking adventures. If you have the capital and don’t mind dropping a little on the ICUs, you could easily get two or three and make each one gear-specific, so come time to shoot, you can just grab the appropriate bag from your closet, secure it in the bag and you’re good to go – no need to go searching for gear and meticulously trying to organize things last minute.Īnother benefit of the ICUs is that it allows your f-stop camera bag to be used for far more than just camera gear. In addition to the customization of your camera setup on a given day, the ICUs also create a safe and convenient way of storing your gear when it’s outside the bag.
After spending time using one though, the true brilliance of this modular design shines through. Some of my gear is out for a cleaning, so it's a bit empty.Īt face value, these ICUs create a more modular design for you to pick and choose what setup best fits a certain environment or adventure. Rather than creating each bag with its own set of internal baffling and structure for keeping your gear safe, f-stop relies on a more modular option that uses individual, padded camera cases that are designed to be universal within f-stop’s Mountain Series line-up.Ī look inside the Medium Slope ICU unit. Empty, the bag comes in at 3.3lbs (1.5kgs), which isn’t quite ultralight status, but more than light enough for those who aren’t counting every ounce in the backcountry.Īs previously mentioned, the build quality and performance of each bag will be multi-faceted, as each bag offers its own unique set of features, components and capabilities.įor the Lotus, the most significant aspect to mention before diving into the details of the Lotus is f-stop’s Internal Camera Unit (ICU) setup.
The dimensions of the bag are as follows: 20.5”H x 13”W x 11”D (52cm x 33cm x 27.9cm). You won’t be going on any week-long adventures with the Lotus, but for day trips it’s perfectly sized and so long as you pack light (or if you can share the weight with a partner), you can easily get in a weekend backpacking trip, as we did. At 32 Liters, the Lotus is the smallest pack in f-stop’s Mountain Series line-up.
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