An amazingly compact camcorder bag that sacrifices a little too much

I picked up a Petrol PC300 when the strap on my Genus GL-GEN1000 Backpack began to fray and separate at the right shoulder seam. The Petrol offers instant advantages over the Genus, including being less than half the weight of the larger bag (5.6 pounds vs a back-breaking 11.8) and a form factor that was more tapered and closer to my back. As I shoot in Washington, D.C. and take my bags frequently onto public transportation, this is a vast improvement. The Petrol is even small enough to fit in an overheard compartment, which I feel a lot more comfortable about than handing my entire video rig over to the roulette wheel of airport baggage arrival.

And despite the reduced size, the inside of the Petrol is better laid out and more usable than the Genus. I find I can fit all the same gear in more or less the same arrangement, though a tad more snugly, but everything just seems to fit a bit better. This is especially true with the strip made to cradle your camera snugly in the center of the bag; a thick Velcro thick strap permanently attached across the middle of the chamber accomplishes this very well. And the smaller removable velcro walls are easy to shift around to customize the kit any way you require. Two thin pockets line the inside of the bag lip. The smaller top pocket is clear and the perfect size for an iPad. The second has a zipper and folded Velcro enclosure and might be able to hold a Macbook Air, but with absolutely no protection. The Genus offered ample laptop protection (enough to fit my 17″ Macbook Pro, if a tad snugly) as well as a third smaller pocket. You get the bare basics with the Petrol.

There are two deep pockets and matching bungee straps to latch for tripods and other gear to the outside of the bag…and that’s it. No outside small pockets for batteries or tapes, no business card pocket or keychain, not even a cell phone pouch (though I found I could just swipe the one from my Genus and it fit around the straps of the Petrol just fine). There is a pen holder attached to one of the removable inner walls, but only on one of them, and I found it purely by accident.

The main straps and moulded back handle feel very sturdy, but the support straps across the chest and waist are somewhat cheap and light and have a tendency to shift when putting the bag on or off, but stay attached firmly once in place. Still, it’s just enough to be slightly alarming when you have $5000 strapped to your back. When the bag is properly strapped on it is very comfortable to wear. The 6lbs difference between the Petrol and the Genus is the largest difference, but the way the smaller bag curves more to fit the back and shoulders is also a plus.

The sacrifices for size and weight begin at the bottom of the Petrol bag, which has no additional protection or stability, making it impossible to stand the bag upright. Worse is how the bag opens face-down so that the narrower, rounded front of the bag is in contact with the surface, making the kit less stable when open than the Janus. And while the nylon-ballistic pockets on the outside of the bag feel strong they have no give, so they aren’t even large enough to hold a bottle of water.

For me, the sacrifices are worth it. But if you plan to carry anything more than your kit and an iPad with you, I’d look at a different bag.

• Design: 4
• Portability: 5
• Features: 2 1/2
• Cost: $130

This is my second coverboy video, and the third Coverboy of the Year photo shoot Metro Weekly has taken our readers behind the scenes.

It is on of our most anticipated issues of the year and I had a lot of projects to knock out, including some in-house promotional material.

But most of my work focused on video of the Coverboy of the Year photo shoot. Julian Vankim going us as a new staff photographer this year, stepping into Jeff Code’s shoes and taking over the Coverboy photo shoots. Todd Franson was on set to lead the creative direction of the shoot.  Dylan Comstock ran our second unit and helped out on all ends.

It’s been an interesting few weeks.

Best joke so far: ”Cain is bowing out of his election bid to spend more time with your wife.” (via FARK).

Most interesting thing I’ve read: ”Twice as dark as President Obama, Cain proved that white Americans could support one of that tribe who was not at all light-skinned. Old black Herman did not look in the least like Halle Berry, NAACP chief Benjamin Jealous, Louis Farrakhan and others whose very existence suggests race mixing. His own skin seemed directly connected to the long, hard history of resistance and advancement that had nothing to do with Obama’s pastoral Hawaii. Like a rapper, he was the real thing.” (Stanley Crouch/The Root)

And then I read this bit by George Will: “The one who dropped out — Mr. Cain, who used this as a book tour in the fundamentally disrespectful approach to the selection of presidents,” Will said. “Now we have a December 27 debate that would be moderated by Donald Trump. Surely it is time for these candidates to do something presidential: Stand-up and say, ‘We’re not going to be hijacked and participate in this.’”

And that seemed a bit rough.

I felt the need to defend Mr. Cain. So what if it was all a giant book tour? So what if he is just an empty, self-promotional machine with no actual ideas? None of that disqualifies someone from being president. He even got enough of us on board to make it look like a thing. Then we got to know him a bit more, and some of his past came back to bite him in the ass, and we all moved on.

That’s not disrespectful, George, that’s how our system works. And your criticisms would have sounded less hollow if they had come before he dropped out.

We all (well, all of us 35+ and American citizens) have a right to run. Not all of us should, and sometimes we need the national spotlight to point out that glaring obvious fact, but George Will dosen’t get to tell any of us whether our desire to run the country is respectful or not.

Of course, I also Photoshopped your face onto Thomas the Tank Engine so I’m not exactly a proper arbitrator of what is and is not respectful.

Speaking of questioning proper of decorum, here’s a blind Facebook post in response to the following video:

The post in question: “Please tell me Ron Paul didn’t actually approve that — that was in embarrassingly poor taste. This isn’t WWF, it’s the fucking presidency.”

Mind you, this is within a discussion of like Conservative minds. Personally, I think there are plenty of things actually said in the video to be outraged about, like the complete elimination of the Departments of Education, Interior, Energy, Housing and Urban Development, and Commerce (because who needs all that Communist shit, amirite?)…but I guess that’s just me.  Either way, I thought it was effective. Batshit insane, and I am getting more then a little sick of the whiny mocking announcer guy, but effective.

On a personally note, I am feeling a bit derailed myself. I sometimes wonder if one of the definitions of being creative is “random bouts of depression.” I tend to pull away when I feel this way.  Some of you probably got caught in the scattershot f that.  My apologies if it has; I’m working on it. Thirty-five seems to be throwing me a bit in the end. Twenty-five did as well, so I expected this…but I was so close to getting away with it. At least January is right around the corner.

It’s just been a couple of tricky weeks. Now here are three things that have kept a smile on my face (and have sparked some ideas for a project of my own):

Second post where I actually wrote something instead of just phoning it in with an emotionally manipulative graphic. Maybe I’ll stick this out after all.

Oh, and I finally started watching Community. Here’s one of many reasons why: