Photographer By Night | Behind the scenes with Tomasz Wagner

December12th

8 Comments


I don’t usually review equipment, or anything for that matter. But seeing as there wasn’t a single review on the Tenba sling bag anywhere on the Internet, I was still compelled on getting one. There was something about the Tenba bag that stood out for me from the Lowepro’s 300AW boring bulky look and Kata 3N1-20′s cheap and confusing interior design.

Please visit Tenba to read more about the bags features. If you find their sales gimmick a little weird, I’m with you on that one!!
My review doesn’t cover what Tenba has already featured in their video. What I’ll be focusing on is what most of you want to hear about; how’s the quality? Can it hold “these” lenses? How comfortable is it? The short review will also only cover Medium size, not the Small.

Quality: The material used to make these bags is superb, the second you touch you want to learn more about it. The YKK zippers are a little hard to use, but their worth the extra protection from water or snow. There is also plenty of back padding support if you need it.

Design: Very ergonomic, not a lot of zippers or pockets to confuse you. The sling fits really well, only thing it lacks is some padding around the shoulder. Guessing Tenba didn’t add it because I’d constantly get in the way when you swing it back and forth. If your not going to haul as much equipment as me, then I think most people would do just fine.
The depth is just right when you have a medium zoom lens. If won’t fit if you try to drop a Canon 70-200 2.8 with a body attached, but you can settle by laying the camera across or just leaving the lenses down on it’s own. In the main compartment I was able to arrange it so my 5D + Contax 35-70, 17-40, 50 1.4, 70-200 2.8, 580EX, and two pocket wizards fit pretty comfortably. The lens hood of the 70-200 was the most troublesome! I think they only imperfection about the bag is the tripod holder. It swings around to much, maybe adding another brace at the would have helped. I was using the Manffrotto 725B as a test.

Pros:

  • Material
  • Design
  • Weather cover
  • Zippers
  • Clean Interior

Cons:

  • Tripod swings
  • Lack of padding around the shoulder


Highly Recommended
Tomasz Approved!

8 Comments

  • Comment by Liz — December 14, 2008 @ 8:37 pm

    Great review! Glad the chance you took on the Tenba worked out!

  • Comment by Anonymous — December 18, 2008 @ 6:13 pm

    Thanks for the review. With the $25 rebate you made up my mind. Thanks!

  • Comment by Anonymous — December 23, 2008 @ 10:47 pm

    Wonderful, thanks for the review esp. as I could find no others!
    I’m a concert photographer and I need something convenient and easy to get at (a shoulder bag is bad for my back). I was considering the Lowepro and the Kata and agreed with your assessment of both. So, what’s this 25 rebate all about?

  • Comment by wes — December 29, 2008 @ 9:16 am

    here is the rebate
    http://tenba.com/download/Tenba_25Rebate_Certificate.pdf

  • Comment by erika — February 4, 2009 @ 11:43 pm

    thanks for the review! i just bought mine today and was looking for reviews too. i thought the exact same thing about lowepro and kata. tried the crumpler 7 million and that is going back.

  • Comment by Peter Waisnor — February 2, 2010 @ 7:00 am

    I just wanted to say thanks for the review. Feedback like this from photographers in the field is extremely valuable to us, and helps to improve our products in the future. I will ask our designers to review the tripod attachment as per your notes.

    Best regards,

    Peter Waisnor
    Sales and Marketing Manager
    Tenba

  • Comment by Michael Wigle — March 28, 2010 @ 11:29 am

    First of all, thanks for your review of this bag. Unfortunately, your review and any of the other few that I could find, do not focus on the bag specifically for carrying a long lens with body attached. As I use a D300 with a nikon 300 f2.8VR and 1.7x converter attached, I wanted to know if this bag could hold this configuration (with hood reversed). My only way to find out was to purchase the bag from Vistek and see if it would work for me. I knew it would be close especially since the top opening has a slope-down design. I was pleased to find that this bag will hold this body-lens configuration. Just. Anyway, if anyone out there is wondering the same thing, this bag will do the trick.

  • Comment by Tomasz Wagner — March 29, 2010 @ 11:27 pm

    Hi Michael,

    Thanks for dropping in a comment which might potentially help a lot of others wondering about that configuration.

    Tomasz Wagner | Mananetwork

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