Review of the MindShift BackLight 26L

Introduction

Finding a backpack for your photo gear is a lot like dating.  You spend a lot of time and energy looking for the perfect match, you find someone that seems to meet your standards, you take become an item, and then a few weeks later your partner’s flaws start to show themselves.  Eventually, those flaws are too big to overlook and you start the process all over again. 
Fortunately for me, I found my perfect mate and I have been happily married for 20 years. I have not been as lucky in finding the perfect photo backpack (and I have closet full of bags to prove it). To be fair, just like your spouse is not the only relationship in your life (after all, you benefit greatly from your relationships with your parents, kids, friends, etc.), there is no way that one can have a single camera backpack that can take care of all of your photographic needs.

So, to take this metaphor to an absurd level, I am currently dating the MindShift BackLight 26L. Though it is an excellent all around bag, indeed, I am starting to notice the flaws. So far, these flaw are not big enough to end the relationship. However, it is likely that the MindShift will drop into the “really good friend level” rather than the “photographic partner level.”

Mindshift is subsidiary of ThinkTank; if you are a photographer, you know this is a good thing.  ThinkTank makes some of the most thoughtful and well-made bags in the market and MindShift follows suit with its line of backpacks (I also reviewed their Rotation 180^o Horizon 34L here).   The headline feature of this bag is that it allows access to your gear without having to take the pack off your back as shown in my video tour above.

Photo backpacks like the Backlight 26L are “structured” packs.  This means that the main compartment for holding photo gear is surrounded by a perimeter “wall” of stiff foam.  The inside wall is lined with hook and loop material and the bag comes with a ton of fabric covered foam dividers that allow you to arrange the interior to suit your needs.  In this way, it is not unlike many panel-loading photo backpacks from Tenba, Lowepro, Tamrac, etc. 

So let’s look at: The Good, The Bad, and The Indifferent for the BackLight 26L. 

The Good

- Perfect size.  I once owned a huge Tenba backpack for my Pentax 67 system.  That was when I was younger, stronger, and stupid.  This pack can hold a lot of gear, but not your entire system.  This is a good thing.

- Great suspension system with substantial hip belt. This is really want makes it or breaks it in my book.  You can have a great bag design and then the company skimps on the suspension system making it uncomfortable to wear.  Lowepro set the standard with their excellent suspension systems. MindShift is consistently better than Lowepro.

- Excellent protection for your gear. Most packs do this well.  Panel-loading structured packs like the BackLight, do this best.

- Access without taking off pack. The greatest benefit of a photo backpack is the ability to carry your gear over a long distance with comfort.  The greatest cost of a photo backpack is that you typically need to remove it from your body to access your gear.  The BackLight (sort of) eliminates this as a cost.

-  Space for devices.  There is both a padded laptop and a separate padded tablet slot available. 

-  Webbing loops along shoulder straps.  This allows you to attach accessory pouches. Being able to get access to your phone, keys, or wallet without having to dig into your pack can be a godsend.

-  Space for other stuff. Most panel loading, structured packs have space for camera equipment and little else.  The BackLight has a relatively spacious set of pockets on the front of the pack (furthest from the suspension system) and deep, useful pockets on pack’s sides (that can be used for water bottles or a light tripod).

-  Flexible interior.  This is typical for structured packs.  For me, the key is that MindShift generously included more dividers than I will ever need.  I can tailor the inside of the pack to fit my unusual needs, but it can easily be designed to hold a conventional set of equipment.  

-  Well made.  This is entirely typical for MindShift (and by extension, ThinkTank).  This bag will not fall apart after rough handling. MindShift balanced weight and durability flawlessly.

-  It’s all in the details. There is a grab handle, bungee cord for holding open the panel (see video), great zippers with large zipper pulls, no deep zipper covers that impede the zipper movement, elastic loops for containing excess webbing, etc. Someone at MindShift is paying attention.

-  Stands on its own.  It is a shock how often I come across a backpack that cannot stand up on its own.  You think you have your pack sitting quietly in an upright position on the table or chair, and then you hear the heart stopping sound of your bag hitting the floor with your iPad and camera inside.  This will not happen (without a strong gust of wind) with the BackLight.

- Does not look like a photo bag.  The days of someone other than a working pro walking around Paris with his Domke F-2 are a thing of the past.  These days, most photo bags look like their “civilian” counterparts.  The BackLight looks like a daypack filled with your fleece jacket and lunch (or perhaps your climbing harness, in the right environment).  This is a real benefit in areas where photo gear theft is rampant.

The Bad

1.  Too stiff. The drawback for structured packs is that they do not conform to your back as well as an unstructured pack. Stiffness is not an issue of comfort, however.  The real issue is that the pack does not feel like it is a part of you when you move.  A stiff pack feels like it is cardboard box cantilevering off of your back.  As you inevitably twist from side to side, the momentum of the pack can carry you beyond your intended point of rotation.  A flexible pack (or a pack with a back conforming frame) can feel more that you are wearing a tight piece of clothing. 

2.  Good idea on paper.  The ability to swing your pack around to your front to access your gear sounds good on paper.  The reality is that, when loaded, the pack feels really heavy when you rotate it to your front and drop it forward.  The hip belt puts an enormous amount of pressure on your lower back as the weight of the pack is sitting way out in front of you. Even if you are only in this position for 20 seconds, another issue is that you suddenly increase your footprint by two times (and that’s being conservative).  In a crowd, that might be impossible and impolite.

2.  Volume of the pack.  A structured pack is great for protecting your gear and being able to sit upright without tipping over.  The tradeoff is that there is no way to shrink the volume of the pack even when you are not carrying a full load of gear. Additionally, the BackLight is relatively wide and its structure means that the pack has a lot of 90^o angles giving this pack a high volume.  Get used to saying “Excuse me” and “So sorry” as you disembark a crowded train, airplane, or bus as you will inevitably whack people on the way out. This is not a criticism specific to the BackLight, but it is something I want you to be aware of in regards to structured photo packs. It might have served MindShift well to have made the pack taller and narrower.

3.  Device slots are in a bad place.  The two slots for your computer and your iPad are near the front of the pack (far away from your back).  Your computer is the heaviest piece of equipment in your bag. Having this kind of weight far from your back means that the load feels heavier than it would be if it was closer to your back.  As a long-time backpacker, the number one packing rule is to put the heaviest stuff low and close to your back. The design of the BackLight prevents you from instituting this rule.

4. Top pocket is of limited use.  Having a pocket on the top of the bag is a great idea.  It’s a great place for fragile and oft used items (sun-glasses or cell phones). Unfortunately, the pocket on the BackLight is shallow and unusable for anything but a very flat device.  MindShift could have made it gusseted to expand upward or eliminated the foam wall to allow it to expand into the pack.  This would have made it a much more useful pocket. 

5.  Compression straps.  I understand that the straps that lay across the side of the pack are not really compression straps.  They are there if you decide to attach a tripod to the side of the pack. I am unlikely to carry a tripod on the side of a pack since it imbalances the load. The problem is that these “compression straps” impede the zippers that give you access to the large front pocket.  You have to either unclip the straps or pass the zipper pull beneath the strap – either way, this is a pain.  Unfortunately, there is no way to remove these straps so they will continue to impair one’s ability to access the main front pocket of the pack.

6.  The rainfly is not built-in. Sure they provide one and this is really generous of MindShift as there are many companies that make you pay for this aftermarket. So, this is not that big a deal given that I never use the rainfly.  However, I do prefer when a rainfly is built into the pack (i.e. sewn in).  It is one last thing to remember to pack, and one less thing to take up a prime place in your pack.

7.  No pockets on hip belt.  Again, not a big deal.  It would be nice since it gives you a place to put your phone, wallet, keys, etc., in an easily accessible place.  To be fair, few packs offer this option so it is tough to hold this against the BackLight 26L.  (That’s why it is number 7 in this list.)

The Indifferent

1.  There is a rainfly.  I know some people might think this is should be in “The Good,” but rainflies are a pain to use. I would prefer waterproof zippers and coated fabric.  I have yet to use a rainfly which might say something about what weather wimp I am.

2.  The tripod holding system.  It places your tripod too far from back. I am still waiting for design that allows the tripod to fit along a trough that runs just behind your backbone (but not in contact with your backbone, obviously).

3. Various lash straps, loops, and hooks along the face of the pack.  I have yet to feel the need to attach an ice axe to my photo backpack.

Conclusion

Overall, the Backlight 26L works, but it is not perfect.  If I was going to use a swing around design, perhaps a side access design would work better as the shoulder strap can then take more of the weight.  However, the Backlight 26L design does give you MUCH better access to your gear than a side access design.  Of course, to get access to your gear, you need a lot of space in front of you as you have to unzip the entire back zipper and expose all of your gear even if you only want to take out a single lens.  This is difficult to do in a large, moving crowd.  It also makes your gear visible to all – including thieves.

Weight distribution is not great if carrying your laptop.  It really does make the load feel heavier than it should as a lot of weight is far away from your back.  If not fully loaded, the pack is comfortable to wear since the suspension system is superb.

In the end, I do use this pack, but mostly for moving my gear from one place to another.  Inevitably, I find myself taking off the pack, lying it on the ground, moving around with the gear I need and then returning to the pack if I need to change up my gear.  Of course, this defeats the purpose of the on-the-run access that Mindshift markets about this pack.  The Backlight 26L has a flexible gear compartment that does a great job of holding and protecting my gear while in transit.  It’s less useful when I reach my destination.

However, if you are someone who is a fan of a divided, structured pack, this one is WAY better than the offerings from Tenba, Lowepro, and Tamrac.  It is better built than most of the competition and has a better all around design than the competition.