Review: NYA Evo Fjord 60 Camera Backpack

As a freelance mountain photographer I’m always playing around with different ways to carry my photography kit out in the hills, when going out specifically to get pictures using a range of lenses a dedicated camera backpack can be just the thing. I had been looking to review some camera backpacks for use in challenging mountain conditions and things don’t get much more challenging than winter in the Scottish mountains.

I’ve used camera back packs in the mountains before but have quite often packed gear in various pouches in my regular mountaineering rucksacks, but this does interrupt the flow of photography as the gear isn’t as accessible. I was looking to try a camera backpack for winter so it would have to carry a full winter kit of crampons, ice axes a scrambling rope and leave room for essential safety gear like bivvy shelter, first aid kit and plenty of clothing and do this whilst carrying well on steep winter terrain and weatherproof enough to protect my precious camera gear.

My personal preference on rucksacks is not to have too many bells and whistles, straps and pockets, I’m very much in the keep it simple school, however with camera bags, especially backpacks being able to organise things like laptops, batteries and cables and keep them segregated from wet jackets and potentially leaky flasks of coffee is not a bad idea so doing this in a clean and simple way is key for me.

It should be noted that this style of camera bag will often double up as travel bags to transport gear on planes and trains. In an ideal world I would like to see a camera bag with the functionality of a clean alpine style pack with an accessible RCI and a basic padded laptop sleeve inside with roll top closure, this is probably a niche too far.

Like many others I now like to see how sustainable my gear is, is it manufactured from materials that are recycled, is it manufacture ethically, is it going to last and is it repairable?

NYA-EVO is a relatively new player on the camera scene. Based in the Nordics they concentrate exclusively on a relatively small but focused range of adventure camera backpacks and it is obvious they have a passion for the outdoors and adventure sports.

The plan was always to test some camera bags in winter preferably in Scotland, the maritime winter climate of Scotland is as harsh on your gear as anywhere on the globe and probably not so different to the Norwegian mountains that gave birth to NYA-EVO

Fortunately the bag arrived before a trip up to the Skye winter climbing festival, a quick shakedown early morning walk in Snowdonia let me play with the various packing options and use the comprehensive adjustments to get a good fit before filling it up with camera gear.

I packed a pretty comprehensive range of camera equipment for the trip, one Nikon Z6 body, three zooms, a couple of prime lenses and a Drone in addition to the spare batteries, a Lee filters kit and a 3 legged thing tripod. 

The vague plan was to be on the Cuillin ridge at sunset or sunrise for some winter mountain photography. Obviously the weather gods have the last say in the plans of photographers and mountaineers and Skye had always proved to be pretty temperamental with the weather.

The Cuillin ridge is one of the few true mountaineering playgrounds of the UK. It’s not one to taken lightly in the winter, so I’d need a full complement of winter clothing, emergency shelter, first aid kit and obviously crampons and ice axe.

The bag swallowed both my mountain gear and my camera gear, the outside was packed with a tripod, walking poles and an ice axe all without having to use the expansion zip.

NYAEVO bags are unashamedly designed for adventure photographers. But I’d go a step further and say they are designed for those who at some point will be playing in the white stuff.

Like most of this style of camera bag it is also got travel in mind, so is designed to get your camera, laptops, hard drives onto a plane and too your destination before the real adventure starts but NYA EVO leans towards the adventure side of functionality which is no bad thing.

The front pocket functions as a laptop sleeve but on the hill will take a snow shovel avalanche probe. There is also a helmet holder and plenty of attachments for ropes, ice axes, walking poles, tripods, skis, snowboards.

Participant photographers are the demographic for this bag, people who are immersed in the action that they are photographing/filming and need to carry pro level camera equipment into the hills without being slowed down too much.