Quote Originally Posted by Kayaker72 View Post
Ha! I borrowed surgery suture from my wife to stitch that netting on my Fastpack 350. And, of course, if you have the tripod on that one side, there is not room for water.
Haha awesome! I stitched mine with Zip ties and later added a rubber insert. The fact is though that it worked just fine for the smaller periods of use. When on holidays and hiking in the Alps last year, the overhanging weight on one side gets quite annoying after some time. Especially if the weather is bad at the top and you carried the tripod up the mountain for nothing up

Quote Originally Posted by Kayaker72 View Post
BTW...I was thinking about this more after my first post....I think I like the process you just went through much better than what I just did. Not that it was too onerous, mostly reading/watching reviews here or there and keeping track of what I came across. But, to a very large extent, perfect doesn't exist, so when you find something that is really good and is 50% off....maybe that is perfect
I guess I could call myself lucky that I ran into this deal. I've watched enough of Youtube videos about camerabags and hiking bags with ICU's to know what your search was like.

I guess the second fact is that I bought the Fastpack 350 about 10 years ago for I believe 80-90€. If I look in the same price category nowadays I'm really disappointed.
The same for lenses. I saw a second hand 100mm L Macro in the shop last time I went there. They ask the same price I have paid for it new when it came out