Lowepro Inverse 200 AW Camera Bag Review

The Lowepro Inverse 200 AW (as in "All Weather") is a versatile waist mounted bag with tons of pockets and features. Offering a customizable main storage compartment, a water resistant cover for downpours, tripod straps, and even a water bottle holder, this camera bag has nearly everything you could want.

Aimed at professionals and amateurs alike, this bag is designed to handle almost any situation, and fit in any budget with a retail price of $89.99.

Lowepro Inverse 200 AW Specifications:

• Interior size: 12" x 6" x 8.3" (WxDxH)
• Exterior size: 12.9" x 8.6" x 8.8" (WxDxH)
• Outer fabric: 420D Nylon and 600D Polyester
• Interior fabric: 200D Polyester and brushed Tricot
• Weight: 2.12lbs
• Capacity: One pro DSLR with medium zoom lens attached plus two additional lenses; or a 70-200mm attached lens in horizontal position plus one additional lens; charger and cords; filters and memory cards

Design and Construction
The design of the Lowepro Inverse 200 AW beltpack (which also comes in a smaller 100 size) is very rugged with function placed well above form in the design phase. At first glance you see a camera bag with numerous straps, clips, and zippered pockets with loops hanging off of every open space. It's as if Lowepro designers wanted every square inch of fabric to offer a feature or play into user comfort.

Lowepro offers this bag in three different color combinations; blue and black, green and black, and all black. The color patterns go well together, although I really prefer the all black design over the green and black model that I received for review.

Build quality and construction is top notch, with durable fabric and strong plastic clips used throughout the bag. Stitching looks very solid with no stray threads, and all vital attachment points are thoroughly sewn in place. Even with the bag fully loaded to the bursting point, the Inverse looks stress free, without a hint of seams wanting to burst or straps sagging when securely fastened to your body. It is easy to see that Lowepro wanted this bag to stand up to the abuse from day to day use in any environment.

Pockets, Pockets, and More Pockets
For a camera bag that could be described as an oversized fanny-pack, the Inverse has an impressive number of pockets for everything you could want to carry with your camera. It has eight main compartments that are either zippered, velcroed, mesh pocketed, or secured in place with latches.

The first section is the main storage area that houses the camera, lenses, or other large accessories you might want to carry. In this section I had enough room to hold my Pentax K20D body with 16-45mm f/4 lens attached in the middle, a 200mm f/2.8 lens on one side, and a 100mm f/2.8 macro lens on the other.

The next two pockets are on the zippered cover to the main compartment that are designed to hold flash memory. Each pocket is pretty small, allowing for two SD cards in a plastic holder, or three to four loose cards.

Each side of the Inverse 200 has an elastic mesh pocket: one large enough to hold a water bottle and a smaller one hold a cell phone.

The front of the bag has one large open storage area that is held together with two adjustable straps with quick release latches. Each side has some mesh webbing to keep loose objects from slipping out, making this area perfect for holding documents or maybe a GPS receiver.

The outer flap contains two pockets, one large zippered section for thin valuables like a wallet, and a smaller velcroed section that contains the all-weather shield.

The water-resistant nylon cover easily pops out when rain is about to start, and is permanently secured to the bag with a thin elastic strap.

Attachment Points
Lowepro added numerous attachment loops around the bag making it easy to secure additional equipment to the bag. The Inverse 200 features two adjustable straps with clips on the bottom of the bag to secure a small tripod or monopod.

Basic attachment loops are found all around the case: one on the front, another on the zippered flap to the main compartment, and even some on the waist strap. These would be perfect to clip small items such as car keys or a small flashlight.

User Comfort
With everything set up perfectly, the bag is very comfortable to wear for long periods of time, even with tons of stuff packed inside of it. The broad straps spread out the weight on your back and also help to prevent anything form pinching your skin. Wearing it is fine, but getting it set up for the first time can be challenging.

The main strap has adjustment points on each side to increase or decrease tension around your waist. I found the straps to loosen each time I removed the bag, requiring a retightening every time I put the bag back on.

The front of the bag has two tension adjustment straps that help to adjust how the bag sits on your waist or hips.

Conclusion
The Lowepro Inverse 200 AW held up well in our testing, offering plenty of storage space to hold many accessories, as well as a large DSLR body with lens attached, and two additional lenses stowed to the side. Even with it filled to the brim user comfort was excellent when the straps are properly tightened on your waist. The only complaint I had with the design were the waist straps, which had to be readjusted every time I put the bag on as they loosened every time the bag was taken off. Overall the bag worked quite well in use, and easily adapted to different mounting positions with simple adjustments.

Pros:

• Enough pockets to make MacGyver smile
• Wide, padded straps keep heavy loads supported comfortably
• Attachment points for tripod and other accessories
• Storm resistant shield

Cons:

• Waist strap clips loosen easily and require readjustment
• Rain cover can be a hassle to install and prevents you from accessing components while on