Note: We are not affiliated in any way with Endurax. We paid full price for this product on Amazon and are not being paid for this review.
This camera bag goes by many names. It's confusing. On Amazon it's listed by the manufacturer as:
Endurax Camera Backpack Waterproof for DSLR SLR Photographer Camera Bag for Mirrorless Camera with Hardshell Protection
On their own website Endurax calls their bag:
Endurax Waterproof Camera Backpack for Travel with Hardshell
So what's the name of this bag? I have no idea. Is this bag any good? Let's find out!
Camera backpacks are really nice. There' also a dime a dozen on Amazon. I've used a few with various camera setups. It's really useful to be able to carry the basic equipment you need on your back in order to easily transport it on foot. DSLRs are like Legos. You can do just about anything with them, but they have to be able to swap parts around. Those parts are all very fragile and susceptible to dust. I'm a terrible person, I've put lenses in my pocket before out of need. Camera bags offer a nice solution but they sort of have to pull double duty since they become a storage solution for everything else you need. So the cheap bags off Amazon wind up being torn apart since they can't handle the heavy loads we put on them. Camera gear itself is pretty heavy.
So what a good camera backpack needs to be is a lot of things at once. It needs to be a good backpack...duh right? But the issues of weight loading on the human body is important because the camera gear itself is heavy and the load is fragile. Weight loading is hard. Humans sweat and we sweat a lot through our back, especially when we have something heavy against it, so the bag needs to protect what's inside it from sweat. It also has to deal with the constant jarring of what's inside it with every step we take. That's a lot to design for.
This backpack has a very good set of straps with a lot of flexability. I like seeing this. Everything is to the standards set forward by good hiking backpacks. There are wide pads for the shoulder straps, good ajustability too. What's also nice is that there is a chest strap too. This is the sort of thing I'd trust taking on a hike with me. There's also a couple of D-rings for hooking stuff to. I'd probably put a flashlight on mine since I do a lot of night photos. There's also a luggage loop so you can carry both this and your suitcase with one hand. Nice!
This bag was very light. I don't know the weight unloaded but I was surprised by how solid it felt while still being very light for it's size.
Also of note here are those giant pads on the backpack. Those pads help the backpack sit in your back but they are doing a lot more too. The pads are helping to absorb shocks from walking, meaning that the gear inside the bag is getting jarred around less. They are also doing something I found wonderful. These pads are deep enough that they allow airflow to your back so you don't get too hot and sweaty carrying this bag around. Less sweat means less danger to the gear inside.
The design on the front cover is really nice. That big "X" pattern just looks very classy. That panel is also solid plastic and is held in place by the zipper. This is good for protecting what's inside from crush damage in all situations where there is pressure from the top or bottom. There's a lot of effort to make this bag look good as well as funtional.
One very minor nitpicky complaint I had was that the logo was tiny and poorly stitched. A bigger logo would help with brand recognition.
On one side of this bag is a set of straps for a tripod, but on the other is a nice pouch for a water bottle. Awesome! My camera bag is designed yet again with my comfort in mind. I'll happily use that bottle holder.
Now for a real complaint. The bag opens up like this and I have a giant mess of parts inside. I took everything out and tried to figure out how they wanted me to place things for a generic setup. There was a card that says "Thank you" but there was no instructions of any kind included with this bag. I wound up using Google to find some pictures on the company website that gave me a basic idea of how this bag should be set up. I don't like having to do that. Also disappointing is that there was no list of features included. I didn't realize that there were some neat features to this bag. Once I had the pieces figured out though everything fell into place. The modular layout is nice. I had extra pads which I stuffed in the zipped up pouch in case I ever need them.
The inside of this bag is awesome. There's storage for a freaking laptop. Wow! That's great thinking. They designed this bag so someone could carry literally everything for photography. Few of the bags this size and price on Amazon had that feature. Also, there's a pouch for filters and SD cards. Awesome, I'm always worried about my folders of grad filters. Everything fit nicely, this setup came together nice. I'll probably swap out the mic for a few more lenses.
Would I recommend this bag?
Yes! For $69 on Amazon right now this bag is a solid deal. There are more expensive, probably higher quality or designer backpacks, but this just falls into a niche of quality + affordability that was lacking on Amazon in my opinion. One review on Amazon even tells of someone who had his bag fall 25 feet of a roof and his gear came out unscathed. For the price this bag offers some insurance that the cheaper bags do not. That's a nice buying point. Is the bag waterproof? I'm not going to test this, but everything else I see in this bag gives me confidence that'd it'd protect my gear from a light rain. Overall this bag really impresses me.