Kata 3N1-20 vs Tenba Shootout Medium

Naturally, I woke up at 0-dark-thirty one morning to go on a long photo excursion. While packing my gear, I decided that it was time for a new bag.  My venerable Boda Dry bag (which still holds the longest record as my favorite take-everywhere photo bag) wasn’t cutting it for long hikes anymore.

For those not familiar with the Boda bag, it is more of a "lens satchel" and not a "camera bag". The Boda is a fantastic bag, but is built with the sole purpose of only holding lenses, not camera bodies and scads of gear.  Being a shoulder sling bag, it was great (and still is great) for lightly packed, short trips where you know you’re only going to need one to three lenses and some small accessories (and maybe a speedlight in the side pocket). But after walking for hours and hours on end, the Boda tended to make me feel lopsided and made my one shoulder slightly sore.  Usually I’d just deal with it by switching the bag from my right to left shoulder, which would get old after a while, but was do-able.  Hanging low at my hip, it was always at the ready, offering nice fast access to my 70-200mm f2.8 (with the hood facing forward!) plus one or two other lenses, usually the 16-35mm f2.8 or 24-70mm f2.8 and possibly a fast prime. She did a good job, but was a tad heavy for a one-shoulder sling when fully loaded.

I decided I didn’t want a really sore shoulder and neck anymore when I got home, or the irritation of the constant swaying of the Boda at my hip. I wanted to try something different – something that let me carry a little more "on my back" than "on my hip" – so I started looking around the net for reviews on camera bags. Let me say from the start that I’ve always hated backpacks for photography gear because you can’t get at your gear quickly enough.  They’re more comfortable for sure, but once you’ve got them packed it’s a real ordeal to change a lens or get something out. I didn’t want to consider a backpack at all. My goal was to be able to carry a little bit more gear while still being able to change a lens while I was walking or moving, without having to physically take off a backpack – so the "one-strap sling backpack" style seemed to fit the bill pretty well… enter the Tenba Shootout (medium).

The Tenba Shootout is a hybrid of sorts – half sling, half backpack. The unique feature and appeal of bags like this is the ability to rotate the bag around your torso so they’re in front of you with easy access to your gear. When you’re done, just pull on the strap and yank it around onto your back again.  Simple enough, right? Well, yes and no.  The idea is fantastic, and being able to rotate the bag around and grab your gear from inside works incredibly well. It felt very ergonomic and user friendly. There was plenty of room inside, room to spare to be honest. The quality of the materials on the Tenba Shootout were top notch, and I REALLY like the weather sealed zippers, very similar to the ones on the Boda bag. They made sure no dust, dirt, sand or moisture was coming in unannounced. Padding for your gear (and for your back) was just right, and there were decent pockets to put just about everything. I thought I had found my new favorite bag. 

But after taking it out in the field a few times, my shoulder and I started to think otherwise. The one big nagging complaint that I have about the Tenba Shootout is that it’s still a sling-bag. Fully loaded, the Tenba can hold quite a bit. This means that at some point during the day, one of your shoulders is still going to end up screaming at you – and with the Tenba Shootout it will always be your right shoulder. Normally, you’d just be able to switch the strap to your other side and live with it.  Oh, but not with the Shootout.  The Achilles heel of this bag is that damn sling strap and the harsh reality that it’s curved in one direction only – meaning that you can’t switch from left to right shoulder.  You put it on one way, every time – always on your right shoulder, so that it swings around your left flank for access. Massive design fail.  If it weren’t for that goddamn one-directional single-sided-sling, the Tenba would be my perfect bag.  I’ve decided to keep the Tenba however, because I could easily and comfortably fit my 300 2.8 + 1DIII inside it for short-term transport, but I knew I had to keep looking for the right bag.

I knew sling bags were out. Couldn’t stand the one strap/one shoulder ordeal. Backpacks were out because of their inaccessibility, but I knew I needed the load bearing comfort that only a double strap backpack could provide.  Frustrated, I kept looking and stumbled across the Kata 3N1 series. It looked unique and promising, so I gave it a try. The easiest way to describe the Kata 3N1-20 is to look at the Tenba Shootout and imagine it with two straps instead of one (like a traditional backpack).  Each strap can be disconnected at the bottom with a quick release clip, allowing many different configurations. Hence the name "3N1". You can use one strap and carry it as a sling bag, or you can use both straps and use it as a traditional backpack, or you can cross both straps in an "X" across your chest. This last configuration is interesting because you get the weight distribution of a two strap system, with the convenience of a sling. By reaching down and disconnecting one of the straps, you can swing the bag around your torso on either side, just like the Tenba Shootout. At first I was skeptical about being able to swing it around in time to swap a lens, but sure enough, it can be done pretty easily. Not as easily as the Tenba, but life’s full of compromise. Another strong selling point for me was that the Kata 3N1-20 is almost the same size as the Tenba Shootout. I think there may be a difference of a half inch in either the height or width, but they’re almost the same exact size. For a while, I had a hard time deciding between the 3N1-20 or the 3N1-30 which is a bit bigger.  In the end I decided to stick with the 3N1-20 since I didn’t want to carry a whole lot more than what I had fit in the Tenba. Travelling lighter has been a big goal for me lately.

The build quality and materials are very solid on this bag, as usual from Kata. I won’t bore you with a lot of technical details, you can find all of them here. The 3n1-20 is very similar in functionality to the Tenba Shootout, with the notable exception that there’s access on both sides, right and left. There are really only a few minor things that I can nitpick about with this bag… The padding is a bit thicker and bulkier, which I’m not terribly fond of. The zippers are not weather sealed, and there’s an annoying (albeit small) gap where the side access panels close with a quick release latch. The foam inserts are a little weird to line up, and look like they’re really intended to hold a camera body in place, not lenses only. Other than those things, the Kata 3N1-20 is a great bag that wins hands down in the field test for comfort – which is what I was after in the first place.  I won’t say that I couldn’t feel it on my back at all, but it was so much more comfortable to carry my gear all day in while retaining relatively quick access to it.

Is it perfect? No. Is it good enough for longer hikes? By far, yes. It’s diversity and ability to morph into different ways of carrying it are what keeps the Kata 3N1-20 as my new favorite general-purpose bag. The Tenba is still the runner up, and very useful for short trips, or when the weather turns totally foul.