Juniorbird.com

When my “camera got stolen”:http://juniorbird.com/archive/003263.html, I also lost the camera bag that went with it. Not so serious, since said bag was actually too small; I used it for the occasional gad about town, but, in general, I kept my body and lenses in padded containers in my backpack when out shooting. My replacement camera came with a replacement holster-style camera bag, which was good enough for the Canon with the smaller lens attached, but too small for my 300mm zoom. Hey, it’s Christmas, maybe I should ask for a camera bag that fits the zoom? I mean, I do have a dream camera bag…
Of course, it’s one of those impossible dreams. See, when I’m traveling, I carry my camera around all day, and then come home to my laptop to edit what I shot. Now, for travel purposes, I’d like to have a single bag that carries camera, laptop, and a bit of day pack-y stuff.[1] Simple, right? If perhaps a bit big. But here’s the problem: I really covet a sling bag. I hate putting everything on the ground and digging through the backpack I currently carry every time I want to change lenses. To be honest, it’s annoying and slow enough that I pass up some shots just because I don’t have an appropriate lens on. So I think a sling bag would be a great thing to have.
And it would be, if only sling bags came with laptop compartments! The laptop is probably too big to practically fit in a sling bag, though. So how else can I get convenient camera access and laptop carriage? I’m hesitant to carry my laptop separately because, let’s face it, we’ve all seen what “our fellow fliers”:http://juniorbird.com/archive/001645.html do to get their bags in the overhead bins; I don’t want my laptop sharing the same space as those hammered-in oversized bags! But I might have to accept that to get the photo bag I want.
So, what’s the good compromise here? Or is there the perfect product for me out there?[2]
fn1. You know, maps, guidebooks, Clif bars, water, rain shell, English-Hungarian dictionary, etc.
fn2. I don’t think messenger bags will do it, because I am often on my feet all day long when traveling, and need something with out all of the ergonomic challenges messenger bags offer.