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We clicked with:
Excellent build quality.
Loads of features.
Self supporting
Shots in the dark:
Heavy.
No single compartment for large gear.
Expensive (but worth it).
Links
ThinkTank
Rotation 360
UK Retailers
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I've said this before and it's worth repeating, there are only 3 real criteria for reviewing a bag.
Will it hold your gear?
Is it well made for its price?
Does it suit you?
Up for review today we have the ThinkTank Rotation 360.
This is a smallish backpack with a novel twist. It splits into two bags: and upper rucksack and a large beltpack.
That's not unusual these days - the twist is that the beltpack can be separated from the rest of the bag whilst it's on your back and spun round the front so you can access your gear. There's actually a whole website dedicated to this bag including videos of how to make the best use of it.
Will it hold your gear?
The Rotation 360 is quite a narrow backpack - it sits well inside my hips. It's also well padded which means that the inside dimensions aren't huge. I like this for two reasons.
Firstly I can go through narrow gaps with confidence - if my hips fit then so will the bag. Hand up anyone who ahs sat on a train and been hit by students with overstuffed rucksacks...
Secondly, I can hang extra pouches off it without making it ridiculously big. ThinkTank make a range of modular pouches you can add to store a variety of gear.
As usual, I loaded the bag up with real world kit for a real shoot. I was sceptical when I looked at the bag and looked at what I needed to fit in but it all just seemed to vanish inside.
Here's the list for all the kit junkies out there:
My trusty D2X with 50mm 1.4 lens fitted. To make best use of the internal space this is probably about the longest lens you'll want to fit to the camera in the bag.
Three more pro quality (i.e. “big”) lenses. 30mm 1.4, 18 - 50 2.8 and 12 - 24 f4 (aka “Fatboy”)
Three SB800 flash guns and 4 pocket wizards plus a light meter.
4 sets of spare batteries for the guns and one for the camera, close up filter and a ton of memory (the memory is in a ThinkTank Pocket Rocket which I bought a while ago and is excellent).
I also lashed two compact lighting stands and a couple of brollies to the outside using the tripod holder.
That's a complete guerrilla studio kit in a bag I can run up and down trains with. I like that a lot.
If you need to carry a longer lens then you'll need a modular pouch. However, it's worth noting that the Rotation comes with a very nifty camera strap. This lets you hang a camera (or two) off the harness at the front. This is surprisingly comfortable (and a lot better than putting a heavy camera round your neck). There's even a clever chest strap to stop it bouncing up and down when you are running for that train.
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Is it well made for the price?
The ThinkTank Rotation 360 is by far the best made bag I've ever picked up. I don't mean the best camera bag. There are high end hiking rucksacks that aren't made this well.
All zips are heavy duty YKK nickel plated with padlock loops and pull cords. I would happily pick up the bag full of kit by one of the zips and expect it to carry on working day in day out.
Every single place you look on the Rotation 360 there is another little detail that makes you go “wow” and appreciate that a lot of thought and the best materials have gone into it. From the rubber feet that mean the bag will stand up by itself (even with the beltpack removed) to the heavy duty padded grip handle to the specially taped seam sealed rain covers that mean they will stand up to the heaviest rain. This is a quality bag.
Like most quality items, it costs a lot. The Rotation 360 retails for £199. I could buy two similarly sized bags from another manufacturer for that. You'll have to weigh carefully if the extra features and build quality are worth it to you or not.
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Does it suit you?
This is a tough one. This is a pro bag designed for professional photographers by professional photographers. As such it may not suit you. Let's look at the down sides to this bag:
The cunning swivel system means that both compartments are reasonably small. I can just (and I mean just) fit a Nikon 70 - 200 2.8 VR in there but only by removing it from the camera and jamming it in. This is not a bag to carry large amounts of kit ready assembled. Of course you can hang a camera ready to shoot off the front of the harness but some people won't like that for security reasons. And in case it rains.
It's a heavy bag. With all the bits you get for your £200 it weighs about 3.4 kilos. That doesn't bother me too much when I put a lot of gear in it - if the gear weighs 6 kilos or so then it doesn't really matter if the bag weighs 3.4 or 2.0kg. Personally I would rather have a heavier bag with lots of padding and a really comfortable harness (which are two areas where the Rotation 360 excels) than a lighter bag with and uncomfortable strap.
You might have to get slightly creative to pack your stuff in it - ThinkTank encourage you to take dividers out and move them around. When I had packed the bag how I liked it, I had a box of “spares” that I didn't want to carry with me.
You can only access stuff in the beltpack when the beltpack is removed from the backpack. This makes loading and unloading the bag a little bit of a chore. It is helped a lot though by the fact that the bag will stand up straight even with the beltpack removed.
Apart from that, this is an outrageously good bag. I could write for hours about all the different features but the ThinkTank website does it better. What you need to hear from me is they work.
When I saw a video showing a locking system that allows you to rotate the belt I thought “yeah, right”.
Then I tried it. It works. It actually took me a while to figure out how it works but you really can shoot a belt pack behind you into a backpack and lock it in place. You can even do this while holding a camera in your other hand.
