The best kit to pass through our labs this month

Shimoda Urban Explore 25

£299/$299

Customisable and comfortable for street shooting

shimodadesigns.com

Designed to meet the needs of city-dwelling photographers who don’t require something as bulky and rugged as camera backpacks designed for wilderness trekking, the Urban Explore comes in three sizes and the 25 is the mid-range option. Geared towards street and architectural shooters, the Urban Explore’s material is manufactured from recycled plastic bottles, so it’s on-brand eco-wise.

The bag’s ‘Core Unit’ is a padded box for stowing cameras, lenses and other kit. As it’s removable, the Urban Explore can be switched between a backpack for travelling and a camera bag. The main compartment can be accessed from the side and the rear of the bag, although we found the rear access to be the most useful.

The two side pockets will take a short tripod or a drinks bottle, and a padded sleeve will keep a 16-inch laptop safe. Other well-considered features of the Urban Explore include a hidden passport pouch and a pocket for stowing an Apple AirTag or other tracking device for keeping tabs on your camera setup’s whereabouts.

Padded straps

Thanks to generously padded shoulder straps and a supporting chest strap, the Urban Explore 25 was comfortable to carry and a cushioned yet breathable mesh prevented me from getting sweaty. Handles on both the top and bottom of the backpack make detaching it and placing it on a surface easy and large textured tags on the zip pulls make it easy to grip them when unzipping the bag from the rear.