Review: Kata Hybrid-537 DL Camera Bag

In my continuous attempt to keep my travel gear light as possible for my personal travel, I’ve been looking at some options in terms of camera bags. Before, I had two bags with me, my Kata Sensitivity Bag and my regular 30-liter Deuter Backpack. While I really like the efficiency of the Sansitivity-V for its size, it’s really hard to travel with 2 bags in tow, especially when you’re always on the move. When I found the Kata Hybrid-537 D-lite Shoulder Bag while doing some window shop on a camera store, I thought it was ingenious that I can remove the compartments making it more compact if I wanted to so I bought one at Island Photo. After months of having it with me, here what I thought of it.

What I liked:

• First thing I liked is how I can detach the compartments so I can use either one when I need a compact camera case. And it’s easy to attach them via the secure velcro straps.
• It has the same light material as my Kata Sensitivity-V which I really like.
• It comes with a rain cover that can be folded to a compact size
• The shoulder strap feels comfortable
• I has the Modi-verse feature which I can re-arrange the division inside the large compartment
• The main compartment is spacious enough that with my Mirrorless system, I can fit my camera as well as 2 additional lenses with my filters in them. It could also fit a regular DSLR with a standard lens attached and another lens on the side.
• There’s an option to carry it on the waist via a belt loop
• There’s also a strap included if I would want to put a small tripod/monopod as well but since I have a big tripod I never used it.
• Great value for only P2400

What I didn’t like:

• It can be hard to zip close when it is bent out of shape while carrying if the content is heavy.

As you can see, there is a lot to like about this Kata Hybrid Bag. I found that for me a shoulder bag is more efficient to use than a back pack. For an instance when I’m traveling and suddenly I found a spontaneous subject on the road, I can easily access the camera on the side to shoot as opposed to a camera on my backpack which I have to remove from my back, unzip and pull out from the bag. A lot of seconds lost. By the time I have the camera in hand, the subject would have been far away. But that’s just my style and I found the Kata Hybrid-537 DL  Camera Bag works for me.