Think Tank Urban Approach 10 Review - Camera bag

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Think Tank Urban Approach 10 - Petite and Smart

Think Tank never rests on their laurels.  They design and redesign their bags and seems to keep up with the changing demands of the photographer.  The Urban Approach series is designed for a compact system camera kit (AKA mirrorless systems).  Everything about it is scaled to the compact system.     

The bag is clearly a sibling to the Think Tank City Walker 20 (reviewed here as a crossover commuter bag).  The Urban Approach shares nearly all the same features as the City Walker 20 in a more compact form.  Despite being considerably smaller than the City Walker 20, it can still hold what I consider to be a travel photographer's best friend: an iPad.  So let's talk about how this bag measures up to the competition. 

The Good Stuff

1.  The Urban Approach 10 is a compact yet versatile bag.  The beauty of its size is that you cannot overpack it.  I often feel the need to fill a bag and sometimes this means that I overpack.  Overpacking means lugging around excess weight.  This can't happen withe UA-10.  Despite it's size, however, it can hold all of your photographic essentials.  

2.  The Urban Approach 10 looks professional for a messenger bag.  As a result, it can be equally comfortable in a board room setting or the sideline of your daughter's soccer game.  The leather accents (real leather!) and the unadorned front flap are a smart design decision.

3.  The handle is brilliantly simple and effective. It appears to be a shortened shoulder strap and, like the shoulder strap, it attaches to the sides of the bag.  As a result, the handle stays centered over the bag.  

This really works well in so many ways.  When handles are sewn into flaps, depending on how much you load the bag and therefore how much you can cinch the flap down, it will shift the location of the handle backwards or forwards. When a handle is not centered (front to back), the bottom of the bag will kick in or out and lead to the bag hanging at and angle instead of straight down and parallel to your leg. (See this phenomenon in the photo below.)

The Think Tank Urban Approach 10 eliminates this problem entirely with the "mini-shoulder strap" design that allows the handle to be completely independent of the flap.  It always centers itself over the bag.  It might look a bit funny, but it is perfectly functional and I think all bags should adopt this feature.

4.  The Urban Approach 10 has two stretchy exterior side pockets that are really handy for holding a small water bottle, your cell phone, or a lens cap.  I don't know why all messenger bags don't have side pockets.  You can see that I crammed a large thermos into this side pocket.  It fit, but not well.

5.  The back panel is made out of a different material than the rest of the bag.  Most of the bag is made out of a heavy weight ballistic nylon that seems bulletproof.  The back panel is a smooth, tightly woven nylon which will not pill your clothing. It's details like this that make Think Tank such a successful company.

6.  The Urban Approach 10 does have Velcro strips holding down the flap.  Normally this is a huge strike against a bag as the annoying sound of tearing open your bag is not appropriate in the boardroom or, for that matter, many places where you are taking photographs (e.g., theaters or churches).  However, Think Tank includes ingenious "Sound Silencers" which do just what they say.  They cover up the Velcro.  In the photo below, you can see that the top photo is in its functional mode while the second photo is in the silenced mode.

7.  The Urban Approach 10 is stiff enough to stand on its own (of course, it benefits from having a built in foam supported camera section).  The bottom is flat and the sides are perpendicular to the bottom of the bag further increasing its stability.  You may not realize how convenient it is when a bag does not fall over as you pack or unpack it.

The Stuff That I Will Never Use, But You Might

Think Tank is never shy about tossing in stuff that most manufacturers make you pay for after the fact. The Urban Approach 10 comes with a rain fly.  It's inside that little blue pouch.  I will never use it or even bring it with me.  I know that this sounds bold, but it's actually just the opposite.  If I think there is going to be a threat of rain, I always carry an umbrella (after all, I need to keep myself dry).  If I am going to be outdoors shooting for long periods on the weekend, I would likely switch over to my day pack where I can carry more gear more comfortably. 

The Not So Good Stuff

Many of the issues I had with this bag have been lifted from my review of the Think Tank City Walker 20 because the bags essentailly have the same design.  If you have read that review, you will notice that this section will have a familiar ring to it.

1.  As you can see from the photo below, the Urban Approach 10 is a messenger bag style.  This is both a curse and blessing. Generally speaking, flaps that cover the bag limit your ability to access the items inside of your bag. The process of unbuckling the flap and then holding it out-of-the-way as you reach in to grab an item can quickly become a drag. This issue becomes more apparent if you are wearing the bag at the time. That said, a flap does provide weather-proofing and a near instantaneous way to close your bag without having to use a zipper or buckle. Additionally, many people like the clean look of the flap.  Only you can decide if the cost/benefit ratio of a messenger design is favorable to you.

A messenger bag CAN offer a feature that can virtually eliminate the costs associated with a flap.  Note that the Tenba bag below (reviewed here) is a messenger bag yet it has a zipper running the length of the top of the flap. As a result, you can UNZIP the top of the bag to get into the main compartment. In this way, a messenger bag can now operate like a soft sided briefcase in terms of ease of access.

2.  Think Tank placed the fastex-like buckle under the flap of the Urban Approach 10. I presume this was done to maintain the clean look of the messenger bag style. Unfortunately, this hidden buckle has proven to be difficult to use. It is located halfway between the bottom edge of the flap and the top of the bag making it extraordinarily hard to get to (see the first photo below).  To secure this buckle, you essentially must lift the flap most of the way to buckle or unbuckle (see the second photo below).  This becomes more difficult if you have the Velcro fastening engaged (see third photo below).  I believe that Think Tank should have placed the buckle entirely on the outside of the bag and closer to the bottom edge of the flap.

3.  The organizer panel has surprisingly few options to organize.  It seems like it could be divided differently. Rather than having credit card slots (who really uses these?), why not divide the area to the left of the two pen slots into three medium-sized pockets?  This would allow you to insert a cell phone, sunglasses, and cables into those three slots. As it is, the credit card slots are too small and shallow for anything but cards and the single "large" pocket to the left of the card slots is unnecessarily big.  

I also think that there is no need to have a Velcro closure on an organizer a pocket (that is the tab hanging down in the middle) since there is already a flap covering the entire panel.  It unnecessarily limits accessibility and does not offer enough security to make it worth the accessibility limitation.

5.  The shoulder strap does not have 360 degree pivot points. When the shoulder strap inevitably becomes twisted, it can be a pain to un-twist it.

6.  The padded iPad pocket is great, but it is located inside of the main compartment along the back panel.  Because of the main flap, it is difficult to access the iPad. (If the bag has a top zipper that gave you access to the main compartment then it would not be such a big deal.)  Think Tank should have had an external iPad compartment much like they have in their SubUrban Disguise 30 bag.  

In a future version of this bag, Think Tank should consider switching the placement of the back panel pocket and this iPad pocket.  (The back panel pocket is shown below.)  Given how often I use it, having external access to my iPad is preferred.

7.  The camera equipment "insert" is not an insert.  In other words, it is not removable.  When you can remove the camera insert (such as with the Urban Approach's bigger cousin the City Walker 20), the bag has more flexibility in that it can be used as a conventional messenger bag. This could be done without significantly adding to the bulk of the bag.

Accessibility:

A bag's accessibility is rated on a 1 - 10 scale (10 = most).  Three major compartments are judged.  The accessibility scores for this bag:

Organizer pocket = 7.  The organizer pocket is behind the main flap.  This means that you need to undo the buckle and/or the velcro to get access to the pocket and then you need to undo the silly velcro tab that holds the pocket itself closed.  The problem is multiplied in that the flap is difficult to unbuckle because of the oddly high position of the buckle.  As always, it is much better to have the organizer pocket on the outside - maybe on the outside flap.

Main compartment = 6. The bag has a flap.   The problem with flaps (without a top access zipper) is that you need to hold them out of the way or flip them behind the bag when you want to access items.  This is even more of a headache when you are while wearing the bag and you are forced to hold the flap out of the way with one hand and grab your gear out with the other.  As mentioned above, the buckle placement makes opening up the bag an even bigger headache than necessary.

Laptop/tablet compartment = 7. There is no external laptop/tablet access. You need to go into the main compartment to access your tablet and this involves dealing with the flap.  Keep in mind that none of these issues would be issues if Think Tank had included a top flap zipper.

Accessibility Score: 6.7 out of 10.

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