Tamrac Black Cyberpack Laptop Backpack

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I purchased the Tamrac Evolution 8 with regards to a year ago and I have to say it’s the most utile backpack I’ve ever owned. I call it my Batpack, because it holds my camera, laptop and all my little trinkets with quick access… and it’s black.

DESIGN

As the name implies, the Tamrac Evolution 8 is an evolution in the design of photo bags. There has arrived a ordinary new genre of backpack: the sling/side access bag. There are in a literal sense hundreds of variations of photo bags, and most of them fall into frequent genres, but from my experience something started happening a few years ago in the bag world: sling bags became their own form. I don’t recognise if this was the primary bag to get started it all, but I’m sure the Lowepro Slingshot was the sling bag heard round the world, because of it is immense popularity. Since then I’ve noticed other manufacturers pick up this idea in respective forms. In essence a sling bag is a backpack that you may slide to the side and get access to your stuff/camera without taking the bag off. Brilliant! I can’t tell you how long I’ve wanted a bag that could carry more than toploader or satchel, but carry it on my back rather of putting all that weight on one shoulder. The huge three all have forms of sling packs and sling backpacks: Lowepro Fastpack, Kata 3n1 & 123, and the Tamrac Evolution 8 5788.

A quick glimpse at the good and the bad before we dive in:

GOOD

Side access to camera compartment – means not necessitating to take off the bag to pull out your camera.
Top compartment holds miscellaneous items or accessories
Can remove the camera dividers and use the bag as a regular backpack
Hold everything I need to keep on my person on a trip – laptop, camera, lenses, electronics, documents, snacks.

BAD

The top compartment is beauteous little – can’t hold a water bottle or big book.
Only DSLRs without battery grips.
If you want to take a long lens, you’re gonna have to mount it on your camera.
No water bottle holder

FEATURES

The Tamrac Evolution 8 holds a 15 inch laptop (I have genuinely squeezed in one of the new 17 inch macbook masters also), a DSLR without grip, 2-4 lenses, a flash, respective accessaries in flaps and compartments, it has a rain cover, tripod hook, and may be carried as a sling bag or backpack.

The “three ways to access” your gear is where this bag is interesting. You may put your DSLR in one of the side compartments and sling it up and get access to it without taking off the pack. Also, as I do, you may put a second camera of littler size (like a Holga film camera) on the other side and sling that up to get access to it. This is a big vantage as equated to the Lowepro Fastpack or Kata which only has one side access. You also have access to the gear from the top flap, which is a little little for my tastes, but it does the job.

The Three-Way Harness system is mutual to this and the Kata bags-it allows you to set it up as a backpack with two straps, or a sling bag with a strap over the right or left side. (Depending on which side you want to get at.) Personally I never use this feature as it’s easy sufficient to just slip off one of the straps and sling the bag up to get access. Another boon to that method is you may get at either side of the bag rather of being fixed to one or the other. But you have the option. The Kata does an interesting thing with an X system, whereby both straps cross over you’re chest. I haven’t tried it out, but am mesmerized to look into it.

There are two pockets on either side above the camera compartment entry panels that may hold accessories. One holds the rain cover by default, and I keep my Flip-type HD video camera in the other. The flaps on either entry panel holds respective accessaries like flash cards and fliters. Though I’ve found them to spit out my stuff if I don’t pack it carefully. The top compartment I use to hold my flashlight, laptop power supply, Leatherman, batteries in the outer flap (not genuinely the best use), pills, protein bars, gorgeous much anything that is less than 8×8 inches I will throw in there… it gets messy in spite of the mesh holder.

The shoulder straps, while thin, are comfortable and there is a waist strap, which is perfectly necessary on any backpack. Half of the weight, if not more, must rest on your hips. And the sternum strap is also a requisite for me, as I am a 6 foot man with moderately wide shoulders.

The bag is available in Black or Brown/Tan.

CONCLUSION

This bag is unquestionably a compromise. If you’re a professional photographer looking for a emplacement bag this is not it. It genuinely sucks at that. I’m telling you from experience it just doesn’t hold sufficient of the type of gear you need and you can’t get at it speedily enough. Though one caveat is that it’s great for street photography, in particular if it’s raining. This bag is for daily, multipurpose use. If you’re looking for a travel bag, something to hold your laptop and camera and fit int he overhead bin, you might have just found your One Bag to rule them all. This bag works for me because I only use a DSLR without a battery grip, I don’t own any big lenses (e.g. 70-200 f/4L), and I have a 15 inch laptop. It’s a little light on how much stuff you may put in it, but to me thats a good thing because I’m always attempting to travel lighter. After a year with this bag I may say that I’m unquestionably satisfied. However, I will be looking for another bag to carry more instrumentation for my photography shoots and if I end up getting a camera with a battery grip, I will unquestionably look into the Kata 3N1 or 123.

Tamrac Black Cyberpack Laptop Backpack

The CyberPack 8 is the idealisti backpack for the pro journeying with a large total of camera gear and a huge laptop. The main foam-padded camera compartment holds multiple pro-sized DSLRs, a long telephoto lens up to 13½-Inch attached to one of the SLRs, a heap of further and added lenses and flashes. The separate, completely foam-padded rear pocket holds most 17-Inch screen laptops, including Apple’s 17-Inch MacBook Pro. A front accessory pocket organizes CDs, business accessories, and uses Tamrac’s patented Memory & Battery Management System to tell apart available memory cards and batteries from ones that are used up. The QuickClip tripod attachment system holds a tripod centered and balanced on the front of the pack. A well-padded shoulder harness, padded hip belt and sternum strap disseminate the weight of the camera gear and laptop for carrying comfort.

Most helpful customer reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful.
Very rugged backpack that holds a TON of equipment
By Timothy B. Riley
I bought this photo backpack for a photographic trip to the Peruvian Amazon in 2006. I wanted something that I could carry onto a plane, tote around the cities and sites that I visited (Lima, Cusco, Machu Pichu, etc.) and finally protect my photo equipment in the jungle. This bag did that well.

It held almost my entire 35mm digital photo system, including:

Canon 20D body
Canon 30D body
Canon 100-400mm L lens
Canon 17-85mm L lens
Canon 580EX Flash
Canon 2x teleconverter
Gitzo Carbon Fiber tripod with ball-head
Two Garmin Rino Radio/GPS units
Canon 12×36 IS bincoulars
A bunch of memory cards totaling 100G
4 Canon batteries with charger, and a LOT of misc. accessories

Yes, it was heavy. Fortunately I had a strong young guide who helped me with in on the long hikes through the jungle.

This is a heavy-duty, pro-quality bag. Although Tamrac is more of a pro-sumer manufacturer, I would put this item up against anything made by Tenba or Lowepro. I give it four stars only because the interior dividers were not flexible enough (or plentiful enough) to allow me to make use of all of the space inside of this large-ish backpack. There was a lot of vertical space wasted which let some of the equipment shift up and down inside of the bag.

I really like this case and I still use it often. If you need to carry expensive equipment around rugged areas, I would recommend this item.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
A lot of room…
By G. Ponder
I was looking for a singular solution to carry a wide range of gear in. I tried the Tenba Shootout and Lowepro Trekker 300AW but they lacked the interior space. Then a friend suggested the Tamrac 5258.

After trying several layouts, I was finally able to arrange the pack to handle the following in the main compartment:

Canon 1DMK III
Canon 300mm f2.8
Canon 100-400mm f4-5.6L IS
Canon 24-105mm f4L IS
Canon MP-E 65mm
Canon 1.4x and 2x converters
Canon 580EX II flash

It was nice to be able to pack everything into one bag but it is a hefty load. Another bonus is that with the main compartment full, I still have plenty of room for my notebook. Other packs, when fully loaded, seem to compress the notebook pocket.

The 5258 has plenty of small zipper pockets inside the main flap and the front pocket for batteries, memory cards, pens/notepad, cell phone, and other various odds and ends. The biggest drawback is that there are no side pockets, no water bottle pocket or rain cover. All this has to be purchased separately. Side pockets would have been nice to store battery chargers, notebook power cables and larger accessories.

The 5258 is a great pack-mule for your gear but a little large for day hikes or romping around the zoo. I’m going to supplement the 5258 with a Velocity 7x (to tote an extra lens, flash, etc) that should be more practical for short outings.

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Best one ever
By Tricia
I bought this bag knowing I required a lot of room for my equipment. This bag doesn’t disappoint! It’s a tad heavy however considering what my camera equipment is worth, I feel the little extra heaviness of it gives me a little piece of mind. And, it’s not too heavy that I can’t carry it. I recently went to South America and my bag including equipment weighed 31 pounds. Now that might seem heavy for some people, but the bag was extremely comfortable to carry.

Pros:
~ I love the fact that I can lock it to not only my waist but upper body also
~ It’s made for the M A S system so you can add accessories like the water bottle (I highly recommend that one)
~ Lots of padding especially when you are going to carry a lot of equipment

Cons:
~ I had a hard time putting it in the overhead bin on the puddle jumpers. But, considering they are smaller planes with smaller overhead compartments, I still was able to put it away. And, I think that if you don’t over stuff it like I did, it will always fit in the overhead.

See all 3 customer reviews…