HPRC 2550 vs Pelican 1510

Those of you who have read this blog before will know that I'm a big fan of the carry-on sized Pelican 1510.  HPRC are an Italian competitor of Pelican who over the last few years have been making inroads into other markets.  I'd noticed that their carry-on sized case, very similar to the Pelican 1510, seemed inexplicably to be larger on the inside and smaller on the outside than the Peli, albeit by a small margin.

You can see the difference above with both cases lined up along their back edges (off photo).  It's not much, but every little counts when you're hauling something across airports, into and out of overhead storage on airliners.  But here's where it gets really interesting....

So it turns out that HPRC have done the seemingly impossible; making a case smaller on the outside and bigger inside, than the equivalent Pelican 1510.  They've done it simply by designing specifically for purpose.  The Pelican 1510 is a minor adaptation of a carry-case with a handle-and-wheel component bolted onto the back of the case.  So you lose around an inch of the depth of the case to the handle-and-wheel parts.  The HPRC case is full depth and the handle tunnel intrudes slightly into the case interior, as you can see above.  In practice, although the difference in interior dimensions is minor, it makes a big and immediately noticeable difference:

Putting the same equipment I usually carry in the Pelican 1510 into the HPRC 2550 and you can see above how much spare space there is, denoted by the grey squares.  I'm sure a more thoughtful repack would have released the spare spaces into one area had I wanted to, but I didn't have time.  Easily more than enough room for chargers and other paraphenalia that you may want to include on longer trips.

The HPRC's handle is a different design to the Pelican's too:

It normally lies flat but pressing the red button releases it into a vertical position:

where it can be extended:

And here's the cool part... it is taller by about an inch than the Pelican handle.  If you're six foot ++ like me, that's an important difference.  Another notch in the HPRC bedpost, so to speak.

The HPRC case that I had a chance to check out also had an interesting removable insert, seen here open without any dividers in place:

and seen below out of the case and closed.  Quite cool if you need the removable functionality, but not much use to me as I like to maximise my carrying space inside.  Although I haven't seen it, I'm fairly sure you can also get a standard padded divider kit for the HPRC that doesn't convert to a bag, which would give you a bit more space inside and still a good amount of protection.

So to summarise ?  If I was doing it again, I'd buy the HPRC, as they come in at a very similar price to the Pelican case. On the other hand, the HPRC's  advantages aren't enough to make me sell my Pelican 1510.  Even though it is tempting, with the flashy Italian red highlights on the HPRC....

Here's a closing photo, which thanks to the wonders of distortion of the 28mm lens I used makes the HPRC look enormous.  Side by side they look and feel very similar in size and weight, but as I've explained, the HPRC definitely has the edge thanks to its better design.

Successor to LowePro Stealth Backpack announced !

I didn't know when I wrote the last post so many months ago that the good folks at ThinkTank photo were busy putting the finishing touches on a successor to the Stealth backpack that I was writing about.  Turns out the designers that they took with them when they left Lowepro way back in the day actually were the same guys and girls who designed the Stealth backpack.

While at Photokina a few weeks ago on other business I dropped by the TT stand.  I'm on their customer email list and they invited anyone to pop in.  When I mentioned that I had originally been an early adopter of their Modulus kit (or in TT lingo, a "Test Driver") and was based in New Zealand, their head honcho Doug Murdoch remembered my name in a flash.  Quite amazing recall given that he's not exactly been sitting on his hands for the last three years.

Anyway, knowing I've got a wierd thing for camera bags and muttering something about a secret project, he ushered me into their tiny office and showed me a pre release version of the forthcoming Shape Shifter backpack.  Swearing me to secrecy, he told me that Rob Galbraith was due to run the official exclusive launch note.

photo courtesy thinktankphoto.com

Now, picture the scene.  You run an international company that makes camera bags and a guy you know to be obsessed with camera bags walks outta nowhere onto your stand, so you show him your latest, greatest secret bag and you ASK him not to tell ?!?! You don't sit him down and make him sign a Non Disclosure Deed promising fire and brimstone if he so much as thinks about it in public ?  Well, I wouldn't have trusted me.  Not because I look shifty or anything (I don't), but c'mon, the guy knows I blog about camera bags !

Anyway, read all about it here.  Thanks for the heads up Doug.

On the back of my meeting with them, I've hooked up with the local distributors so watch this space for a full review when they're available.