REVIEW: Shimoda Action X25 V2 Camera Rucksack

The bag was used for some springtime photographic trips in the hills, some climbing photography and maybe a spell on the bike. I also had some work trips planned, so some travelling with the camera and laptops was also in order. Using a smaller bag can be good for ‘gear discipline’ and personally I quite often fall into the trap of over-packing when it comes to photographic kit. The ICU took my Nikon Z6 with a 24-120mm zoom, a spare wide-angle zoom and an additional prime lens. There are a couple of options for storage of spare batteries, camera accessories as well as a laptop, and your general equipment is kept separate from your camera gear in the main compartment.

In the spirit of keeping things lightweight, I kept the gear pretty minimalist, but the bag took everything I needed for the hills without any compromise on clothing, bothy bag and all the relevant headtorches and mountain gubbins! The handy water bottle and tripod holder took care of business for external carrying.

Although this is the smallest bag in the range, it was roomier than I first thought. Using it for a climbing shoot, I managed to fit the camera, 3 lenses, drone, accessories and some spare clothes in. It comfortably carried my camera gear up to Dinas Cromlech on a hot, sweaty slog, once again confirming the comfort of the back system.

The conditions whilst using this bag have been pretty clement so it hasn’t had a real beating from the weather just yet, but I’m confident that it would deal with rain and snow showers fairly comfortably before the rain cover had to come out.

The bag also did a little travelling and comfortably carried my camera a couple of lenses and my 13” Macbook (which was at the limit of the laptop storage), headphones and work stuff without any issues.

The Shimoda Action X range is marketed at the adventure sports photographers and the X25 would be an ideal bag for photographers looking for a good day bag that also double as a plane-friendly camera travel bag. If you were out for a day’s skiing, mountain biking, bouldering, hiking or indeed anything adventurous and needed a bag that protects your gear from weather and knocks, has enough versatile carry points to take on skis, helmets, tripods, axes etc., then this bag should be considered. Obviously if you are carrying bigger camera systems there are larger bags that are more suitable.

The bag is relatively expensive in today’s financial climate, and of course, there are cheaper products out there. Bear in mind however, that they inevitably don’t have the same quality materials, workmanship and the adventure-specific features that the Shimoda Action X25 v2 has.

It’s a premium product and in actual fact, is competitively priced compared to similar products from competitors on what is quite a niche market.