Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsCompared Tenba & Think Tank Urban Access, Selected the Tenba 10L - 424
Reviewed in the United States on February 17, 2020
I wanted something a little roomier than my LowePro sling bag, which is a quality bag but not roomy enough for the things I currently take with me on trips (water bottle, light jacket). I wanted to look at bags in person, but brick and mortar stores are dying, and this wasn't possible. So I googled a lot, and bought the Think Tank Urban Access 10 sling bag and the Tenba 10L bag. I've decided to keep the Tenba, mostly because it's a little roomier than the Think Tank, and I can fit everything I need in there with a little room to spare, IF I stacked things more. I can put my DSLR body with 7.5" lens attached, which isn't essential, but certainly nice, as other bags don't allow that. There are 4 gray dividers, with 3 full length/divided/foldable dividers (or perhaps one is not divided, I forget) and one half length divider. There's velcro on each side of the camera compartment, which makes lots of customizing possible. The bag is blue, a little darker bluer than it appears on my monitor, but of course that could just be my monitor. It's a nice blue. The strap seems pretty comfortable, though a little less substantial toward the bottom compared to the LowePro I'm retiring. But it has a bottle holder (or tripod, or whatever holder), which is one thing I wanted. As long as I don't completely overstuff the insides of the bag, I can add my tablet so I don't have to carry that separately when I travel. My tablet is larger than 10 inches, maybe 11 or possibly even 12 when measured diagonally, but it just fits. So what I have in there is a camera body with attached 70-200 lens in one section, with a light jacket underneath it, plus the rain cover that I took out of its pocket. Yes, the pocket for the rain cover is inside the bag, but that doesn't bother me. Since the pocket is right there when you're going for your camera, I decided to put an extra battery and compact flash in there, held in a Think Tank holder sold by B&H or Amazon, plus a body cap and extra lens cap or two. That pocket could also handle my cell phone in its smallish case, but I decided to put the phone in the slot next to the table. There are two slots there, both about 5x5 and not very deep. In one I placed a small box with 2 filters, and in the other a small notebook and camera instruction booklet. There's a carabiner on a short strap in that area, too. I'll probably use that for my for keys, or possibly attach it to the compact flash case so I can't mess up and lose a full card. There is also a (roughly) 9.5 x 7 inch not very deep slot for other things like perhaps a phone or papers. Note that when the bag is on your back, the tablet area is facing out. I suppose some people might worry about that, but it doesn't bother me. When the bag is slinged around, the camera compartment is therefore closest to your body, with the tablet area right beyond that. But back to the main (camera) compartment, which is accessed by 2 separate zippers:
After the fairly large camera/lens area I carved out with one of the full-length dividers, there is just enough room for a small slot for small lens hood, with point and shoot camera in its case above that in the slot. I have the caps down there too. Then I've got enough for the fairly large hood for the 70-200 lens, and inside there I put whichever lens I don't have on the camera - i.e., currently my walk around lens. I don't have a flash, or drone, or third lens, but I suppose if you used all the space and dividers, at least one of those things could be added, but I wouldn't think you could leave a lens attached to your camera body (no room?)
I really like that there seems to be more available space in the main compartment than in the Think Tank, and that the zippers which open it go almost all the way down to the bottom of the bag, when you have the bag slinged around to your stomach area. I was a little afraid something could drop out, but after seeing it, I don't think that will happen. It is especially unlikely to happen to me, as the lens hood I have next to the side seems to help keep things in place.
One thing I'm not crazy about is that the velcro sides seem to not be quite as "attached" to the side panels as they are in the Think Tank bag, which makes me think that if I end up changing the velcro dividers around a lot, the bag velcro lining might come loose some day. However, I don't use the bag daily or even weekly or always monthly, and likely won't re-configure it often, so that's probably nothing to worry about.
The only other thing I wasn't sure about at first was the lack of spaces for all the little things like caps, cards, pens, etc. The Think Tank has a special compartment on each side that's perfect for those. But once I used the slots inside the tablet compartment, I found that was not really a shortcoming of the Tenba. The tablet with its three areas can really hold a lot, especially if you don't need to put your tablet or a large notebook in there. If necessary, I'll just buy some kind of small case that will organize little things better, but so far, all is pretty nicely compartmentalized, so I'm set. When I just go out to take photos, I don't need my tablet. For travel, I'll put it in there.
The Tenba is made for wearing with the strap going over your left shoulder, and the bag slants diagonally a bit on your back. If, after wearing it a long time and it's bothering you, you can sling it around and leave it in the sling position, or pull the top up so that the whole bag is hanging on your right shoulder, more or less up and down.
I didn't try attaching a tripod, and also didn't try the safety strap to use around your waist, as I never used that with my LowePro before, and felt I could go without. You can detach the waist strap completely if you want, which is nice. The end of the main strap is pretty long for me (5'6") but at least there is a strip of netting that you can loop it through to keep it fairly neat and not flapping around.
I like that the side pocket for a water bottle, phone, or whatever lies flat if nothing's in there, but expands when a bottle is placed inside.
Overall, I think this is a beautiful, very functional bag and I'm very happy with it. As for the Think Tank Urban Access 10, I think it's a very thoughtfully designed and well made bag with lots of functions. The outside fabric is handsome and classy/formal fabric, and it has the two places I mentioned for little things, including two little velcro flap pockets for memory cards. You can, of course, also switch what shoulder you wear it on, and access to the appropriate side that ends up when you sling the bag around. There's also a way to lock the bottom zipper so there's no risk of things falling out. But there is a little less room across the whole compartment when the bag is swung around for camera access, and I think one fewer divider to work with. But it also fit my larger than 10 inch tablet, which was a nice surprise. As for the LowePro line, I can tell you that the quality of their products is quite high, and I DO recommend them.
