Gadling Gear Review: Acme Made Camera Bags

by Kraig Becker on

One of my biggest concerns when traveling is making sure that my expensive camera gear is well protected from harm. In the hustle and bustle of packing, rushing to the airport and flying to our eventual destination, a lot can happen to our photography equipment, even when it remains in our possession. There is nothing worse than embarking on that trip of a lifetime only to find your camera isn’t working when you arrive.

A good camera bag not only helps prevent accidental damage to our gear but also keeps us well organized too. Carrying extra lenses, memory cards, external flashes and other photography equipment can be a bulky and cumbersome affair, but a good bag can lighten the load and make it easy to find all of those important items when you need them. A well-organized photographer is less likely to miss the important shots and do a better job of capturing the moment.

New camera bags from Acme Made offer travelers the protection and organization they need in stylish and distinctive packages. Their Montgomery Street line of packs have a retro look with modern sensibilities that allow them to stand out in the crowd without sacrificing function for form. Here’s a look at three of these bags that were designed with the traveling photographer in mind.

Montgomery Street Backpack ($99.99)
The largest entry into the Montgomery Street line-up is the Backpack, a versatile bag with plenty of room for just about everything you’ll want to take with you when traveling. Designed for carrying a DSLR or the increasingly popular compact system cameras (CSC), this pack offers well-padded compartments and pockets for camera bodies, lenses and more. A dedicated laptop sleeve is perfect for carrying a 13-inch MacBook, ultrabook or tablet, while organizational pockets hold travel essentials such as a smartphone, passport and other important items.

Putting this bag to the test in the field left me very impressed with its overall quality. It is built with fabrics designed to resist the wear and tear that comes along with travel, while still managing to provide ample protection for all of the important gear inside. Magnetic snaps and high-quality zippers seal up pockets and compartments nicely, while Acme’s FlexFold System allows users to adjust and expand the interior to their needs. When not in use, the Backpack also folds down to a compact size, making it easy to store and transport. The Backpack is capable of carrying a CSC camera and two extra lenses or one DSLR and a single additional lens. That makes it a perfect choice for most travelers but could be a bit too confining for those with more photography gear. This won’t be a problem for most, however, and when you add in the ability to carry a laptop or tablet – as well as all the cables, batteries and chargers you’ll need for the road – you end up with a pack that performs above and beyond expectations.

Those who like to travel light and are looking for a stylish, compact bag will absolutely love the Montgomery Street Backpack. It provides ample storage space for plenty of gear and its versatile nature ensures that it can accompany us on many different travel adventures.

Montgomery Street Courier ($79.99)
Acme Made’s Montgomery Street Courier shares much in common with the larger Backpack. There is a distinct look about it that quickly identifies both bags as being part of the same line and their feature sets are very similar. The Courier is capable of carrying mostly the same load as its larger counterpart, offering room for a compact camera system body and two extra lenses or a DSLR and one additional lens. It also offers organizational pockets for travel documents, a smartphone and other items that you’ll want to keep close at hand. This bag even includes the FlexFold System, which makes it a breeze to expand the interior to hold more items when necessary.

But the Courier is designed to be a smaller camera bag than the Backpack and as such, some compromises had to be made. The biggest difference is that the Courier doesn’t have enough space for a laptop. It does include a quilted sleeve with enough room for a tablet such as an iPad, but travelers using this bag will need to leave their laptops at home.

The other main difference between the two bags is that the Courier is a sling pack designed to be worn over the shoulder. This adds a level of accessibility that isn’t found in a backpack, as it is easy to grab a camera, lens or new memory card without ever taking the bag off. This makes it a very convenient option for travelers, who often need to access their photography equipment and other gear on a moment’s notice.

The Courier is made from the same high-quality materials as the Backpack and features the same zippers and magnetic snaps as well. For all intents and purposes, it resembles the larger bag in every way, just in a scaled-down fashion and with a shoulder sling. This makes it a great, yet uncompromising, alternative.

Montgomery Street Kit Bag ($59.99)
For the ultimate in compact camera packs, the Montgomery Street Kit Bag is the way to go. While it doesn’t look exactly like the Backpack or Courier, the family resemblance is still undeniable. Like those other bags, the Kit Bag is made of tough, durable fabrics that are designed to weather the challenges of travel and stay attractive and stylish for years to come. The interior is lined with quilted fabrics to protect its contents and the twin zippers that run along the stop are smooth and easy to operate.

This small camera bag is especially useful for CSC cameras, providing space for a body and two lenses. It’ll also hold a DSLR body and a single lens as well, although larger zoom lenses may be a bit cramped. Exterior pockets can accommodate a smartphone and passport, although unsurprisingly there isn’t much room for anything else.

Although the Kit Bag does come with a shoulder strap, I found this pack worked best inside another bag. It is perfect for storing camera equipment when checking luggage or for safe storage inside a larger backpack. It is the perfect option for those who don’t carry a lot of camera gear with them when they travel, but still want a bag to keep things safe and organized.

All three of these camera bags are excellent choices for travelers looking to take their precious camera gear with them on the road. They are all affordable, extremely well made and provide plenty of versatility. Serious photographers will want one of each as part of their gear options but all three are individually outstanding as well. Each fits its own niche and you can’t go wrong with any of the bags in the Montgomery Street lineup.

[Photo Credit: Acme Made]
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Photo Of The Day: The Master Of The French Bistro

by Anna Brones on


A Parisian restaurant or bistro often gets its charm and ambience thanks to its waiters. They are the ones that control the scene, passing out espressos and early afternoon beers. If you speak a little French, they’re easy to schmooze. They’ll encourage you to get the carafe of house red with lunch and they’ll probably convince you to get dessert as well.

This photo by Flickr user jrodmanjr – aptly titled “Master of his Domain” – captures the essence of a Parisian waiter, the master of a culinary scene that is so iconic in the City of Light.

Do you have a photo that captures the essence of a place? Submit your photo to the Gadling Flickr pool for your chance to be on Photo of the Day.

[Photo Credit: jrodmanjr]

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Airline Fees Soar, Tap Travelers For Billions

by Chris Owen on

Airline fees are hard to escape, but its not like we don’t try. Many travelers today have adapted to a world of baggage fees, service fees and in-flight fees, accepting them as part of the deal. Others avoid fees when they can by carrying on luggage rather than checking it or avoiding in person/over-the-phone fees by making changes on line. But even those savvy travelers can’t seem to stay ahead of the game, and for good reason. A recent study found over 50 domestic airline changes in 2012.

These fees are a considerable source of revenue for airlines, bringing in an estimated $36.1 billion in 2012, an 11% increase over 2011. To keep that revenue action happening, airlines have increased or changed the definition of fees. Bundling or un-bundling fees has had a negative impact as well.

“These changes have had a tremendous impact on U.S. travelers, especially on families. Travelers really have to be extra cautious when booking a flight. U.S. carriers are becoming creative at charging consumers extra fees,” says Alicia Jao, VP Travel Media at TravelNerd on their web site, that features the only airline fees comparison and search tool.TravelNerd compared the fees of major U.S. airlines in January 2013 to those reported by the airlines throughout 2012. What they found were over 50 changes in fees since last year.

Direct fee increases made up 36 of the 52 changes noted. Bundling or unbundling of fees, along with increasing fee price ranges and redefining fee policies added up to more fees for travelers.

“A new trend that we’re currently seeing is carriers bundling and tiering services,” says Jao. “This practice is not only more confusing for travelers, but it also complicates price comparison. Even airlines that have touted fewer fees are joining the game, indicating only more fees in 2013.”

Singled out as notorious for charging fees in the study? Ultra-low cost airlines Spirit Airlines and Allegiant Air. Given kudos? United Airlines, which actually lowered their overweight bag fees from $200 to $100 for bags 51-70 pounds and from $400 to $200 for bags 71-100 pounds.

Looking for ways to save on airline fees? Check this quick video for some budget travel tips:

[Photo Credit: United Airlines]

Intense National Geographic Series, ‘Locked Up Abroad,’ Documents Inept Travelers

by Laurel Miller on

Last week’s arrest of diaper-wearing cocaine smugglers at JFK proved more laughable than horrifying to those not directly involved. Drug busts are in the media so often, we rarely pay attention to them. They’re certainly not something I care about.

Yet, I’ve recently become obsessed with a National Geographic show called “Locked Up Abroad.” I don’t recall hearing about this harrowing documentary series when it first aired in 2007, but it caught my eye about a month ago, during a late-night Netflix bender. It’s now in its sixth season on the National Geographic Channel.

Each episode profiles one or two subjects, most of whom have been imprisoned in developing nations. While a few episodes detail hostage and other kidnapping situations (Warning: if you’re at all easily disturbed, please don’t watch … nightmares are almost guaranteed), most involve drug smuggling gone awry.

As a die-hard adventure traveler, I find “Locked Up Abroad” absorbing (that’s not an intentional diaper pun) because it’s a real-life dramatization of my worst fears. As a solo female wanderer, I can’t help but worry sometimes about kidnapping or becoming an inadvertent drug mule, no matter how self-aware I try to be. Many of the episodes on “Locked Up Abroad,” however, involve people with the intellect of dead hamsters, and it’s hard to feel much in the way of empathy, given their greed and gullibility.Still, it’s hard to resist a good prison story, especially when it involves South America or Bangladesh, and pasty, bespectacled English blokes or naive teenage girls from small-town Texas. The psychology behind why these people take such enormous risks, and how they manage to survive in inhospitable and downright inhumane conditions is fascinating.

Perhaps I’ve just watched “Midnight Express,” “Brokedown Palace,” and “Return to Paradise” one too many times, but I’ve often wondered how I’d fare in such a situation, and I hope I never have to find out. But documentaries like “Locked Up Abroad” are more than just sensationalism. They’re a window into our desperate, greedy, grubby little souls, as well as testimony to the will to survive.

For some reason, YouTube and National Geographic Channel video links are disabled or broken, so if you want to check out some footage, click here.

[Photo credit: Flickr user Svadilfari]

Space Travel For All Of Us Is Closer Than You Think

by Chris Owen on

Space travel for all of us is a step closer today, after a conference of space industry engineers, economists, future astronauts and top Obama Administration officials met at Stanford University for a “Space Entrepreneurship” conference. Buying into the idea of privatized spaceflight rather than bulky, slow NASA programs, space industry leaders seem to have a clear vision of the future.

“We are placing our bets on American industry,” said Lori Garver, deputy administrator for NASA in a Mercury News report. “Cargo flights under way are developing the capability of launching people to space from the U.S. on privately owned and operated rockets over the next three years.”

Through a variety of private enterprises, the near future of space travel will first call on “space taxis” that NASA would buy space on for astronauts while they focus more on the unmanned exploration of deep outer space.

Let’s meet the players:

Boeing has partnered with a company called Space Adventures in a bid to provide transportation services to destinations in low Earth orbit, providing transportation to the International Space Station and future platforms in space at a cost far less than other options.

Bigelow Aerospace is working on the solar system’s first private space station, a 36-person modular station for nations of the world that do not have the resources to build their own space station. A 30-day trip is estimated to cost about $25 million per person.

Virgin Galactic has 500 people signed up at $200,000 a seat to go 50,000 feet up on a 1.5-hour flight that launches them into outer space at four times the speed of sound for a few minutes before returning to Earth.

XCOR Aerospace has a $95,000 trip that goes even higher, up to 100,000 feet. On this one, the engines turn off after reaching Mac 3.5, passengers coast for a few minutes then glide back down to earth.

It’s all in line with a new direction for the space program first outlined by president Obama in 2011 that canceled NASA’s current program at the time that would have sent astronauts back to the moon.



[Photo credit- Flickr user n0nick]