The 10 Minutes Crumpler Karachi Outpost Review

Here it is! The 10 minutes Crumpler Karachi Outpost review.

Crumpler has always been known to make good quality bags. And The Karachi Outpost is no exception at all. It’s well built and feels tough.

The design and features of the Karachi Outpost backpack seems simple at a quick glance. Even a closer inspection reveals only the main compartment and two semi-hidden side pockets. However, if you take a closer look at the backpack, you’d find that the designers at Crumpler had put in hours of thought into the Karachi Outpost. Firstly, the bag is really secure. The only way you can unzip the main compartment is to fold the shoulder straps over to the front and then unzip it down. Unless you somehow can stealthily move the zippers under the shoulder straps which would be weighed down on your shoulders

And to give you an idea how large the Karachi Outpost is, I’ve taken a side by side shot of it with my Lowepro Slingshot AW200. Yup. That’s how big it is, sitting at a good 56cm height and about 30cm wide. Huge isn’t it! But according to my brother, although it’s actually huge, it somehow does not seem that big thanks to it’s curvy design.

And as you can see above, Crumper’s attention to detail is truly amazing. The support buckle straps is removable in the most elegant manner. There are even clips to hold loose hanging straps into place too! Wow. I am truly impress by these little features!

Opening the main compartment reveals one of the brightest interior of a backpack I’ve ever seen. But surprisingly, it’s didn’t seem odd at all to me. Perhaps it’s just what you’d expect from the ‘Crumpler effect’. LOL! Anyways, as you can see from the photos, the notebook compartment is strapped to the back of the backpack while a meshed rubbery fabric covers the compartments for the camera equipments. The compartments are made of the usual reconfigurable Velcro ‘walls’ just as any other camera bags. In addition to all that, there’s also a small semi circle pouch-like compartment which is removable and has a mesh cover to protect it’s content from falling off. As you can see, the bag has been filled not only just with camera equipments, but also my work-related stuff, such as my work ties, external hard disk, notebook power cable, wireless mouse, retractable LAN cable and more. Afterall, it’s suppose to be my day-to-day work bag now.  But the versatility of the Karachi Outpost really shines here. It’s extremely reconfigurable. In fact, the whole camera compartment can be removed! So, if I ever need to use it as a traveling backpack, the Karachi Outpost would be my answer!

And remember the small buckle at the front of the backpack? Guess what that’s for. Yeap, it’s to hold your tripod. And it’s even tough enough to hold and carry my Manfrotto 190ProB! How cool is that!

The notebook compartment of the Karachi Outpost fits a 17″ wide screen notebook easily. With the Dell Latitude D620 that I’m using at work, the notebook fits into the bag with ease with some space to spare too! You’d also notice that there are also some compartments on the front of the notebook pouch for the pens and small items. But here’s the coolest part of the backpack. Even the notebook compartment is removable! Again, commenting on Crumpler’s attention to detail. I like the fact that they’ve even included the flap ‘close up’ the velcro that sticks the notebook securely on the back of the bag.

Is the Karachi Outpost worth the RM649 I paid at the KLCC Crumpler outlet? You bet! It’s one of the best constructed bag I’ve ever bought. And I’d recommend it to anyone who wants to bring both their notebook and their DSLR with them all the time. And it’s not all just about the features of the backpack. Even at full load of almost 10KGs(!!!), the bag feels very comfortable to carry with the weight well distributed over my back. And if you noticed the groove on the middle of the backpack, that’s apparently to prevent any weight of the bag to be distributed to the spine area. Wow. Talk about ergonomics!

So there you go, a quick 10 Minutes review of the Karachi Outpost. Feel free to drop a comments if you want to know more about this backpack. I’d be happy to tell you what you’d like to know!