Jon Sienkiewicz Blog

Here’s a close look at an innovative camera bag design that provides the capacity and comfort of a backpack and simultaneously allows you to access your gear from a padded shelf-like pod that can be swung in front of your abdomen almost instantly. If you like the idea of rotating the bottom of a backpack to your front while keeping the top part of the bag on your back, the 30-liter Twin Lakes photo backpack from Paxis ($325) does it quickly and securely.

When Peak Design introduced camera straps with their proprietary Anchor quick-connector system in 2014, they quietly revolutionized the way the world had been attaching straps to cameras. Here’s a guide to their current lineup nearly 10 years on.

Today I received a Happy Anniversary wish from Peak Design. No, this has nothing to do with wedding bells—apparently it’s the anniversary of one of my purchases of meticulously engineered Peak Design photo products. Naturally, they expressed their hope that I’m “…still loving it…” Then they boldly stated, “But if that's not the case, let's do something about it.” Now, THAT got my attention!

In a world that can be frustrating when the undeserving are unduly rewarded, it’s refreshing to see a good company with good intentions and great products succeed. Peak Design makes truly outstanding photo bags, messengers and backpacks; they’re also one of the good guys.

Pentax K-x

It could be that the good people at Pentax have gone batty. They put way too much stuff in the new Pentax K-x camera. It’s priced slightly above the most expensive compact cameras (in the sub-$600 range with a Pentax 18-55mm zoom lens) and is offered in three colors (red, white and blue) plus basic black.

Leica just announced the Leica M11 Monochrom, the B&W-only version of their M11 flagship digital rangefinder camera, and Shutterbug had the opportunity to test run a production sample early on in the release cycle. Our conclusions are not as simple as black and white.

A nice surprise, a backpack for cameras, lenses and drones that introduces some new features and turns some wasted space into storage space. Here’s an intimate, hands-on review of the very intelligently designed OneMo bag that’s engineered to provide a lifetime of service.