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We clicked with:
Removable camera insert
Excellent value for money
Comfortable
Looks cool
Doesn't look like a camera bag
Shots in the dark:
Zips could be stronger
Don't think about flying with it
Insert means instant camera access isn't easy
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There are trends in everything. Food, fashion or fotos - what was fashionable last year is way behind the curve this. Apparently in photography this applies the most to camera bags. Once upon a time there was Billingham and Domke, then LowePro and Tenba were pushing the zeitgeist envelope. Crumpler changed things again, with a bold shift from purposeful to trendy. Now Naneu Pro comes along with a healthy range of baggy products to cover all bases. Florida-based Naneu Pro redraws the bagosphere yet again with its multitudinous ranges.
I live in the Smoke. I work in the Smoke. So a bag in the 'urban' range seemed sensible (there are 11 different ranges covering every eventuality from 'Military' to 'New Age' - giving a total of 33 different camera bags and two laptop soft cases). UrbanGear means backpacks - three in total - with the Naneu Pro U120 smack in the middle. The bag is big enough to hold a 15" laptop, a useful collection of camera gear and accessories, and even has one of those useful grommets for headphones, while hiding your iPod in the back pocket.
The Naneu Pro U120 is divided into three sections. The front has two sub-divided pockets for all those slimline gizmos like media cards, white balance cards and other goodies (an excellent place for business cards, too). The back section is partitioned for a laptop while the middle bit is the photo section. This is essentially an empty bullet shaped hole with a matching insert to hold your gear. That gives a double bonus - your equipment is easily removable and harder to steal, because the tea-leaf has two sets of material and zips to get past. Even the sides are put to good use - one side has a water bottle pocket and the other has a tripod holding system. This is not good for big pods, but for a smaller system, it's fine (I used it for holding a Manfrotto Nano stand with a brolly attached and it held that without problems). Unlike most systems, this one seems determined not to fall off at the first possible problem.
As standard, the Naneu Pro U120 has two shoulder straps, but it also comes supplied with a removable padded waistbelt for carrying heavy loads over long distances. The bag sits high on the back and is comfortable with or without the waistbelt (a belt... not really 'urban' is it). Perhaps best of all is it doesn't look like a camera bag (unless you have a tripod hanging from it of course), which can be useful in some areas.
For once, the amount of camera equipment the company suggests the bag will hold almost tallies with the amount it really will hold. We managed to comfortably get a Nikon D70 with a 70-200mm f/2.8, a 17-55mm f/2.8, a 60mm Micro, a 10.5mm fisheye, a 1.4x teleconverter, a flash (repacked in its bag, with a home-made snoot and a blower) and a pair of Pocket Wizards with a tiny amount room to spare in the Naneu Pro U120's insert. However, the lens hoods for the bigger lenses were too much of a reach for the bag and a D2X sized body would only fit with mighty fighting.
Getting in and out of the bag is a bit more of a struggle than a single zip design, but that's mostly a good thing - if you can get into the bag in the blink of an eye, so can someone helping themselves to your kit. Perhaps its best to think of the Naneu Pro U120 as a transportation system, rather than an instant camera access system; you remove the whole camera compartment when you arrive, rather than gain instant access to the bag on the move.
No bag is perfect, and this one has its limitations. The zips are small and will not keep heavy rainfall at bay. The Naneu Pro U120 is also just over an inch and a half too deep for hand-luggage out of UK airports (although this may be relaxed early in 2008). It can neatly sidestep most of these shortcomings - it's very, very cool and it doesn't cost a fortune. It doesn't look geeky, it doesn't look like it was designed by an old photographer for other old photographers. It just looks like urbanwear you might want to wear. For now, Naneu Pro is the king of street cool.
