How We Tested Camera Backpacks

Our Testing Grounds and Process

With decades of experience behind the lens, GearJunkie’s rabble of creatives is no stranger to flashy photography trinkets — and they know the importance of keeping that precious glass safe and sound in any environment.

A good camera backpack is the foundation of a successful shoot. It keeps thousands of dollars of heavy, fragile gear cocooned in cushy compartments and is the difference between getting that perfect shot or endlessly fumbling around while the sun sinks below the horizon.

For that reason, our team doesn’t take our testing lightly. We rummaged around online forums, bugged our pro photog contacts, and scoured the tables at gear shows to narrow in on the absolute best roundup of camera backpacks on the market. Rest assured — this list represents the crème de la crème of these niche packs.

These backpacks wound their way along cobblestone streets in Europe, bounced across the dusty African savannah, slowly plodded up endless Sierra switchbacks in California, and were thoroughly abused in the Colorado backcountry. We clocked some serious distance and time with each model and would feel confident recommending any one of them for your various photography ventures.

Our Expert Testers

Senior Editor Chris Carter and GearJunkie contributor Kendra Smith joined forces to spearhead this guide. Taking over 10 different camera backpacks on shoots and adventures all over the world, they reviewed this fresh stock of packs over a year-long testing period before settling on the list above.

In 2024, adventure photographer Eric Phillips took over this guide and tested five new backpacks. Some backpacks he’s been using for a few years, while he tested others for 6 months. Eric is most known for his images that capture compelling landscapes, human exploration, and outdoor industry news. His outdoor photos have been featured in local and national publications, including 5280 Magazine, REI Co-op Journal, SNEWS, Elevation Outdoors Magazine, and Adventure Pro Magazine.

Through his experience, he has learned what makes a great camera backpack, and his critical testing is key to the recommendations in this guide. If you prefer a bag or sling-style camera bag to protect your precious cargo, check out our guide to the Best Camera Bags. And if you’re looking for other camera gear, check out our guide to the best camera tripods.

Buyer’s Guide: How to Choose the Best Camera Backpack

When considering the perfect camera backpack for your personal or professional pursuits, it’s important to think of location, distance, accessibility, and capacity. Additional considerations are materials and capacity, comfort, and value. Things like weather, durability, body type, and budget will also come into play when making the best personal choice in a camera bag.

How Will You Use It?

If you’re an outdoor enthusiast, you may want a simple hip pack to carry your camera and other essentials, while a professional photographer will need a pack with substantial weight capacity along with storage and good padding for protection. In any case, thinking through when and where you’ll use your camera backpack will help guide your purchase. Below are a few good questions to ask yourself before making your purchase.

• Is this for professional or personal use?
• Do I need a daily camera pack or does this have a specific use such as travel, hiking, or commuting? 
• How many cameras, lenses, and accessories are necessary to fit into the camera backpack?
• What is my comfort level with weight?
• How accessible do I need my camera to be in my bag?
• Do I need a computer insert? How large is my computer or tablet?

It’s worth noting that all of the packs we listed above serve the niche purpose of transporting and protecting sensitive camera gear. If you’re on the hunt for other backpack categories, be sure to check out our comprehensive review on the absolute best backpacking backpacks, or our streamlined roundup of the best daypacks for everyday use. All of these packs could also be converted to DIY camera backpacks with the inclusion of some nifty camera cubes — but it sure is nice to have an all-in-one package.

Location

As every photographer knows, location is everything, and with that comes weather, lighting, and terrain. These aspects will inform some of the most important elements your camera pack should be prepared for — and hopefully help narrow down your options. 

Based on location, a common accessory to many photographers is the tripod. Most camera backpacks have clips to hold a tripod but this very much depends on the size and weight of the trip, so look out for the specs of the pack and your tripod when considering how important a tripod holder is to your camera backpack. 

If you know there is a higher risk of inclement weather, you will want to look for waterproofing or water-resistant materials on the fabric, zippers, or a rain cover. Another major element to consider is dirt and dust. At the very least, good camera backpacks keep dirt from getting inside your pack, so check out the materials section below for more information.

When choosing your camera backpack, consider the full range of conditions and environments you plan on shooting in. This will largely determine the capacity, materials, and overall organizational features of the pack that are best for your needs.

Distance

Knowing how far you need to travel with your camera backpack will help inform how durable your pack should be and how much weight you’re willing or able to carry for that distance.

In general, thicker materials with double-stitching in the seams and straps will help your pack manage normal wear. Ripstop and other strong materials help with extensive wear for increased or long-term use. It’s important to note how much or little space that your pack allows compared to your gear.

Ironically, the tighter your gear fits into your pack, the better, as extra room allows your gear to get knocked around while traveling. Either get the perfect fit or find ways to make that space tighter.

If you’re carrying your pack longer distances with substantial weight, you’ll definitely want to consider choosing a backpack with waist and chest straps to balance the weight distribution of your gear. A good long-distance pack also has substantial padding around the walls of the front, back, and side of the backpack as well as the interior separators.

We narrowed in on the Moment Strohl Mountain Light pack as our heavy hauler of choice for long backpacking trips. We also love the Peak Design Outdoor Backpack 45L for hiking and adventuring. Packs like these allow you to safely carry a full camera loadout in addition to a basic backpacking kit for multiday travel in the backcountry.

Flying With Camera Backpacks

Inevitably, you’re going to have to cross some big ponds during your filmmaking/photography exploits — which can be an understandably disconcerting experience. Not everyone — TSA *cough cough* — understands just how fragile and expensive this glass can get. Horror stories abound of camera gear getting ruined in transit between countries.

Carry-On

Your best line of defense against these woes is to carry all of your pricey gear in either your carry-on, using a backpack like the Lowepro Pro Trekker RLX 450 AW II, or your personal item. You can then stash more durable gear like a tripod, mounts, or a bulky camera cage in your checked bags.

Our favorite combo for schlepping gear for even moderately complicated shoots abroad is to slot a large camera cube, such as PD’s Medium or Large Camera Cube V2, into a hard-sided carry-on like the one above, and fill it with any assortment of lenses, mics, or sensitive filters. We then pack our pricey camera bodies and some of the more expensive lenses in a smaller personal item-sized camera backpack — like PD’s Everyday Zip 20L or the Tenba DNA 16.

This streamlined combo has allowed us to haul an absurd amount of film gear all over the world for everything from simple photo gigs, to complicated multi-month international video projects. Never once have we had to put anything fragile in a checked bag. Though this does make our personal items quite heavy, it’s a price we’re willing to pay for peace of mind.

Checking Bags

Checked bags get chucked haphazardly around while loading and unloading onto planes, and we’d rather not worry one bit about a cracked lens or broken body. With that said, we’d still recommend purchasing gear insurance before going anywhere too wild.

If your camera loadout is simply too massive for your personal luggage, you can splurge on something like the bombproof 1615 Air Case from Pelican to check sensitive gear — but this gets pricey fast.

We recently were able to shove multiple camera bodies, a slew of bulky lenses, camera cages, gimbals, mics, monitors, and all manner of awkward-shaped tech accessories into this carry-on/personal item combo and travel stress-free to Africa for a months-long video project in brutal conditions.

The multiple access points of PD’s Everyday Zip, and easily accessible organization of the camera pod in our carry-on, allowed us to quickly reveal our suspect film gear to prying airport security eyes without having to spill all of our personal contents on the ground at checkpoints. A cherished detail.

When traveling internationally, it’s safe to assume that expensive camera gear will be scrutinized while going through airport security. It’s therefore best to have everything as easily accessible as possible if/when your bag gets pulled aside to be rummaged through.

It’s also helpful to have an itemized list on hand of what camera gear you’re bringing into the country, and its rough monetary value — as we’ve been asked for this on multiple occasions while traveling abroad. Having to scroll through your recent Amazon purchases to wrangle this info together last minute while folks wait impatiently behind you is less than fun.

Pods/Camera Cubes

Camera pods/cubes are another important feature to consider, and can be immensely helpful when flying or road-tripping around — as mentioned above. Pods, or “camera cubes” can make many different backpacks into camera backpacks, and are smaller inserts that fit within a larger pack. They generally have foam dividers for cameras and lenses, and vary in sizes.

First, be on the lookout for pods that are and are not included. Many packs are now offering pods as an add-on to create a more customized bag that can double as a camera backpack or regular pack. The add-on options allow you to choose what size of pods you need. In any case, try to visualize where your gear will be placed in the pods, how many you need, and how to customize them to your needs.

Some of our favorite camera cubes are Peak Design’s Camera Cube V2s and Lowepro’s GearUP Pro Camera Boxes. We’ve been using the small and medium PD cubes to make our regular carry-ons into full-fledged camera rollers, and the GearUP Boxes for carrying loads of heavy bodies and lenses on backpacking trips.

The ability to slide them in and out of any backpack makes these shoo-ins for just about any adventure we’ve gone on during this testing period. The PD cubes also work seamlessly with all Peak Design bags — such as their sleek Travel Duffels — and can be securely clipped into attachment loops within the bag.

We love being able to store a body and one or two lenses in LP’s GearUP Boxes, and slide them vertically into our backpacking backpack for quick, multidirectional access to our camera mid-trek. The GearUPs have a large zippered opening on the front to access everything when you pull it out of your pack.

Or, you can open a smaller door on the top to slide the camera out when the pod is slotted vertically, nestled among your gear (see above). If you aren’t using a dedicated camera backpacking backpack — like Moment’s Strohl Mountain Light pack — this can be a great solution for the trail-trotting creative.

Camera cubes can also be used to add more gear storage to camera backpacks. Often times, the included camera compartment of camera backpacks just isn’t enough, and cubes can be added to personal gear sections of the pack to safely store additional sensitive gear.

Accessibility

The most important feature we look for in a camera backpack is its quick access to gear. Manufacturers must balance the need to protect fragile equipment while ensuring you can swiftly grab your camera for that perfect shot.

Multidirectional zippers, various access points, and strategically placed Velcro dividers all aid in this complex process. Perhaps our favorite accessibility layout can be found in PD’s Everyday Zip 20L. The pack features top and dual side access via a single 270-degree wraparound zipper, with four different zippers to open whichever compartment of the pack you need.

Handles on each side of the pack allow you to rip it around with ease to quickly access each segment, and the rotating shoulder straps let you drop the pack onto one shoulder and rip it open without plopping it on the ground.

When selecting a camera backpack, think about your access needs—quick access or transportation. Look for features like top and side access, camera clip loops, and a side door entry for easy camera retrieval without removing the pack.

A good camera pack typically has a zipper that extends to provide a full view of your gear when the pack lies flat. A clamshell design allows the bag to open completely for easy visibility. The location of the camera compartment varies: zippers can be positioned near the back, front, or sides. Some users prefer added security at the cost of accessibility, while others opt for easier access from the back or outer zipper, depending on their needs.

Tripod-Holder

Every good camera backpack will have a tripod holder. If the bag you’re considering has one, it’s usually located on the exterior of the pack. Many packs use a pocket that usually acts as a bottle holder to support the bottom of the tripod, with a strap near the top of the pack to secure it.

Capacity

Most standard camera bags are around 20-30 L. This is plenty of room for camera gear, a laptop or tablet, and other essentials. The Deuter Jaypack 34+ comes with a range of dividers that allow for endless customization options and enough room to fit a telephoto lens, and even a drone.

If you go out on longer multiday trips, opt for a larger pack — 50 to 60 L might be a good size. In this capacity range, we especially love the Shimoda Action X50 V2, which carries well and has added features. Find a padded camera cube so you can pack your camera and lenses safely in the pack if you don’t plan on getting one with integrated camera storage.

Durability

As far as pack durability goes, double-stitched straps and high-denier (thicker) materials will help your bag withstand standard wear and tear. For keeping your gear safe, the more padded the backpack, the safer your equipment will be.

Also, the more snug the compartment design is, the better. Extra space leaves room for gear to jostle around whether you’re running through the airport, riding your cruiser to the park, or steering a dirt bike to an overlook for sunset.

Look for a pack that has padding that surrounds the main compartment, not just on the separators. If you tend to be extra hard on your gear, some bags have hardshell liners for extra impact protection.

Waterproofing/Weather-Resistance

It’s important to know the difference between waterproofing, water-resistant, and how long these materials last. If you want to be prepared for any weather, definitely look for a backpack that is waterproof with waterproof zippers.

Water-resistant bags are great for minor exposure to liquids and in between throwing on an additional rain cover or rain jacket. They will eventually become saturated if there is substantial water, so be sure to consider a game plan if you’re out and about during rainy or snowy seasons. In any case, you can always plan to move your camera backpack underneath a rain jacket for coverage on the move.

If you tend to shoot in rainy weather, look for a pack that comes with a rainfly. Many packs stash these in a small pocket on the exterior for quick deployment.

Be wary of packs that are advertised as waterproof. Even if the bag’s material is waterproof, the zippers usually aren’t. So, while a waterproof exterior may repel rain, humidity, mist, or splash action from the bottom of the canoe, there’s a chance that it can seep in through the zippers and get your camera wet.

Comfort

Camera backpacks can get heavy fast. If you’re planning to pack multiple cameras, lenses, and accessories along with your laptop, it’s important to consider how much weight is bearable for your body and find a backpack that distributes weight evenly.

Many backpacks, like the Peak Design Outdoor Backpack 45L and Shimoda Action X50 V2, include chest and hip straps. Really great packs add padding to all the straps with adjustments to fit your body. Look out for these features and consider spending a little extra if you’re someone who often carries heavy gear.

Another thing to consider is how heavy the backpack is before you put your gear in. It’s a hard balance as extra comfort and padding usually lead to more weight while ultralight gear can be flimsy and less likely to distribute weight evenly. There are packs that do a great job of balancing both comfort and protection with good padding and weight distribution to help offset the discomfort.

Shoulder Pads & Hip Belts

Some camera packs put these two important comfort qualities on the back burner, which is a bummer because a loaded pack of electronics is a fair load to carry around! Ideally, the shoulder pads are breathable, ergonomic, and well-cushioned.

Likewise, the back panel should have cushion, support, and hopefully breathability through a mesh material and airway channels between the pads.

Hip belts that are constructed of a simple strap will help secure the load from swinging around but will not support the load off the shoulders and upper back. They are also not the coziest to snap on.

Cushioned hip belts help to protect the hips from rubbing and carry a portion of the pack weight, relieving the upper back; plus, they are generally more comfortable. For folks with back or neck pain or injuries, be sure to look for adequate pads in your camera pack.

Categories of Camera Backpacks

Different camera backpacks serve different creatives’ needs. Whether you gravitate to simple day or wedding shoots, or frequently find yourself filming technical expeditions lasting for months, there’s a pack out there with your name on it. We’ve broken down some of our favorite camera backpacks into three main categories. Most of these packs are featured above, while some we have reviewed in previous years.

• Casual: General use around town, non-professional gear but still provides good coverage
• Technical: Great for professional gear for the long haul with increased padding, waterproofing, and support straps to support additional weight when traveling.
• Backpacking: Packs with larger volumes — used best for 2-3-day trips hiking over various terrain, or even general traveling.

Price & Value

Whether for personal or professional use, be prepared to spend a little extra on a good backpack. Camera backpacks vary dramatically in price and features. Generally, the more you want to carry (e.g., multiple camera bodies or lenses), the pricier the backpack becomes. However, size isn’t the only factor that matters. Weather resistance, durability, and the level of camera protection can also impact price.

Budget

The budget category ranges from as low as $30 to around $100. Here, you can find backpacks like the CADeN Camera Backpack ($36), a true barebones camera bag. At this tier, the bags are made of questionable fabric that lacks waterproofing, and they may lack padding and ergonomic support.

These bags generally are less comfortable and hold less gear than other options, however, these budget bags may be the right choice for you depending on the way you use them. The CADen has enough padding to properly protect your gear, but it lacks support for heavier loads. While these packs may not save your back, they are easier on your wallet.

Mid-Tier

These camera bags range from $150 to $250, and most camera backpacks fall into this range. The standouts in this tier are the Lowepro ProTactic 450 AW II ($220) and the Tenba DNA 16 ($230). At this level, backpacks have more features like laptop pockets and waist straps. They typically also have more ergonomic and comfortable designs.

These bags are worth the price jump as they are significantly better for daily use. At this price point, the backpacks are still on the smaller side, so if you’re looking for a quality bag that can hold a lot of gear, then you should check out the premium bags.

Premium

Premium bags start at $300 and go upward, with the most expensive in our guide in the $500 range. Here the backpacks come with the most features like extra padding, waterproofing, and the ability to hold multiple camera bodies and lenses. If you plan on doing big days in the mountains, these will save your back from discomfort.

A camera bag filled with a drone, multiple bodies and lenses, and even a gimbal, can be worth thousands of dollars. It’s best to protect that investment with a high-quality backpack protecting your precious camera equipment from weather, shocks, and drops.

The standouts in this category are the Peak Design Outdoor Backpack 45L ($330) and the Shimoda Action X50 V2 ($350) for their ability to securely carry a range of cameras and outdoor gear in all weather conditions while your back gets the support it needs to haul all that weight around.

Frequently Asked Questions