Here is a short write up of my experience with the MindShift BackLight 18L.  I have mainly used it to bring my camera gear around when I’m out in the park or city with the family.

Here is what I have packed inside the camera section of the bag:

1. Canon EOS R with Canon 16-35mm f2.8 II attached (with the EF to R adapter)
2. Canon RF 35mm f1.8 lens
3. Canon 24-105 f4 IS lens
4. Tiffen filter pouch.
5. Rain cover.
6. Sunglasses
7. Pouch that store lens and body cap.
8. Think Tank Memory Card holder.
9. Canon G7X II (not in the pic as I took it out from the bag to take this pic)

Here is a pick of it empty:

On the front section of the bag I had the following items:

1. A Tenba gear pouch to hold micro fibre cloth, lens pen, cables and some lens wipes.
2. Multi-tool (consist of allen keys, screw driver, etc)
3. pen.
4. torch/flash light
5. Powerbank
6. Spare batteries.
7. Some spare clothes for the kid.
8. Wet wipes and tissues (in the very front area of the bag).

The shoulder strap is very comfortable as is the thick waist strap.  My only real complaint is that since I carry this bag around the city with the family I sometimes don’t like using the waist strap since we do lots of start/stop trips where I have to take the pack down frequently.  I wish that the waist strap is removable.

Build quality is typical ThinkTANK and MindShift… which means, it’s built VERY well.  Like I said in an earlier post, this bag will be used to replace my ThinkTANK StreetWalker Pro (V1) when I need to bring my camera gear out together with non-camera items when out with the family.  I’m still undecided which one I like more, the StreetWalker Pro or the BackLight 18L.

I like the rear access and the front section for non-camera items of the BackLight, but the StreetWalker Pro feels better on my back.  Anyway, we’ll see how I go with this for now.

For those that follows my reviews, I am always searching for a good backpack to be used when I am out with the family, I’ve had a few backpacks that I have since sold in the past 12 months… here are what I’ve tried so far.

1. MindShift Sidepath – good small size but too limited on camera gear section.
2. Tenba DNA Backpack  – nice build but didn’t like the security aspect of the bag.  I had my wife try to open up the zip while I was walking with the bag and I didn’t notice it at all.
3. F-Stop Guru UL with Small Pro ICU – really nice bag but didn’t like it when items in the top section falls to the ICU area.

For now, we’ll see how the MindShift BackLight 18L holds up….