Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Unboxing: Crumpler The Formal Lounge Hybrid Bag

Much to my excitement, a HOOOGE box was awaiting my return from work today:

The box is towering, but surprisingly light.
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Inside, it's well padded and there is a greeting letter from the seller. I recommend him on ebay. The product arrived quickly as promised, and the price is the cheapest within all the sites I scoured on the internet (and high street).
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Meet my new bag. It's a Crumpler bag called (funnily) The Formal Lounge. Opening the pack, I was immediately surprised but how well made the bag looked. I love the colour too.
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The front. The bag exudes quality. The material feels tough and the zips feel durable. Impeccable stitches. Crumpler bags are designed to look like a normal, everyday bag to prevent people from knowing what expensive contents lie inside (no laptop and DSRL in here dude, move on!).
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The back. The recess in between the pads at the back is apparently designed to protect your spine while carrying heavy loads. The Crumpler is well padded - filled to the brim with padding.
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Crumpler. I've always wanted a Crumpler - for almost 2 years! I never thought I could afford one of these, they're mighty expensive. Having said that, I got it on eBay for almost half the price - so it really pays to do research before buying. Puan Mama Sarah have ALWAYS been offering to buy me a Crumpler, for e.g. my birthday or our anniversary. But I've never had the heart to allow Puan Mama Sarah to spend so much money on just a bag.
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Sexy (read the wacky writing!). This time however, Puan Mama Sarah insisted I get the Crumpler -- perhaps she knows how long I've been wanting this. Having bought the DSLR meant we need a proper camera bag as well.
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The camera compartment is located at the bottom of the bag, easily accessible by just unzipping the bottom half. The compartments (pictured above) are further compartmentalised by these velcro fastened straps. There's enough space for the camera body, several lenses, filters and of course film a memory card.

This is the inside of the bag. You could see the laptop pouch on the floor of the bag. Lots of padding inside. I'm surprised though, there's not that much space for stuff. Perhaps enough for a book or two, several chargers and a jumper. Definitely not enough for a medical textbook! (perhaps, a medical textbook by itself is okay).
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My Vaio fitting veeeery snuggly into the laptop pouch. Just nice.
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View of a closed laptop pouch. Notice how thick it makes the anorexic Vaio look? That's because of all the padded layers.
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The Formal Lounge

I am extremely happy with the bag, I'm glad we got it for the camera and laptop. It's very well made, (to me) beautifully designed. My laptop fits very nicely into the pouch and I'm sure the camera compartment is MORE than enough for my photography equipment (that is, once it arrives ..... huu.) A hybrid backpack like this is perfect for my needs, especially on my (previously) frequent travels - it'd be nice to carry both my laptop and camera in one bag, and for photography expeditions, I could just remove the laptop pouch and store other things instead (for example, mosquito repellents).

*beaming* One happy customer here .

Links
1. Another review of the Formal Lounge.
2. An alternative mini-review on Flickr.
2. Review of another Crumpler bag I like: Gadgeteer.

Now all I got to do is wait patiently for the freaking camera!

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice bag!

Looks cool in blue..

the yellow insides.. hmmm any way, it does give a good contrast with blue.

Lovely padding all around.. yay.. Though my advice, be careful, Targus has become synonomous with laptops as has crumpler with cameras. If you really want to have the thieves puzzled, letak botol susu Amar and barang2 pampers budak dalam crumpler and the camera and laptop dalam bag budak budak covered in some diapers.. mesti pencuri pengsannya bila dia bukak bag nanti...

Ikelah said...

ok.... setuju 100% or to puzzle the thieves even more, put a note inside "the 400d and vaio are in kuantan/dungun." in the beg budak just letak picnic box. the gadjets will be safe here in musang branded bag.

anyway, congrats on the bag.... really nice with the paddings for protection. no wonder the bag is one of the top priority. i am just curious of the price.

Anonymous said...

Baru dapat beg, belum lagi camera.. u must be very excited. Looks like a cool bag.

What OK said is true. Sometimes, the bag gives away hints of what the inside contents might be. It is best to trick the potential stealer.. my dad puts all his vitamins, supplements, kopi o 3 in 1 in our Sony video camera bag... just imagine the look of the culprit's face if they ragut the bag.. hahah!

dith said...

Nisak,

Have you finally scratched his itch?? :p

*urghh tak sabo nya ada org tu nak tunggu 400d dia sampai*

p.s. notice how men would bribe their wives first by buying something for them then they would go all out to pursue their wants.I remember Nisak's hp came earlier, hehe

pycnogenol said...

Tabibah - Ni, dah kira instigation....kesian Mynn, nanti tak makan sahur, and end up having to hug the padded bag. Baru padan muka.

Tu laa Mynn, bila describe the bag tu, macam dah tak ada cacat cela lagi. Semua perfect.

I suggest you come up with an equally spotlessly clean, wonderful, superlative description of Puan Mama Sarah as your next entry. And, make sure that comes straight from the heart. ;)

dith said...

Pycno

Tu la dia, org dah kemaruk photography ni, tengok bag yang asalnya deberi nama Crumpler (pemenyek???hhaha) tapi dia boleh describe benda alah tu macam describe
bilik2 kat rumah!

Belah ni nak isi benda ni, belah tu nak isi benda tu, :p Last2 nak isi mosquito repellent lagi!

Mynn, jangan ambik hati yek! Gurau jek. Kawe tahu le awok tengah walk in the clouds tu! heheh

Anonymous said...

o-k
i thought of that! some crumplers come with slots and crevices where you could store water bottles. I was looking for those to store sarah & amar's milk bottles .... milk and expensive electronics don't mix well though .. tssk tssk

ikelah
to know the price kan... go to morrisphoto then divide the price listed there by a third. that's the price :) -- not making it easy for you to know, sorry :p

dyanna
it's the crib for my new baby ... or rather, for my babies :) on feature of the crumpler bag is that the zippers are concealed. infact, the zippers are located at awkward places to prevent stealers from just reaching out and zip the bag open for a quick steal. read reviews on other sites for details. tapi zip kat bag ni terbalik i.e it opens at the back rather than the front <- argh, susah nak explain.

tabibah
i laughed reading your comments this morning! aduh...

for the record tabibah;
i wanted to buy a MUCH cheaper bag - a lowepro, that has compartments for a camera only. but nisak coaxed me to buy the crumpler -- dia kata worth it lah, ive always wanted it lah, and could store both lah. haha, lucky to have a wife like that no? i suppose because the DSLR is wanted by her as well - for taking pictures of the kids & our travels .. so i guess she wants it as much as i do.

pycno
one of my flaws is i am an optimist to a fault. many222 of my friends have said so. so, always read my reviews with a fist of salt. i tend to be blind to the faults. having said so, the review is not yet finished -- i'll post another one once the camera arrives to show the readers how the camera fits into the bag. also, the bag does have faults which i'll post later ;p

tabibah
:P:P:p
tak lah, tak pernah ambik hati dgn tabibah lah. don't worry im not that easily offended.

Jamil said...

Looks like it's fit to be taken along on a mountain hike!

mynn said...

hiyoshi
right you are dude, now just to find a place to hike :) hehehe.

Anonymous said...

I'm going to survey the price of this bag at the local malls... rasa macam nak beli gak la..

Anonymous said...

dyanna is getting the itch it seems ;p

i havent seen a crumpler kat msia yet, i was looking last year. but if you know anyone in australia, there's a good chance you'll get the latest model, and it's probably cheaper than anywhere else too.

Mynn <-- spreading the itch?

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