We got hands-on with Vanguard's huge pre-production backpack that offers near endless amounts of storage
(Image credit: Future)
At The Photography Show 2021 we caught up with Vanguard who in addition to launching a new range of VEO 3T tripods at the show on Saturday, showed us a proof-of-concept Alta Sky 68 backpack in pre-production.
The bag offers even more choice to professional photographers using large telephoto lenses and is designed predominantly for photographers using large 600mm f/4 and 800mm f/5.6 optics, such as wildlife and sports shooters and the like.
Camera bags for photographers using super telephoto lenses like a 600mm f/4 or 800mm f/5.6 are often restricted to tall, skinny backpacks that have just enough room to stow a long telephoto lens with a camera body attached but not much else.
With this new proof-of-concept Vanguard aims to fix this issue and give photographers more space to stash up to an addition five lenses, or, by rearranging or removing the velcro padded inserts you could use the extra capacity to store camping equipment or other items which could come in very handy and mean you don't need to carry an additional bag with your non-photographic kit.
The bright yellow interior is spacious and completely customizable using the velcro padded inserts giving you loads of options to lay out and balance photographic and non-photographic kit to your heart's content.
Although the bag is currently in pre-production, Managing Director Ian Bywater told us that interest had been really strong over The Photography Show and that he couldn’t see a reason why the bag wouldn’t go into production in 2022.
The Alta Sky 66 is currently the largest bag in the range which can fit a pro DSLR body with upto a 600mm or a small 800mm lens attached plus a 9in tablet, while the new Alta Sky 68 model will be able to take 600mm or 800mm lenses with a pro DSLR body attached plus an additional 4-5 lenses and a laptop.
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The Alta Sky 66 backpack currently retails for $250 / £230 so you can expect the new Alta Sky 68 model to be upwards of this price when it comes out in 2022.
Deputy Editor on PhotoPlus: The Canon Magazine, Dan also brings his technical wizardry and editing skills to Digital Camera World. He has been writing about all aspects of photography for over 10 years, having previously served as technical writer and technical editor for Practical Photography magazine, as well as Photoshop editor on Digital Photo.
Dan is an Adobe-certified Photoshop guru, making him officially a beast at post-processing – so he’s the perfect person to share tips and tricks both in-camera and in post. Able to shoot all genres, Dan provides news, techniques and tutorials on everything from portraits and landscapes to macro and wildlife, helping photographers get the most out of their cameras, lenses, filters, lighting, tripods, and, of course, editing software.
