Clik Elite CE401GR Medium Nature Pack (Gray)

I bought this pack for weekend long trip to Mt Seorakson in South Korea. It was fantastic. First I was able to customize the pack to fit my short torso perfectly. The water reservoir was a life saver on our hikes and allowed to carry a lot of water and a lot of other gear easily and compactly. It held my cameras and lenses in a perfectly customized configuration based on my needs and held all my equipment solidly. The compartments for the disks, side compartments and top compartment were all useful and easily accessed. I didn't have any problems with the size of the shoulder straps but I did wish it had a way to easily feed my drinking tube instead of having it flop around. It would have also been a bit more useful if the hip strap would be able to hold more stuff or have a place to place your lens while taking photos.The bag went through several tough hikes a day, at points going straight up the side of the mountain on my hands and knees. I know someone complained about wanting a lighter pack but the durability of this pack allowed me to easily remove it and place it on the ground when resting and not have to worry about the bag tipping or hurting my equipment.Overall it was a great bag and I couldn't have been happier with the results.

I'm regularly evaluating the camara bag options on the market, searching for the perfect choice. For travel and hiking with a decent-sized set of gear, this is the best one I've found so far. I prefer a single bag that can be both a carry-on for travel and a main day trip hiking bag once at a destination.When I first got the bag more than a year ago, I was turned off by its weight and by the limited space in the lower camera compartment, but the Clik Elite really proved its worth in the field.It doesn't have the mammoth equipment capacity of a large dedicated photo backpack, but those other backpacks are not going to have the same level of durability, comfort, or versatility. The balance of space in the lower and upper compartments is adjustable, because the separator between the two is velcro on three sides. I was able to make enough room in the bottom compartment to fit two larger lenses (70-200 f/2.8 and 300 f/4 with teleconverter) and my camera with mounted mid-range zoom (17-55 f/2.8). The upper compartment was still quite large and had room to carry additional photo gear (small flash, 1-2 smaller lenses in individual cases, filters, or even an extra camera), plus food and other gear like electronics, notebooks, and clothing.There are plenty of zip compartments both inside and outside to secure specific items like sunglasses, a phone, wallet, filters, memory cards, remotes, and so forth. The big mesh outside pocket can easily take two water bottles. I don't use the inner hydration sleeve, but it's there if needed, and if not is easily tucked away with a velcro strap. There are a number of small touches like this that make you realize a lot of care was taken in the design of this bag.The main straps are very comfortable and adjustable, and that plus the non-camera storage was what really pushed me towards using this pack over others. It was easy to get most of the weight onto the hip belt, with the right level of stability and support from the shoulder straps.The rain cover is huge, which means you can have all kinds of stuff crammed into or hanging on the outside of the pack and still cover it all in the rain. I prefer to carry my tripod strapped to one side of the bag, which is easy to do, and the rain cover can handle it without issue.The pack has no problem fitting into overhead bins on aircraft. I haven't tried stowing it under a seat, but I'm guessing it would be a tight fit.The other new bag I tested was the LowePro Flipside 400, with its main advantage being the novel reverse access to the camera compartment: it's secure and lets you put the pack down and get the outside of the bag dirty instead of your clothes. This would be a great addition for Clik Elite, but probably a lot more difficult with an upper/lower compartment design.

I think the camera compartment is nice, but it just makes the whole bag too heavy and then the room for the regular hiking stuff is too small. When I go on a 4-6 hour day hike I do have to bring quiet a few things which add up weight wise already. So it didn't work for me...I'm still looking for the light weight bag

I just got back from a 30 day tour of the western states and this pack proved invaluable. First, it carried all my gear in a safe and organized manner. It toted two complete DSLRS, a 200mm telephoto, lens extension barrel, a 50mm lens, filter pack, extra data cards, lens cleaning equipment, and a tripod. This was a car camping trip and knowing where all my gear was made things much easier. Second, its non-camera storage space was great for carrying snacks, compass, knife, and other emergency gear, plus the pocket for my Platypus 70oz water bladder. This came in real handy hiking around the Grand Canyon and the Petrified Forest where temps were in the mid to high 90z. Quite frankly this pack can be loaded quite heavy. I carried all my gear as I never wanted to be far away from my car and need a lens or spare body. The pack carried it all and with water probably weighed thirty pounds!The pack is very comfortable and rides just right thanks to the great adjustment system. I've "humped a ruck" quite a bit in the Army and those packs don't compare to this one. I've read some reviews that say the shoulder straps are a bit on the narrow side. While I would agree that it would have felt nicer if the straps were 1/4 to 3/8 inches wider, I was still happy with how the felt.Workmanship and materials are excellent. I was never able to test the waterproof qualities or the rain cover as it never did rain when I used the pack. I had shopped on line for three weeks before purchasing this pack. There were some that carried more camera gear, but only camera gear. There were a lot of packs for much less money, but they didn't have the features of this pack. I finally figured that if I was going to tote $2000 worth of photo gear around I ought to have something that would protect it and carry well.It is well worth the money.