This is my first, hopefully out of many, review of a product that I have specifically bought for photography.  I have been searching for an awesome, versatile, and somewhat fashionable camera bag for ages now.  The Canon Camera Backpack has rarely left my side for a few years and I love it.  The pack has different compartments for everything, straps galore, zippers, and the word CANON printed right on the back.  Pretty neat.  However, I pummeled it to the ground – recently breaking one of the zippers – as I lugged it around from concert to concert, Eurotrip to Eurotrip, and everything in between.

Enter the Kelly Moore Bag.  I wanted something that was going to be different than my Canon bag, something that would not replace it but rather compliment it.  Truth be told, a messenger bag would be a great addition to my gear line up: it would allow me to have instant access at the side, easily having my lenses, flash, and the rest of my photographic accoutrement in my monstrous mits in seconds.  The most important quality to me after the equipment carrying and fashion was that I could hold a laptop.  I have every intention of getting a Macbook Pro within the next year and did not want to regret not being able to take it on shoots due to poor planning.

I began my search at Photojojo, seeing their quite attractive Classic Leather Camera Satchel.  Unfortunately, the bag was a bit smaller with my fiance’s 13″ Macbook not fitting at all despite it being advertised to fit 13″ laptops.  Honestly, 13″ was even a bit smaller than I had wanted but the satchel was so good looking I gave it a shot.  It didn’t pan out.  It was too small, too little leather, and just did not scream to me as it did online.  I returned it and began to search many sites for a larger equivalent.  I stumbled across Kelly Moore’s website and was instantly smitten.

The Kelly Moore Boy Bag is quite nearly everything I wanted.  Very versatile, eye-catching, and with plenty of room to boot.  The bag is split into 5 compartments in the main space.  4 of these are for camera gear, 1 is for the laptop.  The laptop fits that Macbook perfectly; there is plenty of room for a 15″ if need be.  All of the compartments are adjustable in size and angle due to the velcro covered tabs of the dividers and the equally ladened interior.  In fact, everything is entirely removable making it perfect for any occasion.  I kept all the dividers in and use each one for a lens, flash, or the camera body.  There is so much variety that I can actually keep the body itself in or place it face down with the lens attached.

After the central compartment there are three zippered pockets, two smaller and one large one.  These are fantastic for my remote shutter, charger, wires, memory cards, and remote flash triggers.  I feel like I can fit even more in there.  I will probably put my photographic journal (which I recommend any decent photographer keep, much like a work out journal – if you want to improve you have to know what you were doing to make that perfect shot), my contracts, and a few other gizmo’s in there.

The bag’s dimensions are 16″x11.5″x4.5″ with it weighing about 2.5 lbs.  It is made out of weather resistant “man made material” according to the website.  Not sure what that “man made material” is but it looks hella lot like leather and feels much like it.

Fortunately for the user there are only a few downsides.  First, there are no buckles but rather magnets that hold the flap over onto the zippered pockets.  This looks aesthetically pleasing but gear can easily fall out if this is knocked upside down somehow (not a stretch in the photography world).  Second, while the width fits the laptop no problem the depth actually suffers a bit and thus the magnets are not close enough to each other to close.  Not a huge deal, still looks great and really the magnets do not hold anything inside (see the first downside).  Third, there are small pockets on the sides that have no purpose.  I may be able to fit a pen in there.  Even that may be too thick.

None of these “downsides” however, can take away from the solid fact that this is a fantastic product.  I could not recommend it more, though possibly could recommend that Kelly place some fashionable buckles rather than magnets.  I know that I will be keeping mine, with all of my gear, by my side for years to come.

REVIEW!  Bottom line:

It’s a great buy.  I would advise it to anyone looking for a versatile, fashionable bag.  I have already gotten many looks and questions about it in the short time I have owned it.  If you are interested check out the rest of Kelly’s gear; it is all pretty chic.  Unfortunately this Brown Boy Bag is sold out, as well as the Black one, on Kelly’s website and will not be back until March.  However, I do know Adorama has them in stock at this moment along with the Mustard color (which is still available on Kelly Moore’s website).