Fstoppers Reviews the Langly Multi Camera Pack, a Big Bag With Big Ambitions

Sometimes you need to bring the whole photo or video kit along on your adventures. The Multi Camera Pack from Langly Bag Co. is their largest bag, and as the name suggests, there's plenty of room for "multi" anything.

The main compartment in the bag can store up to 10 lenses in addition to your camera, along with a 15-inch laptop slipped in the back sleeve and a tripod suspended in the two loops on the bottom side of the backpack. Overall the bag measures in at 20x18x8 inches. On each side of the bag there are two snap-enclosed pockets that have a good amount of volume for smaller accessories. The front side of the backpack's exterior features one large and spacious double-snap pocket with a sleeve divider inside of it. Another large zippered sleeve-style pocket is on the backpack's frontside. Access to the main compartment of the Multi Camera Pack is through either the full zippered entry which unfolds the bag out from the front, or a quick-access zipper entry on the top.

The exterior's backside and shoulder straps have EVA foam inserts inside mesh panels to control sweat while wearing the backpack. The shoulder straps are sewn into the bag on the top and use an adjustable buckle to secure themselves to the bag on the bottom. There's also a sternum strap attached to the shoulder straps and can be buckled together to provide better stability while wearing heavy loads. Near the top of the shoulder straps the bag has a leather carrying handle.

Inside the main compartment there's an additional three pockets with zippered access for smaller accessories. The top pocket actually has a bit of depth to it so you can think of it more as a pouch. The middle pocket uses a semi-transparent fabric and it good for items that you need to quickly spot and get to. The bottom pocket uses an opaque material and is fairly deep, almost taking up half of the bag's height. The Multi Camera Pack comes with numerous padded dividers and two elastic straps for securing larger items or providing more rigidity to the two main long dividers.

The "military-grade" canvas bag currently comes in four colors: forest (green), natural (off-white), black, and coyote (beige). 

What I Liked

• The materials feel high quality. Langly promotes the bag as being built from hand using leather, rust-proof brass hardware, and canvas. The push-pull snap buckles are interesting and do stay secured. There's a unique look to them being on a camera bag.
• The exterior canvas repels a good amount of water rather than soaking in.
• The quick access saves time grabbing your camera from the bag. The opening is a good size for getting your hand in there and pulling out a larger-sized camera and lens.
• The bag has a good amount of padding on the back and is more comfortable than I thought it would be with large loads. Taking breaks now and then from wearing it, it was comfortable to have around all day for shooting.
• There's a sternum strap available to use which is a must-have for any camera bag. It keeps the straps from straying too far off your shoulders, and with heavy loads that straying can really cut down on the amount of time you can comfortably wear the backpack.
• It's very spacious in the main compartment and highly customizable to suit your equipment.
• The backpack stands upright on the ground like a champ (of course unless you have a tripod affixed to the bottom straps).
• Overall it's a great looking bag and I dig each of the colors it comes in.

What I Didn't Like

• Inside the spacious pockets there's no smaller organization pockets or sleeves that can help keep items near the top. It's one open area where things will just settle on the bottom. However, I can see this as a plus depending on how or what you normally carry. Some people like to use independent pouches that can be transferred in and out of the bag to separate their items, whereas I like to rely on the bag itself for my organization.
• There's no waist belt or load lifters on the shoulder straps on a bag designed to carry a lot of (likely heavy) equipment. They possibly chose aesthetics over functionality on these. While I only started noticing back and shoulder fatigue after an hour or so wearing the bag with a full load, I think the wearability time might be extended further by implementing these.
• One of the more annoying issues I had is the with the bottom two tripod straps never staying tight. The weight of the tripod would loosen them up as I walked around and many times I'd reach back and feel my tripod barely holding on to one strap (after slipping through the other) ready to fall off. Walking through the snow I was pretty sure I wouldn't hear it fall either which worried me.
• Much like the tripod straps, the shoulder straps seem to face to same issue of loosening. The act of putting on the bag always threw off one of the shoulders by a couple inches and would need retightening right away. Throughout a hike I would then periodically check and tighten up the straps some more.

The Langly Multi Camera Pack is priced at $249 and although I had a few issues, particularly with the straps, I think overall the materials used throughout the bag will take your $249 the distance. Langly also offers a one-year warranty that covers material failure, product defects, and workmanship issues. I see other similar "boutique"-style backpack companies selling their products for much more, and then there's the big name brands like Lowepro and Tamrac that sell some of their big bags for more as well. With the Multi Pack Pro, you could very well be supporting the smaller guy, getting a durable bag, and paying a fair price all at the same time.