The Think TANK Photo Retro 30…. do I like it?  I am still undecided to be honest.

I have probably owned most of the Retro series (V1) camera bags from ThinkTANK Photo.  I had the 5, 7, 10, 20, 30 and 50 over the past few years.  And this particular Retro 30 is actually my 2nd Retro 30.  I sold an earlier Retro 30 thinking I don’t have a need for it, only to buy it again a few months later thinking I definitely need it.  YES, I have GAS when it comes to camera bags!!!!

Right now, the only Retro series camera bag in my collection is the Retro 30. As much as I like the 20, as it can hold my camera with the 70-200 attached, I just wish it is a tad wider to make it more useful for what I need to carry out.

The Retro 30 is a BIG bag and this is the reason why it is the only one I have left.  I sold the Retro 5 when I got rid of my Canon M-series camera system.  I got rid of the Retro 7 as I find it too narrow that it falls forward when carrying a lot of gear.  I got rid of the 10 and 20 as I wish both are a tad wider.  And I got rid of the 50 because I preferred the Urban Disguise 60 Classic when carrying my laptop 🙂

The Retro 30, like all Think Tanks, is a very well built bag and comes with lots of pockets, lots of dividers and a rain cover.  The shoulder pad on the Retro series are thick and very comfy.

I like the Pinestone material as it feels nice and soft, and it ages very well.  I had the blue slate colour on my Retro 7 which is nice too… and the black one on my Retro 20.  The black one feels good too but I prefer the Pinestone mainly because I have a yellow lab and her hair shows up on the black Retro more 🙂

As usual they come with the sound silencer as the only thing securing the front  flap is the velcro.  This leads me to my next point on why I am not sure whether I like this bag or not.  These velcros are really strong and loud,
even if I only expose a tiny bit of it. So when I need to access the inside regularly I normally completely engage the sound silencer.

The problem is after a shoot, when I’m either having breakfast with the people I go shooting with or have drinks if it’s in the afternoon, I sometimes forget to engage the velcros again until I’m inside the coffee place or wherever we are.  Trying to engage the velcros inside a quiet cafe can be awkward when you forget how loud those velcros can be.  I know it’s a small issue (and some don’t mind the sound it at all) but it always gets me.  But I really like how easy it is to work out of this bag due to the silencers…  I’m just being picky here.

Regardless of my rant above, it is very hard to fault this bag based on what it is designed to be used for.  A very casual bag that is very practical when it comes to storing camera gear.  I can fit the following items into this bag:

• Canon 5D3 with 24-105mm
• Canon 70-200 f2.8
• Canon Speedlite
• Canon 50mm f1.4
• Spare batteries, memory cards.
• Canon G7X II point n shoot
• …and lots more room for little things.

Will I be keeping this bag or selling it?  I don’t know yet.   Right now, I’m using the Urban Disguise 40 as my everyday bag so if I don’t miss using this bag in the coming weeks, then I might sell it (again).

UPDATE (19 Dec 2018):  Sold this bag today as I am trying to “downsize” my camera bag collection… have sold 20% of my bag collection in the last month 🙂