Synik 22 and Camera carry

[Davidtb]

Recently picked the Synik 22 and I love it.
size is perfect for me to carry laptop and day to day items.
Also bought a Mirrorless camera and a lens, which I would like to have the option of both carrying on the bag, and independently.
I see that Tom Bhin discontinued doing their camera insert, and looking at their other items, not sure any are big enough or can be carried independently for that purpose.

I checked and found threads that are older, not necessarily meeting my requirement or for other bags, so posting a new thread to understand what people are doing.

am looking for something that:
- can carry a Mirrorless, lens and a few small accessories such as battery, brush etc
- Compact so it does not take up any unnecessary space
- very much would want it to fit Tom Bhin’s loops/hooks system
- can be pulled out easily (eg, not sitting at the bottom of the main compartment under other things)
- can be a sling/shoulder carry on its own in case I would like to go with just that
- (optional) can fit the camera plus lens when already assembled for quick pull and shoot. I know this may be a tall ask as I would like it to also be compact and small

[G42]

Welcome to the Forums Davidtb !

Several photogs here, hopefully they chime in

[cdgerston]

Depends very much which mirrorless system you’re talking about. I used to carry an Olympus OMD EM5 with a lens in a Side Effect…that would easily meet your needs. But, if you’re talking about something bigger, you’re going to have a hard time finding something that doesn’t need to sit at the bottom of the bag, simply because of the weight of the system pulling down on the top of the pack. But if it’s small enough, another option is to keep your camera gear in the front “chin” pocket of your pack. I’ve done that with ease on my Synapse 25. Not sure if it’ll work with your 22.

Tenba makes camera inserts that work well in general, and you might be able to find a way to make them work for you, again, depending on the size of your camera system. Good luck.

[Davidtb]

Depends very much which mirrorless system you’re talking about. I used to carry an Olympus OMD EM5 with a lens in a Side Effect…that would easily meet your needs. But, if you’re talking about something bigger, you’re going to have a hard time finding something that doesn’t need to sit at the bottom of the bag, simply because of the weight of the system pulling down on the top of the pack. But if it’s small enough, another option is to keep your camera gear in the front “chin” pocket of your pack. I’ve done that with ease on my Synapse 25. Not sure if it’ll work with your 22.

Tenba makes camera inserts that work well in general, and you might be able to find a way to make them work for you, again, depending on the size of your camera system. Good luck.

thanks for sharing your experience.
it is a Nikon Z5 with 24-70 lens. I think it is more or less the same size/weight.

I just watched a video of the side effect and it looks like a stretch size Wize, but would be happy to hear more of the experience.
I looked at the Tenba as well and they seem a bit big so definitely will be a bottom of the bag kind of pack.

somewhere someone mentioned the peak design field pouch and it seems to work well with the rings idea. Wonder if there is more feedback on this from someone.

[G42]

There are various comments all over the Forums about cameras in TB bags but it's not organized

The easiest way to search is through google... try "forums tom bihn" and whatever camera words you think are pertinent... I don't know enough about it to search other than generally, but internal search within the Forums isn't the greatest and when the software updated a couple years ago, the internal links were broken, so outside search works the best

For example, that's how this thread came up

https://forums.tombihn.com/forum/tom-bihn-forums/general-bag-discussion/15011-best-bag-or-arrangement-for-carrying-photography-gear

[cdgerston]

Yeah, the Nikon Z5 and lens looks a bit too big I would guess for the Side Effect. I actually have a couple of Peak Design Field Pouches, and I don’t think those will work any better for you size-wise. If you don’t care about padding at all, the Side-Kick would probably work. It’ll stretch to fit the camera and lens I think. You could try it before cutting off the tags and return it if it’s not the right fit.

[guyincognito]

In my S25 I keep my lenses and any extra camera gear in the outside front side pockets (in compact individual pouches for protection) and it worked well, no digging through the bag for gear. I kept the camera in a third party pouch in the main compartment for transporting, but I otherwise keep it out and with me when there is a chance I may want to use it.

I realize this is not exactly what you are looking for but thought I’d throw it out as an idea. I also have small lenses and am not sure how well this would work with bigger ones.

[Cpmcnamara]

I like apecases because they are super light weight and flexible. I have a few different sizes for different bihn bags.

Not as great of protection as something like a peak design camera cube, but if you pack right the s22 will have plenty other things helping add to the protection.

on your “sling as well” requirement, I would just get a separate lightweight bag (eg cafe bag, copilot, etc) and pack it separately. I used to travel using a peak design sling as a “camera cube” and it worked but I found that I used it less and less. I prefer the modularity of the system above.

[moriond]

Recently picked the Synik 22 and I love it.
size is perfect for me to carry laptop and day to day items.
Also bought a Mirrorless camera and a lens, which I would like to have the option of both carrying on the bag, and independently.
I see that Tom Bhin discontinued doing their camera insert, and looking at their other items, not sure any are big enough or can be carried independently for that purpose.

I checked and found threads that are older, not necessarily meeting my requirement or for other bags, so posting a new thread to understand what people are doing.

am looking for something that:
- can carry a Mirrorless, lens and a few small accessories such as battery, brush etc
- Compact so it does not take up any unnecessary space
- very much would want it to fit Tom Bhin’s loops/hooks system
- can be pulled out easily (eg, not sitting at the bottom of the main compartment under other things)
- can be a sling/shoulder carry on its own in case I would like to go with just that
- (optional) can fit the camera plus lens when already assembled for quick pull and shoot. I know this may be a tall ask as I would like it to also be compact and small

There are various comments all over the Forums about cameras in TB bags but it's not organized

The easiest way to search is through google... try "forums tom bihn" and whatever camera words you think are pertinent... I don't know enough about it to search other than generally, but internal search within the Forums isn't the greatest and when the software updated a couple years ago, the internal links were broken, so outside search works the best

For example, that's how this thread came up

https://forums.tombihn.com/forum/tom...otography-gear

I like apecases because they are super light weight and flexible. I have a few different sizes for different bihn bags.

Not as great of protection as something like a peak design camera cube, but if you pack right the s22 will have plenty other things helping add to the protection.

on your “sling as well” requirement, I would just get a separate lightweight bag (eg cafe bag, copilot, etc) and pack it separately. I used to travel using a peak design sling as a “camera cube” and it worked but I found that I used it less and less. I prefer the modularity of the system above.

Davidtb I'm going to rely on my memory instead of Google Search, and point you to a few relevant threads. I'll try to list ones where the images and discussion in the actual thread posts contains most of the information, so you don't have to deal with references with broken links. However, I'll point out that in many cases you can reconstruct the name of the thread to find the current correct link from the keywords in the thread title and/or the fact that in many of my posts I also include the actual name of the thread, its date, and the name of the poster, so that again that's enough to put in for a specific Google search for a forum thread. Cpmcnamara is correct that many forum members use apecases, so I've included some thread discussions that talk about the typical sizes of apecases that people have used for different camera setups and in different bags/accessories.
• Best carrying strategy for Micro 4/3 camera and lenses was a thread started in 05-07-2019 by Perseffect who was looking to carry his camera in a Synapse 19 or Pilot (the Synapse is close to your Synik 22 request). The third post in that thread dated 05-08-2019 by Juanito describes using the Billington Small Hadley insert and apecases in a Packing Cube Shoulder Bag. This was a very old posted suggestion by someone who posted this solution in the blog. The only remaining pictures from that post are ones that I separately saved and uploaded when answering earlier photo questions, and the blog reorganization also makes the original text hard to find, so please use the illustrations in Juanito's post instead (the original basic post was about how well that camera insert fit the PCSB and the poster's camera). I'll point you to the recovered blog post from the internet archive in the next listed item. Also, my post no. 6 dated 05-10-2019 gives some of the text description of APECASE models and dimensions that others have used with different TB bags and accessories.
• Best choice for a Camera Bag is an old thread from 02-28-2015 that describes the Camera I/O setup, which is really for larger camera setups and most of the bags are the older messenger bags. However, please read through to the pictures and links near the end of that thread. If you get to post no. 42 dated 03-23-2015, I summarize @Ilkyway's posted summary by including an embedded video made by Victoria Diaz about using the Packing Cube Shoulder Bag with custom inserts ordered from Etsy. There's also a link that I give to the Internet Archive's Wayback machine so you can see the two main pictures illustrating the posted solution with the Billington Small Hadley. Also, as a demonstration of how to locate the original thread in correct URL, you can either Google the name or look at the URL of the link in the old post.
So Packing Cube Shoulder Bag... Camera Bag! used as a search term with "Tom Bihn forums" or looking at the URL of the non working link and seeing "tb-packing-cube-shoulder-bag-camera-bag" at the end gives me the clue that I should just type "TB packing cube shoulder bag camera bag" along with "TB forums" to find the correct current number indexed as a prefix to get the current working link.

HTH gets you started

moriond