Need a good bag for a bad back

[The Man from Mandrem]

I have smaller DSLR body, will carry up to 5-7 lenses when hiking or sight-seeing, including a mix of cheaper zooms, 2.8 zooms, and primes. Tamrac 603 holds all the lenses but I have C5-C6 stenosis/slipped disk. Between Slingshot 202/302 and a backpack, what is better? Which backpack?

[ksbryan0]

I use the Tamrac 5586 Expedition 6X backpack, and the only drawback I find is that you can pack it very heavy! If you use the waist-belt properly, it will really take the load off your back and put it on your waist. The back of the pack and the shoulder straps are well padded, making it pretty comfortable to take to the field. Depending upon the size of your lenses, it make not be able to hold all of them. When fully packed, I usually have my EF 100-400 4-5.6L mounted to the camera, a spare body, EF-S 65 Macro, EF 24-70 2.8L, extension tubes, 1.4 TC, and 580 EX Flash all in the pack, plus various other components in the numerous pockets of the pack. Additionally, I sometimes strap my on my tripod as well. I have back problems also, though not as serious as yours, and I have found slingpacks are handy, but they tend to make you compensate for the weight and not keep your back straight - which for me causes earlier back pain.

[The Man from Mandrem]

Thanks! You've been alot of help.

Based on your input, I'm looking at Lowepro 250 (it has a waist band so hopefully helps with back strain the same way your design does, plan to get a few soft lense cases to throw in the top compartment for the lenses that don't fit below. I liked the 6x you have (and really like Tamrac) but I like the easy access of slingshots and seems a little more like a backpack in appearance (can cover the logo pretty well) and smaller in size. The 250 is not designed to carry a pod though which is a big problem.