Digital Home Thoughts: Lowepro's Cirrus TLZ 25: Only Small DLRs Need Apply

Traveling light with a DSLR is somewhat of a paradox, but there are ways you can lighten the load. One way is to minimize the overall weight of what you're carrying is to pack your DSLR and a single lens - that's it. I decided I wanted to do just that, so I contacted Lowepro and requested their Cirrus TLZ 25 bag since it seemed like the best option for carrying only my DSLR with a single lens. The TLZ 25, the biggest version of this bag they offer, is available in black or Ultramarine Blue. I was sent the latter - it's a really nice colour of blue. The MSRP of this bag is $43.95, but it can be purchased from Amazon.com for $29.95 [Affiliate]. The internal pouch measures 6.1 inches wide by 4.1 inches high, and is 8.3 inches deep - and that's where the problems begin. Let me illustrate what works and what doesn't through a series of photos.

Figure 1: My D300 with the Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 lens attached. Too much camera for this bag! I wasn't able to cram my strap in there and close it properly, both because of the total height of my D300 with this lens on it, and the width of the D300 itself. It would fit if I had the default Nikon strap on it though. FAIL.

Figure 2: My D300 with my Tamron 28-300mm lens - the D300 is just too wide for this bag, yet with some extra pushing, I was able to get the camera and the strap to fit. But who wants that hassle? FAIL.

Figure 3: My Nikon D60 with the Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 lens. The overall camera is nearly as tall as it was with the D300, but it's much narrower, leaving room for the cheapo default strap and comes out and out easily. PASS (just barely).

Figure 4: The D60 with the Tamron 28-300mm lens. Lots of room on the top and sides. PASS.

Figure 5: The pouch on the inside of the top flap. It's not big, but it's big enough to store a spare battery for my D300 and a few memory cards.

The photos tell the story - if you have a camera smaller in dimension than the Nikon D300, this bag should fit your camera - even if you're packing big glass like the 24-70mm lens. It wouldn't fit a really big telephoto lens of course, but it will comfortably fit most of the standard telephoto zooms out there. If Lowepro had made it just a bit wider, and a bit taller, it would fit bigger DSLRs more comfortably. As it stands, you'll have to compare the measurements of your camera to this bag to make sure it fits. It's definitely not a "one size fits all" type of bag, which is unfortunate.

I have one strong reservation about this bag though, even if my gear were to fit in it: the shoulder strap has absolutely no grip on it. There's no shoulder pad or even a strip of rubber to give it some grip, so the odds of it sliding off your shoulder are pretty high, unless you were to sling it over your torso. It drives me nuts when camera bags don't offer some sort of anti-slip functionality on the strap - I've had more than one bag go sliding off my shoulder at inopportune moments. This problem is "fixable" with a Skooba Superbungee strap, but having to spend $20 to get a proper strap for a $30 bag is a bit ridiculous. Given that Lowepro has such a long history in the camera bag market, I know they can, and should, do better.

Jason Dunn owns and operates Thoughts Media Inc., a company dedicated to creating the best in online communities. He enjoys photography, mobile devices, blogging, digital media content creation/editing, and pretty much all technology. He lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada with his lovely wife, and his sometimes obedient dog. At this moment in time, it's very cold where he is.

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