Kata 3N1-22 Slingpack / Backpack

Concept: 3 out of 5
Execution: 2 out of 5
Yeah, but: I took too long to write this.

The Long Version: There are two very real problems with online product reviews: there's no way to gauge how relevant the reviewer's experience is, and they might be a bit of a dolt.

When I was looking for information about Kata's 3N1-22 backpack, most of the comments were very positive. But there are always exceptions, and typically they would fail in the same fundamental way. My favourite example can be paraphrased as "I gave it 3 stars just because it's very narrow. I wish they made it wider, like a normal school backpack." Never mind that the largest member of the 3N1 family fits this description perfectly – it's a great illustration of the difference between reviewing the actual product and creating a wish list for something else.

Camera bags are expensive, everyone's equipment is different and the success of each combination becomes very personal. It's too easy to make a bad choice and then blame the bag for it.

Even when I bought my Kata 3N1-22, I wasn't completely sold on it. It's a very complicated bag that can switch into all manner of configurations, but at the same time it lacks a fundamental flexibility and is missing a couple of features that I like. Despite that, three things convinced me to buy it: my 11" Macbook Air fits like a glove, its narrow width doesn't block my view when I do a shoulder-check on my bike, and I've been pleased with my much larger Kata 261PL pack. Really, if it wasn't for each of those three things, I wouldn't have the 3N1-22.

I've done something a little different for writing this review. Before I bought the bag, I made a list of the things that I thought would be issues for me – sort of a pro/con list without the "pro" side. So here's what I was worried about, and what I think of it after a couple of months of use.

Not enough velcro to reposition the lower dividers. As I use the 3-in-1 to carry a lot of different gear, I find that I'm constantly butting into limits with its internal configuration. The lower two-thirds of the camera compartment is fairly accessible and can have dividers added or removed but only within a small range of permitted positions. The top third of the camera compartment is a de facto different section that runs across the middle of the bag, and is mostly accessible from either side but only with great difficulty from the front. The very top of the bag has an "other stuff" compartment with plenty of room for odds and ends; it's reached via a generous top zipper. The floor of this section can also be unzipped and folded out of the way to create a single-compartment bag.

My heaviest load has been my two Nikon SLRs, two SB600 speedlights, and my small three-lens kit of the AF-D 85/1.8 50/1.8 and 35/2. Cables and the rest went into the top compartment, and I had my little Macbook Air down the back. Alternatively, I've carried the same two bodies along with one really big lens (Sigma 180/3.5 or the Nikon 85/2.8 PC-E) and the medium-big 105/2.8VR. The D700 with a grip will squeak in, but this isn't like a Billingham or a Domke that can carry far more than you would expect. Actually, it carries a little less.

My small-camera setup has the PCM-D50 audio recorder in the middle compartment, and the lower section holds a Panasonic GH1 with the 20/1.7 attached along with the 14-140 and 7-14 Panasonic lenses. There's still room for my Zeiss Ikon and ZM 1,5/50 and 2/35, but it takes a lot of fiddling to make everything fit. For my daily commute I'll only carry one little camera with a single lens, and perhaps my small gorillapod for the audio recorder, and then that leaves enough room up the side of the bag for an umbrella and a water bottle.

Between photo outings and commuting I can easily need to rearrange the dividers a couple of times a week. I don't often miss my Think Tank Glass Taxi, which is a similar size and shape to the midsize 3N1, but I do miss its all-grippy interior that came with more partitions than an office cubicle farm. The lack of velcro positions for the camera compartment remains my biggest complaint about the bag, and the reason why I'm still occasionally disappointed by the 3N1-22.

Zippers around the top compartment can't slide past the top handle easily. This was a bit of a nuisance in the store, but as the bag has broken in the difference in the lid's flexibility around the large handle has lessened. By keeping the twin zippers on one end of their run it's fairly easy to zip past the potential hang-up, and I've become used to this quirk and it doesn't really bother me any more. What I do miss are some of the features from their newer 'Pro Light' bags, like my monster Source 261PL, such as the better zipper pulls, lighter fabric, and EVA foam.

It's too long and high for a practical sling bag, and can't be worn in front for extended periods. I tried wearing the bag as a sling pack in the store, and wasn't impressed. In over three months of actual use I've never felt the need to try carrying the bag this way; if I want a bag that's easily accessible in front of me, I'll use a traditional shoulder bag. It's not that I don't like sling bags: it's a great idea for small bags that really doesn't scale up very well. I find the 3N1-22 awkward and bulky, but I'll use my little MEC Pod for day trips on a regular basis. I will use the 3n1's side access points to get into the bag when I carry it as a backpack, though, so the design is still useful.

No water bottle holder or external pockets. I've had to find ways to work around this one. For daily use I don't usually carry a lot of camera gear, so I can carry a water bottle and/or umbrella inside the bag instead of a long lens. When I'm on the bike I"ll have a pannier, which is great for commuting and removes the need to carry water with my camera bag when I'm out on a biking photo excursion.

Tall slim pockets on the outside of the bag would be great for their additional carrying capacity and to move potentially damp bottles away from the electronics. The catch is that it's completely counter to the design of an ambidextrous sling bag, and would take the place of the side-access panels. I've grown to appreciate those, because I use them when I just take the backpack off of one shoulder – typically to reach an umbrella or a beverage, which is exactly what I would put in an exterior pocket. What can I say? I'm conflicted, and never claimed to be consistent.

But I do unequivocally like the two small side pockets at the top of the bag; one holds my wallet and phone, while the other houses my TS3. The top Other Stuff compartment is excellent, being just big enough to tuck a DVD case across the top, with plenty of room for snacks and the other odds and ends that I carry everywhere. To me this compartment is the 'killer app' of the bag, and is what lets it be a practical day bag that also carries camera gear.

So it's fair to say that there are at least a couple of instances of my wanting the 3N1-22 to be a bag that isn't the one that Kata has made. But with all of that said, the medium-sized 3N1 – with or without the laptop compartment, as suitable – remains an easy bag to recommend. It shows all the signs of Kata's usual exceptional construction quality, and its basic layout of camera gear on the bottom and an Other Stuff compartment on the top is incredibly useful.

While the dividers don't have much flexibility in how they can be arranged, I can usually make them work, and it's nice to know that I can even pull them all out and use the bag with no internal partitions at all. In the three months that I've spent writing this review I have come to like the bag more, but nothing about it has really surprised me. It's a solid and innovative camera bag from a company with a history of doing that sort of thing.

Finally, I have to acknowledge the downside of taking so much time to learn the bag before publishing my thoughts. Almost every single one of my complaints – the biggest ones, certainly – are about to be addressed by the new 3N1-25 model from Kata. Time will tell how much better the new one will be, and in the future I may have another review to write. In the mean time, I'll continue to plug along with the soon-to-be-old "22" model, which has the distinction of being superseded within days of my finishing a three-month review. Sometimes life can be like that.

last updated 31 aug 2011

Green Clean Hi Tech Air and Vacuum Power

Concept: 4 out of 5
Execution: 2 out of 5
Yeah, but: Until then, Mogwai waits.

The Long Version: I was recently given a few new toys to play with. In an earlier review I tested the Green Clean lens wipes, and soon I'll take a look at a wet sensor cleaning system; now we're splitting the difference with their general dust-removal tool. Green Clean "Hi Tech Air and Vacuum Power" canisters cleverly use the Venturi effect to drive a vacuum cleaner with compressed gas; although it's no more intuitive than a propane-powered refrigerator, it really does work. While it has lots of potential uses, these cans are included in their sensor cleaning boxed kits.

The Green Clean vacuum has a real advantage over an air blower – they'll escort dust from the premises without introducing any new contaminants. It's reasonably powerful, being able to pick up grains of table salt, but it still needs to be fairly precisely targeted. This has obvious limitations, but then again there must be a reason why we don't just use our household vacuum cleaners on the insides of our SLRs.

Suction is through a flexible tube with an (optional) rigid attachment, and the air is drawn through a cylinder with a filter at the top and a collection chamber below. The filter is easily cleaned by taking it off of the nozzle and gently blowing through it – human-powered – which I needed to do after I went after some little dust bunnies. The bunnies lost, but on pain of marital discord I won't be sharing that particular video.

Alas, there's still no panacea for sensor dust: often the dirt is simply too stubborn to respond to subtle persuasion. My D700 had sat unused for most of the summer, and uncleaned since last year, so it was the obvious target for a little love. The Green Clean vacuum did take some fluff off of the sensor, but I was discouraged to see that it left most of the little specks behind. Perhaps that's because it's ragweed season, and pollen particles are sticky; perhaps it's because the self-cleaning sensors that most current cameras have will already knock off the debris that's willing to be moved. I'm not such a hard-core reviewer that I'll intentionally re-dirty my sensor, so instead I'm waiting for nature take its course.

In the winter static replaces pollen as the main dust culprit. Look for an update then – but ultimately nothing beats a wet cleaning with swabs for degunking. That's unfortunate, because I really wish a non-contact method would be enough, but it does give me a subject for another review or two. Life's a barter system.

The gas canisters for the Green Clean vacuum have a threaded nozzle that I haven't seen before. It stands to reason that these cylinders are at least somewhat standardized, but I haven't found the right search terms and haven't brought one of the cans to a hardware store to show the helpful salespeople. Being able to source generic replacement cans might be cheaper than the original, but probably not; it would certainly help any travelling photographer to be able to find them locally in case the TSA doesn't have a good sense of humour. While the evidence isn't conclusive on that last point, I won't be packing these the next time that I fly.

The hazard warnings on the back of the can are pretty unambiguous. The propellant in these cans is R-134a, aka tetrafluoroethane, which – to damn with faint praise – seems to be somewhat less eco-apocalyptic than most aerosols. Like fabric softener, it's not something to rejoice in, and the less it's used the better. Even for those of us who don't think that we're massively screwing up the environment, "use only in well-ventilated areas" really should be synonymous with "use sparingly". I'm not convinced that the brand name is well suited to this particular product, to say the least.

So the problem that I have with the Green Clean vacuum is deciding when it's worth using it. It's not cheap, either financially or ecologically, so what it cleans needs to be pretty important. As a sensor cleaner it won't cause more problems and it's great on the easy stuff, but like all non-contact methods it won't remove dirt that's welded on. That happened to be most of the specks that were on my D700 and GH1 sensors, but other cameras, environments, and seasons could be very different. Regardless, I'd never skip straight to the wet cleaning without exhausting all non-invasive options first.

For mundane jobs that merely need 'pretty good' results I'll keep using my Rocket Blower. Blower bulbs are handy little things, but when I try to clean my camera sensors with one I invariably end up with what an economist would call a negative improvement. For the times when I need non-negotiable dust removal from a small and delicate area, whether it's sensor cleaning or when I'm scanning the family Kodachrome archive, the Green Clean vacuum would certainly help. I can't yet say for sure that I'll spend my own money to buy one, but I can guarantee that some day I'll be stressed out in the middle of a sensor cleaning session and really wish that I had a little vacuum cleaner handy. What can I say? C'est la vie.


Added: New York-based photographer Adam Marelli has reviewed the Green Clean vacuum under much more actively dusty conditions than I've ever faced. He also sneaks in a quick look at the sensor swabs, which is still on my to-do list. More here: Adam Marelli Photo.


The Green Clean products used in this review have been provided at no cost by the North American distributor for evaluation. However, anything that isn't consumed in the product testing is returned, and there is no financial relationship or incentive involved. But as always, the usual `thewsreviews disclaimer still applies.

last updated 31 aug 2011

Kelloggs Vector

Concept: 5 out of 5
Execution: 4 out of 5
Yeah, but: This isn't a review, it's a Marketing Replacement.

The Long Version: I fell in love with Kelloggs Vector the very first time I heard an ad for it. "It's not a cereal, it's a meal replacement."

A meal replacement that you eat from a bowl, with a spoon, in milk.

A replacement for breakfast, perhaps?

Penny recently brought home a couple of free sample boxes from a fitness expo she went to. I was thrilled to see that they're still sticking with the "Meal Replacement" marketing efforts, printing that audacious slogan right on top of the photo showing cereal-like flakes in a bowl with milk. Awesome.

So after all these years of my adoration of this product, I've finally been able to actually eat some. In the morning. Instead of breakfast. And you know what? It tasted a lot like cereal.

last updated 26 aug 2011