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A Bag for All Seasons (and sizes) - Crumpler Proper Roady 9000

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Charlotte Moss puts the Crumpler Proper Roady 9000 through its paces

I am not the target market for any camera bag manufacturer. I am female, short, with an injured shoulder, young(ish), into taking photographs that involve long lenses and I want to carry a laptop with me at all times. Oh yes - and it would be great if I could also convert the bag to use for university and other day-to-day use so that I don't have to swap out my 'handbag clutter' every time I leave the house.

Crumpler produce variations of this bag in three different sizes and this version is the largest. The medium size is designed to fit a tablet instead of a laptop and was unfortunately just a fraction too small for my little MacBook Air and A4 notepads. This bag though - it's cavernous. It happily holds my Canon 100-400mm nose down while still attached to a DSLR so that it's ready to go when I'm out shooting. It also comfortably carries several other lenses and even a spare body because Crumpler provide a set of Velcro inserts to allow you to customse the interior.

The laptop pocket is well padded - too often manufacturers will pad the camera chamber well but leave the laptop pocket relatively unprotected. But this would see me through long commutes with ease and without any damage to my gear. When so many photographers now carry around a laptop as standard, it is good to see manufacturers picking up on this fact and providing a way to carry around both camera and laptop in other than a rucksack. There's even a mesh pocket in the top flap of the bag for carrying cables, a nice touch that means you don't have to try to fit them into a pocket that contains widgets that you might need to get to more frequently. Another interesting feature is the set of mesh pockets sized for compact flash cards, meaning that they're easy to grab when you need to make a quick change. I thought I wouldn't use the memory card pockets, but it turns out that they're more useful than I ever thought they would be!

If you've never used a sling bag before, this might take some getting used to. While you can wear the bag like a record bag by your side, Crumpler's 'three leg' system really comes into its own here. It's worn in the small of your back like a low rucksack, stabilised by a strap that runs from the crosschest strap to the bottom corner of the bag. The messenger-style bags are intended to be worn this way while cycling so you can be assured that it won't go anywhere, whatever you decide to throw at it while out on a job.

The bag itself is made from Crumpler's usual performance fabric, which can take you from office to walking weekend and even to a smart wedding. To use a popular phrase, the good design fades into the background and 'it just works'. The fabric is water resistant and I made sure to test it thoroughly during a downpour at the local Parkrun. I was drenched through several layers of clothes but the interior of the bag stayed dry. I wouldn't advise putting anything important in the back pocket of the bag since that one did get damp, but the laptop pocket and camera chamber got through half an hour of torrential rain unscathed.

For the footloose and fancy-free this bag travels well. It's small enough to be ignored by airport officials when you use it as hand luggage no matter how much camera gear you fill it with. The downside is that although it doesn't seem that big when you're wandering around on jobs, it's too big to be allowed into many museums and galleries abroad. It's worth considering taking a smaller bag that carries just the essentials in your checked baggage if you're heading abroad on a cultural excursion. The Proper Roady 9000 is most certainly a bag that is able to do some serious heavy lifting, but complementing it with a smaller option seems like a smart idea.

The Proper Roady 9000 does everything I need with ease, but I'll certainly be picking up one of the smaller versions of the bag for when I head to Paris in a few months. The Proper Roady 4500 seems like it will fill the gap for my travelling-with-camera needs - now just to buy an iPad Mini to replace the laptop for days out...

Crumpler make dozens of bags for the practical and/or style-conscious urban traveller, including photography-oriented offerings. Visit http://www.crumpler.eu

 



Updated 27/04/2026 16:44:22 Last Modified: Monday, 27 April 2026