Photo Backpack Question

i'm in the same boat..but I'm thinking about just saving up for an f stop tilopa. I've heard they are having problems getting their product from asia though. If I was you I would just save up for an f stop bag. I've been looking as well and havent found anything that will provide the camera room along with all the backcountry gear.

the f-stop lotus looks nice, too bad they don't show you the insides of it

I took my mini trekker skiing one time, it felt weird and it was heavy. I had a 1nhs with 2 lenses, and a bronica with two lenses and i fell and was like blahhhadaskdhasfdgashag. I was so scared.

But i think your hopes of finding a non-bulky one are slim, you could always get one thats meant to store a single body with a tele lens and maybe find a way to put your other stuff in. Or just get the dakine one, sounds like a good idea.

Lowepro's Primus AW

dope if it wasn't 279 bucks

mission was pretty cheap on bc.com, i picked it up, if i don't like it then i'll send it back

Pretty much every dakine pack I have used is only good for carrying school stuff.
The sequence blows.

I am going to assume you are only talking  short tours, nothing longer then an extended day.

In that case I would suggest one of two things:
save up for an f-stop, their dope and worth it. carry way better then any other camera packs out there.
or
save up and get a nice ski pack that either has a top lid opening design or back access. Then get/make a small camera block or one of those holster thingies.

the key words are save up. I have never found it to be a good idea to skimp on your pack if your carrying much at all or traveling a long distance. Yes, their are some nice packs that are cheaper, but generally good packs cost a bit more.

Since you plan on using it for touring and skiing I would strongly suggest getting one that was made with that in mind. Lowepro, think tank, and other camera  makes some great packs, but they don't carry skis, avy gear, or other non camera stuff very well.

If you do decide to go with option B here are some I suggest:
The BD Outlaw is a good one for smaller tours, it has an internal frame, plus you can get it with an avalung which is nice.
Osprey makes some nice ones too. I would look into their packs as well.

majority of my tours are like around 2-5 hours

Dakine Camera block is excessively large. Unnecessarily deep, and just bulky. Look at other camera blocks out there that would better hold your gear. (SLR and two lenses) thus leaving you more room for an extra layer spare food etc.

i don't use an attached shovel and probe, i use a regular probe but i store it in my shovel handle when i'm not using it

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yeah well right now i use the original mammut respect pack that i absolutely love so i want to find a way to put my camera in that. i have a dakine pack that i like for skiing inbounds/slackcountry if i want to bring a little avy gear but it's absolutely tiny, it's just nice and compact but i hate the bigger dakine's. i got a good suggestion on tgr and that's to take a kid's lunchbox that has shapable foam and making that into a camera block but i'm looking to hold a camera, 7 inch lens, and possibly another lens as well so everything would just clunk around in there if it even fit

this..I lost my probe and shovel when I ran away from my bag when a slide was coming down.

it was super fun trying to find my gear without a shovel or a probe

the mission pack holds all my gear and is pretty comfortable, i'm pretty stoked about it right now