I want to give a special shout out and thanks to Emm from CheesyCam for recommending the bag that I eventually purchased to carry my gear to NAB. I was going back and forth between the Tamrac 5797 roller backpack and the Think Tank Airport Takeoff. Both can be used as a roller and as a backpack. I ended up purchasing both of them to test them out with different setups. Each of these are excellent bags. In the end, I returned the Think Tank.
The Tamrac won out for me because of one feature – the top loading compartment. I think that this is a smart use of space for run ‘n’ gun shooting. Because of this, you don’t need to lay the bag down in order to take your camera out. I can roll it up to location, unzip it and get my camera out quickly. When you do need to lay the bag down, the flaps are small so they don’t take up extra floor space.
Additionally, I can fit a GH3 (soon to be GH4) with a Honu Fhugen cage inside the top compartment. I had difficulty figuring out a way to fit that same setup easily into the Think Tank Takeoff due to its straightforward flat design.
