Luminaries!

[aedifica]

I'll dive in with the photos to start with:


Top left: Two new Luminaries! Luminary 12 in Burnt Orange/Cloud and Luminary 15 in Nebulous Grey/Island
Top right: My cat wondering if these are for him
Bottom left: My cat being pretty sure they're for him
Bottom right: My cat demonstrating that although I joke about his color being Burnt Orange, it really is a very different shade of orange


Top left: Top view of L12 packed with my EDC stuff
Top center: L12 and the things I pack in it--I'll list them below
Top right: L12 with my EDC stuff, six cans of soup, and a pastry!
Middle left: L12 minus the pastry, showing off the six cans of soup (no, I didn't eat the pastry in between those two photos, I saved it for the next day)
Middle center: Top view of L15 packed with the things I usually carry in it
Middle right: L15 and the things I pack in it--I'll list them below
Bottom left: L15 with everything including the Large Shop Bag
Bottom center: L15 fully packed
Bottom right: L15 padded back pocket with my MacBook Pro 13" inside

What I normally carry in the L12 right now
As I mentioned in another post recently, I've been using the L12 like a really big Small Cafe Bag. Logically a big Small Cafe Bag would be a Medium or a Large Cafe Bag, but no, for me this is a big Small. It makes sense in my own head. :) What I mean is that I carry exactly the same things in it that I normally carry in my SCB, but I have extra room for adding other things on the fly (like six cans of soup and a pastry).

The top left and top center photos above show my usual L12 load:
* a SCB Freudian Slip in Cloud with all of my usual purse stuff (key straps wrapped around the top loop of the FS lead to my wallet, first aid kit in a mini Halcyon organizer pouch, and mini Q-Kit with lipstick and lip balm)
* folded Original Large Shop Bag in Northwest Sky
* sunglasses in neoprene pouch
* sometimes a bottle of something to drink, usually water but in this case Vitamin Water
* mini Clear Organizer Pouch with my transit pass in a plastic holder from the Globe Theatre in London

The mini COP with my transit pass is on one of the newish split ring key straps, with a house key on the split ring. I clip the other end of the key strap to the O-ring inside the left front pocket of the Luminary.

The sunglasses case has a clip on it which I attach to the O-ring in the right front pocket of the Luminary.

The FS and LSB go into the main section of the L12, along with the drink bottle which I drop into the open-bottomed mesh pocket designed for it. I like that that drink pocket can zip to the back wall, but I like even more that it can be unzipped from it. I normally leave it unzipped.

Adding Soup
I took the L12 with me when I went out to supper the other night, packed with everything mentioned above except for a bottle of water. Before heading home I stopped at a nearby grocery store to stock up on my new favorite canned soup (Amy's Golden Lentil) and added this 2" apple tart as an impulse purchase. At checkout, it was a little bit difficult to slide the second and third cans into the bottom of the Luminary (the stuff in the bottom pocket of the SCB FS was getting in the way) but they did go in, and the second layer of cans fit in easily after that. The apple tart sat on top of it all, and the L12 zipped up easily and was still very comfortable to wear home.

I didn't try adding a third layer of soup cans, but @moriond has and said that a third layer of soup cans fits fine!

Digression: the Small Cafe Bag Freudian Slip
I finally recently started using my SCB FS, mostly because I had bought one in Cloud (because Cloud!) and I needed to justify the purchase by using it. The pocket layout isn't ideal for my use, but I made it work for me. Ever since then I've been easily switching from bag to bag, using my Cloud/Viridian SCB some days and my L12 or L15 on other days; last night I dropped the SCB FS into a Little Swift and it worked easily there too!

I confess, I've had an SCB FS in black for over a year and never got around to using it, probably because (as I mentioned) the pocket layout wasn't ideal for me. Having one in Cloud gave me the push that got me past that, and now I'm finding the FS is just as useful as everyone says it is!

What I normally carry in the L15 right now
I'm in grad school, and this semester I have class on campus one night a week. The L15 has turned out to be perfect for that! I have other bags that also work, but for this particular use, the L15 beats all the others for me. Part of the reason is the shoulder straps, which are really comfortable. The size is also just right--not cramped, but not a lot of extra room to tempt me to bring along more than I want.

So far I've been packing the L15 with everything that I usually put in the L12, plus the stuff I only need for class. Here's the full list:
* a SCB Freudian Slip in Cloud with all of my usual purse stuff (key straps wrapped around the top loop of the FS lead to my wallet, first aid kit in a mini Halcyon organizer pouch, and mini Q-Kit with lipstick and lip balm)
* folded Original Large Shop Bag in Northwest Sky
* sunglasses in neoprene pouch
* sometimes a bottle of something to drink, usually water but in this case Vitamin Water
* mini Clear Organizer Pouch with transit pass
* a MCB Freudian Slip with school things, including pens and pencils in a Ghost Whale Pouch in Canyon
* a notebook of quad-ruled paper (I like that kind best for note-taking)
* a folder
* 13" MacBook Pro, or else an iPad Air in a keyboard case

The mini COP with my transit pass goes in the same pocket as on the L12, as does the sunglasses pouch. The main section of the L15, front to back, gets: drink bottle in the open-bottomed mesh pocket, SCB FS, MCB FS, notebook, folder. The laptop or iPad goes in the back padded compartment.

With that load, the bottom of the bag is full but not stuffed, and there's room on top for a folded Large Shop Bag. The whole thing isn't very heavy and it's quite comfortable to wear.

The small pocket inside both Luminaries' main sections
You may have noticed that none of my lists mentioned putting anything in that pocket, but I do use it frequently. So far I've been finding that pocket very useful as a short-term holding place for this and that--for example, if I need to take my watch off I'll drop it in there. I'm glad this pocket was added!

[aedifica]

Oh, I forgot to mention this aspect:

As the blog post mentions, the new Luminaries' side pockets have the zippers at the top when the pockets are closed. (The original Luminary had the zippers resting at the bottom when the pockets were closed.) I found that I kept grabbing the pocket zippers by mistake when I wanted to open the main section, but that was easily fixed by adding zipper pull cords to the main section's zippers and leaving the pocket zippers alone so I can easily tell by feel which is which.

[b1gsky]

Great review, thanks! I had thought I’d get a L15, but seeing all the new pictures I wonder if the L12 wouldn’t be the better choice. Can you fit DIN A4 paper into the main compartment of the L12? My usual carry for work is rather light and I had planned to use the Luminary for a work bag because I wanted a way to carry my iPad safely which is lacking with my DLBP and the Café Bag. I do need some papers from time to time, but now that I’ll switch jobs it won’t be very often. With this change the L15 feels like overkill.

[aedifica]

Great review, thanks! I had thought I’d get a L15, but seeing all the new pictures I wonder if the L12 wouldn’t be the better choice. Can you fit DIN A4 paper into the main compartment of the L12? My usual carry for work is rather light and I had planned to use the Luminary for a work bag because I wanted a way to carry my iPad safely which is lacking with my DLBP and the Café Bag. I do need some papers from time to time, but now that I’ll switch jobs it won’t be very often. With this change the L15 feels like overkill.

I'm glad the review is useful, thanks! The notebook pictured above is just a fraction larger than A4 according to its measurements (I'm in the US so A4 isn't a common size here, but I looked it up online). I just tried it in the L12 and it did fit fine! Here it is, with the bottom of the notebook touching the bottom of the Luminary 12:



Also, I don't know what size iPad you have or whether it's in a case, but: a standard-size iPad without a case fits easily into the back padded compartment of the L12. I just tried my iPad Air 2 in its keyboard case, thinking it would be a little too big to fit... and I was happily surprised to find that it did fit, but I had to put it in at the opposite angle to the way I would normally put it in. That is, my instinct is to put in one end of the iPad, angle it down toward the bottom of the Luminary, and wiggle it around until I could get the other end of the iPad in; but in this case (pun not intended but entirely appropriate) I had to put in one end of the iPad, angle it up toward the top of the Luminary, and then wiggle it around until I could get the other end of the iPad in. It seems there's more room above the top of the side zipper than there is below the bottom of that zipper.

Here's my iPad in its case (a Logitech Type Plus Folio for iPad Air 2), to give you an idea of it:

[b1gsky]

Thank you so much! If that size of papers fits so comfortably then I think that the L12 should definitely be big enough. Oh and I have the iPad 6th Gen (from 2018) with a thin Case Logic case, no keyboard. I think that’s the same size as the Air 2.

[moriond]

Can I give @aedifica extra "likes" for her cat photos? @b1gsky, A4 paper will fit fine in the main compartment of the Luminary 12. I use the outline of the current 13" Retina MacBook Pro (touchbar models) as a good approximation of A4 paper, with the laptop being about 6mm longer. I can stick A4 notebooks (like the slim Rhodia books) into the back pocket of the Luminary 15 (which makes sense, since you can fit that 13" laptop in that back pocket).

moriond

[sageeyes]

I mean, I was already sold on the Luminary 15 and trying to work out colour combos I wanted, but this review with feline modelling shots just sent me over the edge into obsession. Hah!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[bluedawg]

thanks so much for this review!!

so, just to clarify -- do you think the small cafe bag size of freudian slip is ideal for the luminary 12? in other words, the medium size would be too big, yes?

[aedifica]

thanks so much for this review!!

so, just to clarify -- do you think the small cafe bag size of freudian slip is ideal for the luminary 12? in other words, the medium size would be too big, yes?

I just tried the MCB FS in the Luminary 12, and my answer is "it depends." (Not a very useful answer, I know!) The MCB FS can go into the L12, but it's just wide enough that it doesn't quite rest all the way up against the back of the bag--the curve at the edges of the back panel pushes the MCB FS forward just a titch, and I thought that made the L12 feel a little more crowded. But if you like the MCB FS's pocket arrangement better than the pockets on the SCB FS, it might be worth a little crowding to have that pocket arrangement. Is that helpful?

Here are three photos: first, the L12 with just the MCB FS in it. You can see how the side seam (black) curves forward a little, and the edges of the Freudian Slip go behind that seam--but the FS is wider than the flat part of the back panel. The second photo is another view of the same combination. The last photo is the L12 with just the SCB FS in it. (It's easy to tell which FS is which even apart from the size, because my SCB FS is Cloud and my MCB FS is black.)

[bluedawg]

that is extremely super helpful, thank you so much!!