Manfrotto what's up + good HDDSLR Bag Set for GHs

[Josh Hayes]

My tried and true Kata HB-207 bag is finally beginning to wear out. It had a lifetime warranty on it, so I called Kata, but almost all of Kata's bags are discontinued now apparently. So they sent me to Manfrotto for a trade-in/reimbursement deal for a Manfrotto bag. After many emails and phone calls later, it was finally time to start looking at Manfrotto bag selection. Crazy thing is, when they list their bags on their website they don't have photos or drawings or anything of the inside of the bags? I've never seen that before. I'd never buy a bag that I didn't know how it was setup. Pretty surprised by that.

However since this forum isn't just for hearing people gripe, question. I see less people using backpacks these days, but I still really like the setup. Do you guys recommend any other high-end production bags? Or do you recommend a good Manfrotto bag? The kata bag I was using was awesome.

Sub question, any bags out there you folks like to use that you can have almost your whole cam set up inside of it (a GH on a rack/rails, with audio mount) already? I'm gonna be shooting on the streets for my homeless doc, and I a.) don't want to have to reassemble my cam setup each time I see something interesting but b.) don't want to necessarily walk around with it just out and visible all the time either.

[William Hohauser]

I bought this a year and half ago and it's a great bag:

Pro-V 610 PL | Kata Bags

There is room for at least one camera body with lens attached plus several extra lenses, a small monitor, an audio recorder, microphones, even a small camera light and extra batteries/AC adapter.

However I rarely use it as a backpack these days, just as a way to store everything in one place. I am finding myself using an old SLR camera shoulder bag for small jobs and my broadcast camera bag for jobs where the GH3 acts as a B camera. The GH3 with lens is small enough to fit in with my video camera.