Borjam
Well-known member
I have just purchased one, the smallest of the "Scope" family from Lowepro.
http://store.lowepro.com/scope-travel-200-aw
It's a bit tight depending on what you want to carry, but a bigger bag always means more stuff, which means more weight
So I tried to keep it under control.
The bag features a main compartment with a central padded area for the scope, and two side padded compartments: one intended for your binoculars and another one where you can fit a camera an an additional lens.
It's a tight fit for my scope, a Celestron Regal M2 65ED, but it fits inside with the eyepiece and the eyepiece cover attached, which is good. However, it takes most of the main compartment. The central padding can be configured for a straight eyepiece scope or an angled one, with velcro positions to fix the paddings.
The binoculars compartment, also nicely padded, can hold my Nikon Monarch 5 8x42 provided*I fold them for the minimum interpupil distance. Forget about full sized porros, it can only fit a roof prism design.
The camera compartment can fit a not too large camera, maybe even with an additional lens or some digiscoping accessory, or, of course, two additional eyepieces.
Of course, all those dividers can be removed if you need more room inside. With all the dividers installed you may find everything really tightly packed, with too little room for a light jacket and, for example, a bit of food.
The cover has a generous supply of pockets to keep the small stuff organized. There are two large inside pockets, although not large enough to hold a 10 inch iPad (I would have made one of them a bit larger, and the other one smaller), and an outer compartment with the typical room for several pens or maybe some tools, a keyring, another small padded compartment for a mobile phone, a notebook, a field guide, etc.
There is also one side pocket for a water bottle of course.
(I am not including photos since the photos on the product page are really comprehensive).
The bag also features a tripod attachment with a deployable "pocket" on the bottom, so that you rest one or two legs of your tripod on it, and an adjustable strap on the top. The tripod is attached to both.
My tripod is longer than the rucksack, (a Manfrotto 190XP3) and it looks a bit tall behind my back, but it's effectively held by the straps. However, beware long walks. Holding a heavy tripod along the far end of the bag can make you get tired earlier. I would have liked a couple of straps hanging from the bottom, helping to keep the tripod closer to my waist and closer to my body, reducing the torque on the shoulder straps. Carrying a tripod is always tricky anyway
The side handle looks to me like a serious weak point. I don't know how strong are the seams holding it, but I would rather use the shoulder straps and top handle combination. Also, that side handle can be a problem if it gets stuck on branches, door knobs, etc.
The rucksack is comfortable (I have tried with scope, tripod with a somewhat heavy head, my binoculars and an iPad) and the shoulder straps are well designed. It includes a waist strap to make it more stable when walking, although it's not padded. Anyway, the waist area is well padded and it will definitely help to couple the load to your hip.
As it's standard in Lowepro bags with the "AW" brand, it includes an "all weather" cover to improve protection against rain. A very welcome feature if the weather gets nasty.
In short:
It's small and it's really easy to fill it up, so it's good for a hike. The equivalent of a day pack.
It's well padded, although the padding in these bags is more useful to prevent nasty vibrations (for example, on a car) affecting delicate optical equipment. I wouldn't drop the bag full of optics from more than a few centimeters.
The alternatives are the larger sisters, both the Scope Porter, with all those options to carry the scope attached to your tripod, and the larger Scope Travel 350 AW. But, again, larger means heavier
But remember, the Scope Travel 200 AW can just hold small scopes (65 mm may be the maximum).
http://store.lowepro.com/scope-travel-200-aw
It's a bit tight depending on what you want to carry, but a bigger bag always means more stuff, which means more weight
So I tried to keep it under control. The bag features a main compartment with a central padded area for the scope, and two side padded compartments: one intended for your binoculars and another one where you can fit a camera an an additional lens.
It's a tight fit for my scope, a Celestron Regal M2 65ED, but it fits inside with the eyepiece and the eyepiece cover attached, which is good. However, it takes most of the main compartment. The central padding can be configured for a straight eyepiece scope or an angled one, with velcro positions to fix the paddings.
The binoculars compartment, also nicely padded, can hold my Nikon Monarch 5 8x42 provided*I fold them for the minimum interpupil distance. Forget about full sized porros, it can only fit a roof prism design.
The camera compartment can fit a not too large camera, maybe even with an additional lens or some digiscoping accessory, or, of course, two additional eyepieces.
Of course, all those dividers can be removed if you need more room inside. With all the dividers installed you may find everything really tightly packed, with too little room for a light jacket and, for example, a bit of food.
The cover has a generous supply of pockets to keep the small stuff organized. There are two large inside pockets, although not large enough to hold a 10 inch iPad (I would have made one of them a bit larger, and the other one smaller), and an outer compartment with the typical room for several pens or maybe some tools, a keyring, another small padded compartment for a mobile phone, a notebook, a field guide, etc.
There is also one side pocket for a water bottle of course.
(I am not including photos since the photos on the product page are really comprehensive).
The bag also features a tripod attachment with a deployable "pocket" on the bottom, so that you rest one or two legs of your tripod on it, and an adjustable strap on the top. The tripod is attached to both.
My tripod is longer than the rucksack, (a Manfrotto 190XP3) and it looks a bit tall behind my back, but it's effectively held by the straps. However, beware long walks. Holding a heavy tripod along the far end of the bag can make you get tired earlier. I would have liked a couple of straps hanging from the bottom, helping to keep the tripod closer to my waist and closer to my body, reducing the torque on the shoulder straps. Carrying a tripod is always tricky anyway
The side handle looks to me like a serious weak point. I don't know how strong are the seams holding it, but I would rather use the shoulder straps and top handle combination. Also, that side handle can be a problem if it gets stuck on branches, door knobs, etc.
The rucksack is comfortable (I have tried with scope, tripod with a somewhat heavy head, my binoculars and an iPad) and the shoulder straps are well designed. It includes a waist strap to make it more stable when walking, although it's not padded. Anyway, the waist area is well padded and it will definitely help to couple the load to your hip.
As it's standard in Lowepro bags with the "AW" brand, it includes an "all weather" cover to improve protection against rain. A very welcome feature if the weather gets nasty.
In short:
It's small and it's really easy to fill it up, so it's good for a hike. The equivalent of a day pack.
It's well padded, although the padding in these bags is more useful to prevent nasty vibrations (for example, on a car) affecting delicate optical equipment. I wouldn't drop the bag full of optics from more than a few centimeters.
The alternatives are the larger sisters, both the Scope Porter, with all those options to carry the scope attached to your tripod, and the larger Scope Travel 350 AW. But, again, larger means heavier
But remember, the Scope Travel 200 AW can just hold small scopes (65 mm may be the maximum).
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