One of the biggest benefits camera backpacks have over messenger bags is that the weight of your gear is distributed over the entirety of your back – not a single shoulder, which can easily become sore. The downside of this is that you almost always have to take off the backpack to access your camera equipment.
Looking to change that is Wolffepack Capture, a new camera backpack designed to swing around to your front side without ever taking it off.
How exactly does it work? As the animated GIF below shows, the system relies on a single, cleverly placed strap, which connects to the right shoulder strap of the camera bag. Wolffepack calls this expetoSYSTEM, a “patented orbital trapeze technology.”
By disconnecting the integrated strap, the backpack drops down and has enough slack to pull around to the front of your body. Once you’ve grabbed the gear you need, simply swing it back around and pull the strap down.
This might seem like a small, gimmicky feature, but there are a lot of times it would prove useful. A few that come to mind include when you’re cramped in city transit, when you need to access gear but don’t want to set your bag on the ground, and overall when you’re feeling like showing off a cool feature to photographer friends.
As for the design of the bag, it doesn’t scream “photographer,” which is key if you don’t want to stand out to would-be thieves while traveling around the city. The outside has a few points for connecting carabiners and other trinkets, but otherwise it’s aesthetically subdued.
Already, the bag has almost doubled its Kickstarter goal of roughly $20,000. And it still has 34 days to go in its campaign.
To get a full-fledged Wolffepack Capture, it’ll cost you roughly $150, a fairly comparable price for the size and features the bag has to offer.
