Think Tank Darklight 20L: Military Style Meets Practical Design

Darklight 20L

[00:00:00] Let’s talk about this Darklight 20 liter from Think Tank Photo.

Scott Wyden Kivowitz: Hello friends. So I just got back from WPPI in Las Vegas and I packed the Darklight 20 liter from Think Tank Photo, this brand new bag that they just released, which has a military vibe to it. I packed everything into this, everything that I brought to WPPI, besides my clothes, some clothes were actually as, as well, along with camera and microphones and a whole bunch of other accessories.

A, a, a, an LED, light, et cetera. first of all, I wanna give you a quick look at the bag before I left for the trip. So we’re gonna do a quick rewind. You’re gonna see a a, my first look at the bag, and then when we come back, share my thoughts on this bag.

This bag [00:01:00] is unlike anything Think Tank has done before, but in a way goes back to their roots, simple designs, but also this sort of rugged design.

This bag, it has a top open spot right here. So I could grab the zipper and I can open the top and get right to my camera right from here. And I can also get right to my laptop right from here as well. And I’ll get to the laptop part in a second,

also. Now the camera can fit a 500 millimeter lens. If all you have is the one camera and a 500 millimeter straight down to the bottom, it could hold a lot of equipment. As we get to the inside, you’ll see what I mean. But we close that up on the lid is on the top. You also have a bunch of accessory loops, which means I could strap in, tie in a tripod, I could tie in a blanket, I could tie in a sleeping bag, I could tie something.

I [00:02:00] need some accessory to the top of the bag right on the lid if I want to, or I can just attach a pouch of some sort as well. So there’s also a zipper up here for a wallet, for keys, for sunglasses, whatever it might be. I love that each of the zippers has this beautiful tie with sort of this like rubbery type grip onto it.

So if you’re wearing gloves, you can still easily grab the zippers. There’s no loops. Uh, like some bags do. Some of my mind shift bags from Think Tank have loops. Which has its place, but I love this sort of more, again, military type design. Now this is the green version. This also comes in all black, but the, the version that Think Tank sent me, they did send me this bag.

this version is green and black, which I really do And to make it not a faux military bag because they’re not trying to trick anybody into thinking it is a military bag. It’s not your [00:03:00] typical camouflage green. It’s very close, but it’s not the exact green. Okay? you’ve got the top part. You can quickly get to your camera right from there.

You also have this outer part here, okay? Now, you might think from first glance that if I was to unzip this, you’re gonna get to the inside. You’re not. This is. Just like a little pocket. I could put an iPad here, I could put a book. there’s a zip pouch here as well, right on the lid, but it’s got a divider here.

So I got, for example, a mask, a little notebook. You can have a bunch of things in here. This is where, when I’m going on an airplane, I’m keeping the things I need really accessible while I’m on flight. things like. Uh, a cable to charge my phone or things like a notepad or tissues or my mask, some mitts, things like that I’m keeping here, but I could also throw in a memory card, wallet extra batteries.

I’ve got pens in here as well. I have an extra battery. I actually have some memory [00:04:00] cards. So you could put a bunch of things like that in, in that spot. Now again, it does not get to the inside. There’s no way to get inside the bag from here. So if you are out traveling, yes, somebody could go like this and unzip and get it from here, but they’re not getting to the rest of the equipment.

if somebody was to do this while it’s on your back, they’re not getting to the rest of the equipment from from the outside. Okay? Now, also right here. you’ve got the webbing here, and this webbing is for a bunch of different accessories. Right now, Think Tank doesn’t have accessories available for purchase for this, but if you were to look up military, pouches, they’re actually designed for this type of webbing.

And, there’s also, part of the webbing also has the Velcro, so I can actually put pa patch as well. So watch this.

I can put patches similar to, again, military bags. There’s a spot for, for patches too. This [00:05:00] side you have, again, accessory loops. So for example, I could take a pouch from Think Tank that they already have and get it right here on the side.

I also have a water bottle pouch, which I don’t necessarily need, but I’ll show you why. Sometimes that could be handy in a minute. but yeah, I got extra storage right here now. there’s also the cinch is here, so if I was to put, let’s say a tripod, there’s no bottom piece to, for the leg to sit in, but if I was to loop the tripod into here, I could cinch it down as well.

Or again, a blanket, a jacket, anything like that. These aren’t clipped type cinch like you’ll see on the other side, but they are cinched, so I can tighten them around an object. Now, on the other side, here you have the. The clasp style, cinch right at the top. The bottom is a regular cinch. I have a middle one as well, and then I have my pocket for either a water bottle or a tripod leg that can then tighten down.

So here’s why I’m saying if you have a tripod [00:06:00] on this side, I could put a water bottle pouch on this side and then have a water bottle with me as well. And I do have Think Tank’s, water bottle pouch, which is actually again designed for their belt system, but works perfect. On this bag. In fact, I have already tested and put both this and the water bottle one.

And, it fits with a little bit of, it’s a little tight, but it, but it works. Okay. Now before I move on to the inside, I wanna show you the typical Think Tank style, shoulder, pads. And they’re very soft cushiony. They have the chest, um. System here. So you could, they have the chest system here so I can tighten it around my chest.

and it also has loops here, so if I wanna do some accessories from that, Think Tank has a wide range of accessories. the bottom, I did take these off already, but the bottom has a waist belt system that can be looped in and removed. It’s a very simple [00:07:00] design. I would use this if I was going on a hike.

I do not use it when I am traveling, just ’cause it just dangles. There’s nowhere for me to put it. I am actually about to bring this on the road, which is why I removed them. I don’t want them flapping around as I’m going through TSA as I’m at an airport, things like that. I don’t need it for this trip, so I have removed them.

Speaking of travel, right here is the. Um, part that can go over your luggage handle and it just slips right in your bag will sit upright and perfect, no problem. Um,

Now, on the inside, what you have is a very cushioned laptop sleeve, just un Velcro slide in your laptop. It can fit a up to a 16 inch laptop. I have a 14 inch, so it’s gonna fit perfectly in here. And then as of course, in your typical Think Tank fashion, you got this beautiful interior with everything is [00:08:00] adjustable to where you need it.

So I’m gonna have my, for this trip in particular, I’m gonna have my Nikon ZF at the top. Then I’m gonna be fitting in all of my accessories where I need all mixed in, throughout. so for example, the 35 millimeters on here’s my 85. I can fit in my headphones, I can fit in, my battery chargers. I can fit in my memory card wallets as well.

Again, like I said, on the outside, I put stuff where I need for the airplane, so everything I need on the inside will be for the camera. So I’m not gonna load it up right, right now because I still have time before I need to pack. But I, I wanted to show you what that looked like. It’s very typical Think Tank fashion, beautiful design, high quality materials.

and I love the fact this is the first time in a while that I’ve been testing a bag from Think Tank that’s for camera equipment where the laptop is actually on the inside, on [00:09:00] your back rather than the outside, which. Many times when you’re going on a plane, I find that it fits better when the ca, when the bag is laying on its bottom, or if you’re like somewhere in public and you put your bag down, oftentimes it flops to the, to the, to the outside of the bag, which means that it’s all the weights on your laptop. Alright friends, so this bag held a lot of stuff. The thing that really intrigued me about this was one, the military vibe

that it gave, right? So it has this military look but wasn’t too much of an impersonation of a military bag.

The other thing that intrigued me was that so many Think Tank bags, the laptop is on the outside and this one is on the inside, which I really like. ’cause I prefer it to be the laptop against my back instead of on the outside. So if I put the bag down like this, the laptop isn’t on the ground. Okay. So those [00:10:00] two things really intriguing about the bag.

Now I’ve got some things that I love about the bag. I have some things I wish could be improved about the bag. and let’s dig into that. The inside of the bag, like any Think Tank bag, held a lot of things. I was very happy with the fact that it held my camera with a lens only brought one lens.

With a GoPro,it held my camera and a lens, only one lens I packed, but it could hold more a Small Rig LED flashlight, RGB light,DJI mic two and a whole bunch of accessories all in here, plus all the snacks I had for the airplane. I had a change of clothes resting on top my headphones for the airplane, and a whole bunch of stuff that I can easily just grab and go as I needed.

I also had a water bottle in the pocket. Now this is where one thing that I wish would be improved would be the water bottle pocket, which is also a tripod pocket, for the leg the tripod. I wish it had a little more,flexibility to it, a [00:11:00] little more stretch to it. the fabric is very tight.

It has a little bit of give, but the water bottle was a tight squeeze. Typically with a Think Tank bag. I have no problem getting it in there. This was a tight squeeze, which I wish wasn’t as big of a problem. I also wish there was another one on the other side. Now I do have the loops here, so I actually could attach, a Think Tank,water bottle pouch

for the belt system, which fits perfectly on here, but I can just barely fit the other pouch that I have, as well attached to this side, so there’s that. I wish that these were also the quick release style versus just a permanent fixture here, because yes, I can loosen it, but sometimes for example, when I had the water bottle here.

Stringing this through the top of the water bottle. So just in case it popped out while it was on the side or something, this still had my water bottle attached. So I do wish that this had one as well, [00:12:00] because if I wanted to attach a tripod or a pod to the other side, it would be nice to have that capability to quickly release and disconnect.

The other thing was this came in really useful. At the top, what I wound up doing is I have a jacket that can go inside out, which acted as a pillow as well for my travels, and I actually had it attached with a carabiner here and here to hold it on the top of the bag. and it was perfect for that situation.

The last thing that I wish was a little bit better, because there’s not a lot of storage in this bag besides from the internal compartment for the camera equipment. The zip storage here. I wish also had a little bit of flexibility to add more things to it is very tight. Again, this is probably on purpose.

It probably intentional. ’cause if you’re attaching things you don’t want it. if you’re attaching with the Molly system here, you’re not gonna want all this give. [00:13:00] But at the same time, I wish that it had a little bit of give. Or maybe that it was an expandable right with two zips, because then I can make this part a little bit deeper and give me more places to store because I wound up putting a lot in here, but this could also not hold too much.

there’s that. Finally, I wish the top compartment here also had a little mesh pocket to hold some things. So I would have one here and then one on the inside here. But otherwise, this bag is amazing. This is now gonna be a daily camera bag for sure. in my toolbox,that I use on a regular basis.

This might be my bag for when I photograph proposals. We will see. it’s also worth noting I took off the waist pads here, for the trip, but I did put ’em back on. They go on and off very easily, but I took ’em off for the trip, put ’em back on here. Oh, and by the way, last. While I’m looking at it, so we have the port here [00:14:00] so it can sit on top of your rolling luggage and go over the handle.

I find it’s a little tight. I wish this had a little more stretch to it as well because it is very tight. And actually on my roller, I didn’t use a Think Tank roller for this strip, I use a different roller, so I will have to try it on the Think Tank roller to see if it’s, not as tight, but on my.

Regular four wheel roller luggage for my clothes. This, it did fit over it, but it was extremely tight to put on and off. And when you’re trying to like rush to grab your luggage off of the, the top end of the airplane and then throw your bag on top, it was getting a little frustrating. So I wound up wearing the bag off the plane, and then when I got out off the plane back into the airport, I would pause.

Take the time to put this on there and then keep rolling. So there was that. Not the end of the world, but just a little thing for future development to give that a little more space. but I love the bag has this as well. If you like the military style bags [00:15:00] 100%,

this bag is fantastic. There are two sizes of this. This is the bigger version. The smaller version cannot fit a laptop. It can fit an iPad, I believe, but it cannot fit a laptop, so check that out. It is the Darklight Series bags, Darklight 20 l.

Now it’s also worth noting that they are showing on their marketing materials that there are pouches. I am assuming they are designing their own pouches for this line of bags, as that look more military because they have their pouches that are for their belt system, which are not designed to look militaryesque.

So take that as you will. Maybe we’ll see them. Maybe we won’t. I hope we do, because. That would be really fun if Think Tank made it so fantastic product from Think Tank like always. Of course, it’s backed by their no Rhetoric lifetime warranty, so if there was ever a problem with the bag, you just contact them and they’re going to handle it for you.

Again, no problems. Can’t go wrong with Think Tank.