{"id":803,"date":"2014-04-18T20:26:49","date_gmt":"2014-04-18T20:26:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.garbershop.com\/?p=803"},"modified":"2014-04-18T21:03:12","modified_gmt":"2014-04-18T21:03:12","slug":"this-man-had-to-choose-between-a-think-tank-roller-bag-and-a-tamrac-roller-bag-his-final-decision-will-rock-your-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.garbershop.com\/?p=803","title":{"rendered":"This man had to choose between a Think Tank roller bag and a Tamrac roller bag. His final decision will ROCK YOUR WORLD."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Tamrac<\/a>I want to give a special shout out and thanks to Emm from CheesyCam <\/span><\/a><\/span>for recommending the\u00a0bag that I eventually purchased to carry my gear\u00a0to NAB. I was going back and forth between the Tamrac 5797<\/span><\/a><\/span> roller backpack\u00a0and the Think Tank Airport Takeoff<\/span><\/a>. 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,\u00a0I returned the Think Tank.<\/p>\n

The Tamrac won out\u00a0for 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\u00a0to lay the bag down in order to take your camera out. I can roll it up to location,\u00a0unzip 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.<\/p>\n

Additionally, I can fit a GH3 (soon to be GH4) with a Honu Fhugen cage<\/span><\/a><\/span> 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\u00a0straightforward flat design.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

What you miss with the Tamrac roller\u00a0in comparison to the Think Tank are\u00a0the build quality and zippers. The YKK\u00a0zippers on Think Tank bags are out of this world (if a zipper could ever have such a designation!). However, I had more faith in the handle on the Tamrac than on the Think Tank. That said, I don’t really like the feel of the handle on the Tamrac. I was constantly shifting my hand to try to get a comfortable grip while rolling the bag.<\/p>\n

The Tamrac is more compact than the Airport roller and also fits extremely well into the\u00a0overhead compartment on\u00a0the\u00a0737 I flew on to Vegas. I’m\u00a0not sure how it would fare on a commuter plane, but my guess is that it would have to be checked.<\/p>\n

In my opinion,\u00a0the Takeoff is much more comfortable on your back than the Tamrac. But, I soon realized once I hit Vegas that there was really no need to use the backpack feature of the Tamrac. So, it’s a nice feature to have in a pinch, but I probably wouldn’t use either bag as a backpack, especially given\u00a0its weight due to the amount of gear inside.<\/p>\n

So, a big green check-box goes to the Tamrac 5797. And that brings me to my next bag purchase to complement the roller bag: The\u00a0Think Tank Shape Shifter<\/span><\/a> backpack. This is kind of a brilliant bag. It\u00a0has\u00a0an expanding center compartment and\u00a0a\u00a0full-sized rear laptop compartment. Camera and lenses slip into pockets on the inside. I tested it with the GH3 attached to the Fhugen cage\u00a0along with additional\u00a0lenses and it fits them all like a champ.<\/p>\n

My\u00a0plan was that, in the event I had to check my roller bag, I could quickly move the camera, lenses, and essentials into the Shape Shifter. Even when the center compartment is expanded, I was pretty sure the\u00a0Shape Shifter\u00a0could fit in an overhead on a commuter. The good news is that, when it’s expanded, it can also fit below the seat. (And ya’ gotta love those YKK\u00a0zippers!)<\/p>\n

My favorite\u00a0feature of the Think\u00a0Tank Shape Shifter is the comfort level and lower back\u00a0support. It also has an air channel in back. Although that didn’t stop me from sweating like a mule when lugging all my gear around McCarren Airport for an hour.<\/p>\n

Here are some pics of my gear and a list of what I took with me. It worked out really well. Thanks, Emm!<\/p>\n

\"Tamrac<\/a><\/p>\n

Here is the bag as-is. Some locks there to (hopefully) keep my gear secure!<\/p>\n

\"Tamrac<\/a><\/p>\n

The Tramrac 5797 easily\u00a0and securly\u00a0fits a monopod on the front. I stowed the monopod in a checked bag and then moved it over once I arrived. The Think Tank Airport Takeoff can store a monopod as well on the side. However, I had some issues trying to fit the\u00a0tri-foot\u00a0base of the monopod into the Think Tank.<\/p>\n

\"Tamrac<\/a><\/p>\n

CU of the foot of the monopod on the front of the Tamrac.<\/p>\n

\"Tamrac<\/a><\/p>\n

Amazingly, I was able to fit a G-Tech G-RAID with power, lav mics, RF transmitters, a small surge protector AND headphones into the bottom compartment. Additional accessories fit into the pouch on the right of the image.<\/p>\n

\"Tamrac<\/a><\/p>\n

CU of the surge protector and headphones snugly fit on top of the drive.<\/p>\n

\"Tamrac<\/a><\/p>\n

Some makeup, tape and scissors for hiding lav mics and refreshing talent stow nicely into this expandable side-compartment. I packed this\u00a0plastic\u00a0bag\u00a0in\u00a0with my larger checked bag since you can’t bring scissors on the plane.<\/p>\n

\"Tamrac<\/a><\/p>\n

The camera with Honu Fhugen cage, 14-140mm lens, 12-35mm lens, TorchLED light, and Airbag all fit in the top of the case.<\/p>\n

\"Tamrac<\/a> \"Tamrac<\/a> \"Tamrac<\/a> \"Tamrac<\/a><\/p>\n

Batteries, batteries, batteries. Can never bring enough of ’em.<\/p>\n

\"Tamrac<\/a>SD cards and, you guessed it, more batteries.<\/p>\n

\"Think<\/a><\/p>\n

Think Tank Shape Shifter bag compressed with laptop in rear compartment. It’s\u00a0really<\/strong> thin.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_20140418_134114\"<\/a> \"Think<\/a><\/p>\n

Here are all the camera and lens pouches inside the center compartment of the bag.<\/p>\n

\"Think<\/a><\/p>\n

As you can see, the GH3 with Honu Fhugen cage fits nicely. You need to take off the lens and tripod plate to get them to fit. Completely acceptable given the way I wanted to use the bag.<\/p>\n

\"Think<\/a><\/p>\n

Fully expanded, it still fits under the seat on a 737. Great purchase. Highly recommended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I want to give a special shout out and thanks to Emm from CheesyCam for recommending the\u00a0bag that I eventually purchased to carry my gear\u00a0to NAB. I was going back and forth between the Tamrac 5797 roller backpack\u00a0and the Think Tank Airport Takeoff. Both can be used as a roller and as a backpack. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,148],"tags":[80,151,84,149,150],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.garbershop.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.garbershop.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.garbershop.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.garbershop.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.garbershop.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=803"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.garbershop.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":842,"href":"http:\/\/www.garbershop.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803\/revisions\/842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.garbershop.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.garbershop.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.garbershop.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}