Razer's post was for the Sinking Barge backpack - the pic was taken straight from the image on the website.

Click on the Sinking Barge, and click on the different images (left side of screen, in the middle).

Razer's pic showed the backpack lying on its straps, camera area below the laptop area.

You're absolutely right.

BUmmer. I guess I start again

arkenstone, did you have a look at the Considerable Embarassment or the Dreadful Embarassment (on the same page)?

Shoulder Bags which may have enough space for a dSLR + a couple of lenses.

I just bought an All The Kings Men bag from Rushfaster (a luverly sponsor that have a sweet range of bags!)

It's probably not the ultimate geek bag, but should be able to hold enough of my junk and still look nice

I've been using a Lowepro backpack for a while. Lowepro have a reputation of having outstanding camera bags and I've had one for a while which has been great (use it for a lot of international travel and riding on my motorbike every day)

Lowepro - Notebook & Camera gives a full range of the bag options.

I have the compurover which takes a 17" which has an all weather cover that folds away and I've ridden in the rain without any problems. The compurover holds a notebook, books, digital SLR, lenses, tripod, and all the additional electronics you could need. The price tag is $200 but its good vale for what you are getting.

Lowepro - CompuTrekker Plus AW

If you have a look at ebay you'll find various lowepro backpacks which take notebooks if you are looking for something cheaper.

Oops, just saw you wanted a sling. Check out the Camera and Notebook link in the above post, there are some non-backpack alternatives as well

Yeah I've checked Lowepro out before.


The Stealth Reporter D650 looks about the only one I'd really consider of the bunch.

Meanhwile, Decryption that link is about as useful as Crumpler's old website.

This might be a challenge, but hey, what've I got to lose

My current bag is a Dicota, but I'm not sure what the precise model is (I can't spot the exact model on their website); it's big enough to hold pretty much everything I need - laptop, work files (2 full A4 folders on a bad day) notepad, documents, water bottle, books, power cables etc. ... but the padded laptop compartment is too big for my MacBook Air, and the bag itself is starting to show serious signs of wear and tear.

It's also heavy; I'd estimate 1.5kg+, possibly 2kg. When I was using my old Acer tablet PC (2.6kg) and carrying a pile of files, the total weight was 12 or 13kg

So I'm looking for something with both carry handles and a shoulder strap that's big and strong enough to handle 2 packed A4 folders, but has a laptop compartment that won't see my MBA bouncing around too much. And the lighter the bag is, the better, though storage is more important than weight at the end of the day.

I've had a quick look on rushfaster.com.au without spotting anything that jumps out; any ideas?

Have you considered rather putting the notebook in a sleeve inside the bag to stop it bouncing around and save you the purchase of a new bag? I use the hard gecko case inside a 17" compartment for my macbook 13. The larger compartment allows me to add additional documents and the protective case ensure that my notebook doesn't bounce around much. Doesn't add much weight either.

Yeah, but I want new stuff

Then buy a new bag and a new padded cover...double the new stuff, double the fun!

Or buy the new cover now, save the $100 and put it towards a 3G iphone in June

Okay I think I found what I'm after.

So there doesn't seem to be exactly a bag to do what I want, but I stopped into Crumpler in Hawthorn today to have a bit of a look and now I've got a couple of options.

First, is the Part and parcel:
totally padded bag. Sounds good for carrying around all my geek gear in. $220. Doesn't have any sort of divider or anything though to keep stuff from rattling around.

There's also the Dreadful Embarassment:
Only $145 and only the laptop bit is padded, so not quite ideal to lug around an SLR with. Then on the website I noticed a link to a flickr page where they combines the Dreadful Embarassment with the Bucket for Western Lawn or Barney Rustle Blanket.

Padded laptop compartment? Check.
Padded interior that I can mix and match around to hold SLR gear, lenses, other geek toys, lunch, etc? Check
Reasonably priced? Check.
AND I can always whip the camera gear in or out pretty quickly if I need to lug around something else.

So, next week I'll head back in there with my SLR bag and the Work Dell of Doom and see if I can't fit everything that I want in.

This is the first time I've felt confident that I might've found something I can put up with.

Updates as they happen!

P.S. Crumpler's website is still shit, and their downloadable catalogue refers you back to their shit website, which is a pain. BOO CRUMPLER BOO.

If they didn't make bags that were so bloody good I still woudn't buy from the bastards!

I need to check out them crumplers, there's a couple there that'd be perfect for what I carry, and how much.. in fact.... part and parcel might well be the winner..

Hmmm time for me to go to town this weekend methinks...

Not to go all thread necromancy on you Ark-

But you never did tell us what you decided on.

Their non-flash website is much better. Take a look at http://www.crumpler.com.au/lite/english/products.html

Much nicer to use.

You may have to use the awful flash site to place an order though because the non-flash one seem to get stock levels wrong sometimes.

I'm a big fan of Crumpler's bags. You do pay a bit extra but, meh, we're Mac users so we must understand the pay a bit extra to get a bit extra thing.