The more I see of Sony's A7 series, the more I wish I'd started shooting mirrorless. The depth of color that the Sony A7S II gets in these shots from the northern section of Bangladesh is absolutely beautiful. The compact body makes it ideal for travel filming and the internal 4K and S-Log picture profile give you full control over your final product. This short piece was filmed by Vitùc using Sony's 16-35mm f4 and 35 mm f2.8 lenses resulting in some beautiful wide shots among the Bangladeshi people.

Seeing Everyday Life

One of the things that drew me to this film was not just the technical aspects, but it's focus on everyday life. Vitúc places himself in the normal lives of the Bangladeshi people as he treks across the small country located to the east of India. This focus on the average really informs the normal, mundane lives of the people. You see them traveling on trains, getting ready for the day and even in school. Sometimes the normal is more fascinating because it's rarely ever shown. We become transfixed with the weird or fleeting when the normal is just as beautiful.

Sony A7S II

For more examples of just how beautiful footage from the Sony A7S II can be, check out this short film shot in California/Yosemite and this one from Stockholm, Sweden.

  A few months ago I stumbled across a camera/travel bag from a new company called Vinta. Billed as a bag for the "modern traveler", the Vinta S Series fits somewhere between a less canvas version of a Bradley Mountain backpack and a functional camera bag. I ordered mine in the Forest Green color-way with tan leather handles and accents. In pictures it looked rugged and refined, calling back to a woodsman's sensibilities but in a bit more of a functional fashion.

Green With Envy

Right out of the box the S Series was everything I wanted it to be. The Forest Green color really pops when paired with the leather accents. At only 2.2 pounds, it is super comfortable on your back, even when fully loaded down. For my purposes that includes a Nikon D750, Nikkor 24-120mm lens, Nikkor 85mm lens, battery grip, two batteries and chargers, Rode VideoMic Go, and a lens filter kit. At full capacity, the S Series never felt too full or heavy. The weight distribution over the small footprint bag was perfect and makes carrying it all day a breeze.

Small Size Rules

The S Series is a pretty small feeling bag, which worried me at first. At 11.5 x 15.75 x 5.5 in., it's definitely smaller than my Tenba DNA 15. As I began wearing it fully loaded, I realized the small footprint led to a more comfortable experience. It sits pretty high up on your back but leaves room at the bottom of the bag to attach a tripod comfortably.

Rugged Look

The looks of the Vinta S Series is easily one of its best qualities. I'm not sure I've ever received compliments on my camera bag before, until now. The S Series doesn't necessarily look like a camera bag, which helps with urban commuting and not advertising that it has a few thousand dollars worth of gear inside. On weekends I'm a jeans and t-shirt guy and the S Series blends in seamlessly and fashionably. The back load zipper feature also keeps your gear protected from theft while wearing it.

Digital Nomad Issues

My one issue with the S Series comes not from it's small size but in its ability to carry my 15" MacBook Pro. Namely because it really can't without making it hard to access any of the other gear that I've stored. With all my gear fit inside, the 15" MacBook Pro barely fits into the slot unless you load it from the front, meaning you can't access the camera gear without taking the laptop out first from a different pocket. Yes my 15" MacBook Pro is a beast and I should probably get something a bit more portable. I tried lightening the load and adding it in and that mostly worked, but it was still too tall to open from the back. So if you're looking to use this as a camera and computer bag, make sure you're using a 13" laptop for optimal fit.

Overall

The Vinta S Series is a perfect bag for traveling lightly with your camera. It carries the essentials, especially if you shoot with a mirrorless camera, and looks great while doing it. The small size makes it super comfortable for long days of carrying. I do wish I could fit my 15" MacBook Pro more comfortably, but that's a minor issue for me. I need a smaller laptop anyway. Overall, I'm really happy with the Vinta S Series and can't wait to take it on more photo adventures. You can order the S Series from Vinta here and from Amazon here. To see more specs on the Vinta S Series, check out my earlier post.

Photos: All photos were taken by my lovely wife Kim at Rice University in Houston, TX.

Disclaimer: I was not paid for this post and did not receive my Vinta S Series bag as compensation for this review. I genuinely love this bag and bought it with my own cash. The opinions are my own and are unsolicited. The Amazon link is an affiliate link that allows me to earn commission from any referral sales. This is a way to help support the ongoing effort of I Create Nothing to bring relevant travel, creativity and lifestyle content to you. 

Updated 09/19/16: You can check out the full review of the Vinta S Series camera/travel bag here. I've used a lot of different camera bags to carry my Nikon D750 around, but nothing I've found is more stylish than the Vinta S-Series. Recently out of Kickstarter, and already sold out of it's initial run, the S-Series combines a camera and travel bag in a small form backpack style. Available in black, grey and forest green (my preferred color) the S-Series can hold up to a 15" laptop or MacBook Pro, a full-frame DSLR or mirrorless camera along with 3-5 lenses and comes with a removable field pack that can store an extra lens or other accessories.

vinta

vinta back

I love how the S-Series comes with removable inserts for a camera and lenses, making it a more versatile bag than my Timbuk2 small camera bag. The convertible option quickly turns it into a stylish backpack for a weekend away. It's the small details on a bag that make it stand out and Vinta has those covered. Simple leather accents really draw the eye while still maintaining a minimalist look and feel. This bag definitely makes me want to take a hike and try my hand at some more nature photography.

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Other features of the S-Series include:

• Leather details & magnetic snaps
• Light-weight and durable poly fabric
• Waterproof material
• Gun metal details

Check out a video on the Vinta story here and make sure to follow them on Instagram to keep up with their adventures and travel.

Every photographer has their favorite. I have good friends that swear by their Fujifilm mirrorless setups (of which I now own this little beauty) and some that are loyal only to a single brand, which usually makes buying lenses a lot easier. For me, as soon as I picked up the Nikon D750, I was at home. The body fit perfectly into my hand and even though I was just delving into hardcore photography, I felt like I knew how to work most everything on it. I already owned some Nikon lenses so it was natural that I didn't have to start from scratch, although some serious upgrading was necessary.  

Nikon D750

Landing right in the middle of Nikon's full-frame format cameras, the D750 was the perfect mixture of style and substance for me. I shoot a lot of video at work and the ability of the D750 to handle aperture changes in live-view mode made it an easy choice over the D610 but at a lower price point than the D810. Coupled with an aftermarket battery grip, I can shoot photo and video for hours. The tilting view screen makes it easy to shoot via a tripod at higher or lower angles while still being able to see what is on screen.

Nikkor 24-120mm VR Lens

With the step up to the full-frame sensor, a new lens was necessary to get the full range of the D750. In stepped the Nikkor 24-120mm VR lens. It's not the fastest of lenses and is quite heavy, but when shooting at an event, the extra zoom is really helpful and it's crystal clear images never disappoint. When shooting video during the day (once again, not the fastest) the 24-120mm has pulled down some seriously crisp footage that rivals anything I've seen from a prime lens. A little heavy for a travel setup, the 24-120mm is ideally situated for short photo outings when you know you won't be able to get super close to your subject. At f/4 you can still get some nice bokeh, which is helpful.

Nikkor 50mm 1.8g Lens

The Nikkor 50mm 1.8g lens is the workhorse of my photo and video setup. Still not the fastest 50mm in the Nikon lineup, the 50mm 1.8g is consistently my go to lens for pretty much everything; video, photo, portrait, travel, you name it. On my recent trip to Paris and Amsterdam it was the only lens that I packed due to its versatility and small footprint. You can check out some of the images I shot on that trip here. The cheapest lens in my setup and yet the one that I use the most. If you have a Nikon camera and don't have one of these, go get one right now.

Peak Design Strap Pack

I have an unhealthy fear of dropping my camera in a large crowd while everyone laughs, so my first purchase after buying a new camera was to invest in a low profile strap that was suited to quick changes. Peak Design's strap pack that includes their leash and cuff was exactly what i needed. Featuring theirAnchor Link Quick-Connection System, the leash and cuff are perfect for any working photographer that has to change to tripod or monopod mounted video quickly without having a strap hanging down and making noise. I've even got an anchor attached to the bottom of my battery grip so that the D750 can hang sideways on my waist without the screen scratching up against my belt.

There's plenty of other gear that I'd love, like my newly acquired Nikkor 85mm 1.8D (or a 1.4g if anyone wants to gift it) and an Atomos Ninja-2 video recorder, but for now the smaller the setup the better. After all, my Tenba DNA 15 can only hold so much at one time.

If you're looking for a gift for that special writer in your life, look no further than Bull & Stash. The company's handmade in the U.S. leather notebooks come in normal or travel (my preferred) size and come with 30 pages of thick bleed resistant 60# paper that can be refilled via the company's handy refill subscription service for your paper, with a new 50 page refill sent to your doorstep every month.

We produce journals for thinkers and for creatives. However, once you fill a Bull & Stash, you don’t leave it to gather dust on a shelf and pursue a new notebook rotation. Your journal is as significant a part of your identity as your ideas— why rotate through your identity?

Paper On Demand

I love the idea of a subscription service for paper refills. It pushes you to keep creating and coming up with new ideas to fill your notebooks with. Bull & Stash recently finished their Indiegogo campaign, raising nearly triple what they originally asked for to start production. So grab one for your fiend, family member or just get one for yourself and start writing down all that creative inspiration that hits you in the shower, car or wherever.

For whatever adventures, projects, lists or stories lie ahead, we've made a notebook that you can take with you every step of the way.

Update 12/15/16: I've been using my Bull & Stash notebook for a year now and it's travelled to a lot of different places. The paper refill system works seamlessly and the small size of the travel journal makes it ideal for slipping into my back pocket. I use it with my Fisher Space Pen to keep things light and portable.