Manfrotto bp-30bb vs bp-20bb

For the past few years I’ve been using a Pelican im20 case which has served me well, it’s been a great case and with a lifetime warranty for peace of mind was a good investment at the time. 

In resent months I’ve been casually thinking of changing my case to a backpack, the upside being that the backpack would be smaller but more easier to handle and lighter as all of my equipment wouldn’t be in the the bag. 

I eventually decided on Manftotto being my brand of choice due to the quality of the products I already own and use on a regular basis. 

So.... what did I buy ? Firstly I purchased the Manfrotto bp-20bb from Amazon priced at £89, I watched the video and saw how much gear you could cram into this Mary Poppins bag. 

I was so wrong !!!! 

The bp-20bb bag is NOT designed to fit absolutely any professional kit what so ever as you will see from the images below, although I did watch their video had I inspected it in more detail I would have noticed the lack of professional kit going inside the bag.  

Back online and a Manfrotto bp-30bb was on its way, I was doing my best to stay away from the bp-50bb as this was probably geared more for SAS soldier use only. 

The bag arrived and the camera is placed inside and I hit my first stumbling block, my Canon 1dx mark ii won’t fit due to me having a Spider holster clip attached.  

No worries all I’ve done is tilt the camera to the side and hey presto we’re back in the game, personally this bag feels extremely well made but will not fit all my equipment inside. 

Am I happy with it ? 

Yes and here is why.... 

I could decide to go for the monster bp-50bb backpack that would no doubt fit all my kit in along with my 1 year old son but I enjoy the peace and quiet away from my kids that much the 30 just has to work for me ;-)

I’ve decided the best way to make this work for me is to overcome the need to have all my kit with me at once, I’ve trawled my LightRoom catalogues and seen the lenses I use during a wedding ceremony and settled for the following kit knowing I have enough in my bag to allow for a camera to fail and a lens to break and I can still continue to capture the wedding ceremony with no interruptions, yes I’m always going to want more equipment with me but that’s just the nature of the beast. 

I settled on having the perfect bag that’s light weight and stores what I need most, I suppose if I went for the bigger bag I’d moan it’s too heavy and bulky, at least now I can moan i’ve not got the fisheye lens I never use and my 3rd flash gun I would never want during a wedding ceremony anyway. 

The rest of my kit will now stay in a locked room at the wedding venue in the old Plican case there for if I ever need that fisheye lens or 3rd flash gun.