I was looking for a camera bag to travel with and came across the Nomatic and Peter McKinnon collaboration, and specifically the NOMATIC Mckinnon Camera Cube Pack highly interested me because it appears to just be a simple camera case but then it magically morphs into a backpack! How cool is that! You can watch my video review below, or if you prefer reading, then the text version is just below.
So usually when I travel I take a ginormous backpack to fit in my jacket, travel pillow, snacks, things for the kid, and so on. Once I get to my destination, I don’t want to haul around a big backpack when I can leave most of the stuff in the hotel room. So using this camera cube seemed like the perfect solution as an everyday backpack.
So let’s get into the bag a little more.
It supposedly works best when paired with the 35L MCKINNON CAMERA PACK as it nests nicely inside the top compartment of it.
For clarification, the Nomatic Mckinnon collection also has a 25 L camera pack which will not fit this cube.
NOMATIC Mckinnon Camera Cube Pack offers 360 degrees of protection with padding all around. It’s also water resistant.
The inside has customizable dividers and an inner pocket. Now in all honesty I’m not a big fan of the brown coloring. But that’s just my personal taste.
One thing to note are the dimensions. The length is 13.25” with a depth of 7.25″ so bigger camera bodies with long lenses attached might be a bit of a squeeze or might not fit at all. Here is the Canon 70-200mm lens which would not fit if it were attached to a camera body.
Another thing is that the height of the camera compartment is about 5″. So again, if you have a larger camera then it might not fit or you may have trouble getting the zipper to close. I have here the Sony a7iii which pokes out at the top a bit but the compartment is able to close.
Alright now to the good stuff. This zippered compartment at the top holds the backpack portion. Just unzip it and connect the backpack straps.
Since it’s not rigid, you can collapse the backpack very small if you don’t have many items. But if you do have a lot of items, then the backpack expands to hold up to 21 liters of stuff.
Alright so after the novelty of the backpack conversion wears off there’s a few things to make note of. First there’s no water bottle holder or outer zipper pocket for quick access for keys etc. Theres not too many exterior straps to hang caribiners, attach tripods, etc.
Second, there’s no quick access to the bottom compartment and requires you to have a decent surface to balance your pack on. A heavy topside can tip the bottom compartment a little bit if you’re not careful.
Third is the straps. It does come with a chest strap which is nice. But some reviewers say the shoulder straps dig into your shoulders while others said it was fine. It seems to depend on how much stuff you put in the bag. At 21 liters, you can easily put a lot of stuff which might make it overweight and uncomfortable with the provided straps.
Overall, the construction of the bag feels good. Not too flimsy. I like that it’s lightweight at 1.36 pounds.
There are some negatives to the bag but the small form factor is hard to beat.
▸ Learn more about the Nomatic Camera Cube: https://amzn.to/3RZwfzg (Disclaimer: This is an affiliate link, which means that I may earn a small commission if you click and make a qualifying purchase. But, there’s no extra cost to you.)
