Overview

This is my second camera bag from Chrome Industries, before this i owned the first series, which is smaller than the recent one.

I’ve owned Chrome Industries bag since 2016, Bravo 1.0 Backpack was my first, the bag built like a tank, from there I always looking for another Chrome bags.

I had the first series from Niko Sling, it was smaller than this, only could fit in a small mirrorless camera with smaller or pancake lenses. Same material, but had different size and opening style, that I will talk about it later. But I had to sold it because I had to upgrade to a bigger camera.

This bag has 5L of volume, When I saw it online, I thought it was bigger and boxy, turns out it has the size that I was looking for, and also not that boxy because it has the triangle shape from the side. From the design, compared to other camera bags, Chrome Industries is really straight to the point, This is the camera bag and no else. What I mean by that, it has no feature like you’ll meet in Peak Design bags, like the smart padding, small pockets for memory full or empty. It’s a Chrome Industries bag that we know of, an indestructible built bag, for city and urban people with added a safe inner material to put your cameras.

So yes, it’s true it’s for street photographers, who wants to bring a bigger camera set (other than point and shoot only), and wants to quick change gear on the go.

Compared to their competitors with this size we have Peak Design Everyday Sling 5L v1. I had the V2 3L, and had to sold it only because I don’t like a bag with slim shoulder strap. This Niko Sling 2.0 has a bit wider strap but has no padding that Peak Design has. But Niko Sling 2.0 has a bit slimmer profile, and that’s what I like when you wear it on the back, the back designed to follow the shape of your back, where it’s so round, and bounce a lot where you walk a bit fast.

Okay that’s for small comparison. Now the feature of this bag.

From the front we have this two buckle flaps where Chrome suggested you can put a tripod here, But I also sometimes put my jacket here. The buckle has a reflective strap, in which we can meet in almost all Chrome’s bag. Because Chrome Industries are famous on cyclist community for their long lasting messenger bags.

All zippers in this bag using waterproof YKK Zipper, on the front pocket they put zipper garage, but not on the back.

on Front section has one very slim pocket compartment, in which you can only put memory cards, battery, or small notebooks.

Move to the sides, it has two compression strap, where I think with this tarpaulin material and padding inside, it cannot compressed too thin.

The top handle has padding, and quite strong especially if you have a heavy camera or lenses inside.

On the back we also have a thin pocket here with size almost the same like the front pocket. In here I usually put my spare mask. The back has no air flow system, with all the way using Tarpaulin material, and I think Chrome Industries want this bag to be full water resistant.

But I don’t see the zipper garage on back pocket, anyway I also I don’t think the water can get in here in a lot of amount, since the back pocket will keep on to the back body while on sling mode (but not on the shoulder mode, just to keep in mind).

Let’s move to the main area. This area have a U-shape zipper, when you open the zipper all the way, the main compartment will be exposed wide, and I don’t know what’s the main reason of this design, since the first series the opening go the opposite way, we can see this design also in Peak Design Everyday Sling and Moment Rugged Sling bag. But when I use it, I kinda know why, when you want to quick open the bag, sling it to the front, you’ll want to get the zipper right away without having your arms to be like this and also easy to reach the zipper, with this design you can rest your arms on the bag and open the zipper. But sometimes I just don’t want to expose my gear insides on the public, so when I want to open this bag, I usually go to quieter area.

Inside of this main compartment is just straight forward, like you have a camera insert bag. You have a padding and two stretching pocket in the sides. It has a very safe material for cameras, all in black fabrics with a pattern stitching on the top closing.

In here I put my Leica SL with 50mm Nokton, also have my film camera, Leica CL with 35mm lens, and my Ricoh GRIII. Other than camera with this load, there’s still space for Power bank, Cables, and Hand Sanitizer. You can adjust the padding into your needs, but this is how I bring daily when go to the street.

There’s a bit of hole in between the zipper on the main zipper pocket, first time I see this, will the water comes in when raining? But Chrome did something brilliant here, they add this I think to prevent the water to reach the camera, Since it’s not possible to add zipper garage when you have dual zipper. But I think more safer if raining to put the zipper on the sides where you don’t put your camera.

Move to the strap, it has a bit wider strap considering you will bring a heavy camera gear, I think it’ll hold the weight. Also they don’t use their iconic metal buckle on this, unlike on the first series. Which is good since we’ll bring heavier stuff on this bag. This buckle using plastic, in which i feel kinda cheap, i’m afraid it might be broken with heavy load. I thought the buckle will be in steel like in MXD Series. The strap using a material that we usually met in a car seatbelt.

Ater all this bag is a very good street photography camera where you want to bring a full size DSLR or mirrorless camera. The size is good as it’s not wide enough, when on the back, the flap on each side will fit your back and not bouncing to your body. But some of the cons are:

Overall this is a very good camera bag, no bag is perfect, but this one is very good for street photography.

Here’s if you want to watch the video version:

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