A good hiking bag is an essential purchase for any aspiring landscape photographer. It needs to be comfortable, durable, and able to carry all of your gear safely over some of the roughest terrain that nature can throw at you. I’ve had a few hiking bags over the years and my needs have grown alongside my interest in photography.

Starting with a single APS-C camera body and a kit lens, I quickly ended up outgrowing my original hiking bag. This was a fairly decent hiking bag from Decathlon but ultimately it wasn’t designed for photographers. It was a simple hiking bag with a camera insert that I bought separately. This worked for a while but as I added more gear, I found that the bag was no longer able to carry everything I needed.

Following along some of the larger photography Youtubers such as Thomas Heaton, or James Popsys, I saw that they’d both landed on the Shimoda Action X50 as their hiking bag of choice. I decided to give it a try and I’ve been using it for the past year.

The Specs

So the Shimoda Action X50 is aptly named for being a 50L hiking bag with a roll-top design which allows us to squeaze out a little more capacity within the bag for winter hikes where we need to carry things like my crampons or additional layers.

It features a back access panel which allows you to lay the bag down and access the gear from the internal camera unit that you can purchase alongside the bag. You’ve got the option of a small, medium, or large ICU depending on how much gear you need to carry. I opted for the medium ICU which allows me to carry my Sony A7IV with my Sigma 24-70mm 2.8f lens attached, as well as potentially my Tamron 70-180mm 2.8f lens.

If I’m going for a longer hike, I can swap out the medium ICU for a smaller one and reduce the weight of the bag and the amount of camera gear I’m carrying. This is essential for longer hikes where I need to carry more food, water, or hiking gear and want to ensure my legs don’t give out on me halfway through the hike.

The Review

The bag itself feels incredibly well made. The zippers are high quality and the bag is made from a durable material that feels like it could take a beating. So far, it’s done an incredible job of protecting my camera gear whilst also being incredibly comfortable to wear.

It’s also configurable to suit the wearer. There are a number of straps that can be adjusted depending on your preferences and how tall you are which make a huge difference when it comes to where the weight of the bag sits on your body.

Whilst it is a fairly pricey bag, I do 100% think it’s worth the investment. I’ve tried a number of other bags over the years and have a sense of buyers remorse for these other bags, but with the Shimoda, I would 100% buy a replacement one in a heartbeat if anything were to happen to this one. I’d potentially spring to a different colour, but that’s about it.