I am happily playing with my brand new (just arrived Monday) Medium Cafe Bag in Crimson/Steel, which is a color I'm falling more in love with every day. (And I'm not normally a red person either.) I bought the MCB to carry my iPad around with a wireless keyboard, stand, and various things from my purse. But just for fun, I decided to experiment and see if my Olympus e620 DSLR would fit. I didn't think it would, since the depth of the MCB, from front to back, is listed as only three inches. But I'm beginning to think that Tom Bihn cloned some threads from Mary Poppins' bag, because all of my TB bags seem to hold way more than you'd think they could, based either on their measurements or merely looking at them from the outside.
Here is my 620 with a 14-42mm lens attached, inside a Billingham camera insert. Next to it is the biggest lens I own: a vintage Olympus OM 200mm telephoto lens, with the matching Olympus 1.4x teleconverter attached, inside a pouch. Tucked at the bottom where you can't see it is an orange neoprene case with my spare batteries, memory cards, remote, and lens cloth inside. On top of that is another neoprene pouch (repurposed from the days when computers used floppy disks) that has my filters in it. It all fits beautifully, with room for more. I feel like saying, "Abracadabra!" because it seems like a magic trick.
So now I have three different TB bags that I can choose from to carry my camera, depending on where I am and what I'll need for the day. If it's just to take my camera with me on my morning walk around town or for a day trip somewhere, I can use my Crimson MCB. If I need to carry more stuff for a longer expedition, I can take my Indigo/Plum Imago, with a three-section camera insert inside. (Yep, it fits.) Or if I'm going to be hiking or on a serious camera excursion where I'd want multiple lenses, I'll have my Indigo Synapse. (Well, I will have it next week when it arrives.)
As for the reason I bought it, it almost goes without saying that the iPad and its gear fit easily inside. Yesterday, to help someone trying to make a decision which size Cafe bag to bug, I tried carrying both my iPad and my 11-inch Macbook Air. You guessed it: the MCB swallowed it with ease. Amazing!
[Sorry about the moire pattern on the final picture; that happens when I shrink the photos to upload them here.]


Here is my 620 with a 14-42mm lens attached, inside a Billingham camera insert. Next to it is the biggest lens I own: a vintage Olympus OM 200mm telephoto lens, with the matching Olympus 1.4x teleconverter attached, inside a pouch. Tucked at the bottom where you can't see it is an orange neoprene case with my spare batteries, memory cards, remote, and lens cloth inside. On top of that is another neoprene pouch (repurposed from the days when computers used floppy disks) that has my filters in it. It all fits beautifully, with room for more. I feel like saying, "Abracadabra!" because it seems like a magic trick.
So now I have three different TB bags that I can choose from to carry my camera, depending on where I am and what I'll need for the day. If it's just to take my camera with me on my morning walk around town or for a day trip somewhere, I can use my Crimson MCB. If I need to carry more stuff for a longer expedition, I can take my Indigo/Plum Imago, with a three-section camera insert inside. (Yep, it fits.) Or if I'm going to be hiking or on a serious camera excursion where I'd want multiple lenses, I'll have my Indigo Synapse. (Well, I will have it next week when it arrives.)
As for the reason I bought it, it almost goes without saying that the iPad and its gear fit easily inside. Yesterday, to help someone trying to make a decision which size Cafe bag to bug, I tried carrying both my iPad and my 11-inch Macbook Air. You guessed it: the MCB swallowed it with ease. Amazing!
[Sorry about the moire pattern on the final picture; that happens when I shrink the photos to upload them here.]
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