 Ok, so I've got a selection of rucksacks at the moment from a 5 litre Berghaus hyrdation bag through to a 120 litre British Army Bergen and a full set of PLCE webbing, although my three main bags would be: Deuter Future 32AC - My current day sack North Face 40 litre - It's 8 years old and I can't for the life of me remember the model name. It's a frameless, green and black bag aimed at climbers given the narrow profile and gear loops on the hip belt North Face Perseverance - 95ish litre expedition pack with that I bought for 3 1/2 months in the US. Really nice sack but possibly OTT for an ovenight hike and a little heavy by today's standards. I'm planning on doing some overnighters this year but as a keen photographer I have to factor in 5.5Kg (and rising) of camera gear so I need a sack that will provide sufficient capacity, plus carry the weight comfortably. My girlfriend has a Stratos 32 and I much prefer it compared to my Deuter so I'm looking at the Osprey options and I keep coming back to the Atmos 50. In the flesh it seems like a nice bag, big enough and the specs from Osprey suggest it's comfortable upto 15 or 16Kg So bottom line, should I plump for the Atmos 50, save some money and dust off the Perseverance or consider another bag altogether? I run hot so ventilated backs are a bonus, and I think the Osprey solution of storing your bladder in the airspace is genius. All input welcome...
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 95 litres seems like massive overkill, especially since you are looking at a fifty litre as an ideal. if you are carrying 5.5 kg of camera equipment it makes sense to me to reduce the weight of everything else as much as possible. my first choice would always be to buy new gear  but otherwise could you get your kit (and be comfortable) into the 40litre?
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 OMM Mountain Mover. I lack the literary skills to fully describe just how much I like this bag. Flawless, that's what it is. There you go
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95 litres seems like massive overkill, especially since you are looking at a fifty litre as an ideal. if you are carrying 5.5 kg of camera equipment it makes sense to me to reduce the weight of everything else as much as possible. my first choice would always be to buy new gear but otherwise could you get your kit (and be comfortable) into the 40litre? 95 litres is over kill, you should try the 120 litre bergen + webbing!!! Outside of the camera kit I've got/am going to buy the following: - Rab Super Dru - 400g
- Rab Bergen Pants - 350g
- Rab Generator Smock - 350g
- MSR Windpro + Titan Mug, Titan Kettle + Titan Spoon - 300g ?
- Vango Venom 300 + silk liner - 800g
- TNF Mountain Marathon - 1.5Kg
- Vango 3/4 Trek mattress - 700g
So all up that's in the region of 4.5Kg... Add food, water fuel and any other bits and bobs eg. torch, first aid kit, map, compass spare socks etc... and 'll probably be pushing 15Kg so getting to the comfort limit of the Atmos. I don't necessarily see the need to strip that down any further, ok a Laser Competition would be nice, but I got the Mountain Marathon for £80 and given that I'm a pretty well built 15 stone I don't think a few hundred grams is going to make that much difference.
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OMM Mountain Mover. I lack the literary skills to fully describe just how much I like this bag. Flawless, that's what it is. There you go
The Mountain Mover looks very nice, but does it have an actual back system, I can't work it out from their site!?!?
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OMM Mountain Mover. I lack the literary skills to fully describe just how much I like this bag. Flawless, that's what it is. There you go
The Mountain Mover looks very nice, but does it have an actual back system, I can't work it out from their site!?!?
Yes, the Platformat, a kind of removable "back board". Works well but only comes in the one back length so you'd need to try for size.
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for 15kg i would go for as much comfort as poss from a back-pack, and your right, your kit is pretty much as stripped down as it can be- i've heard very good things about the omm kit.
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Another vote for the OMM Mountain Mover. I don't know about it being the "perfect pack", but it's about the best reasonably lightweight load carrier I've come across. It easily takes food and gear for a few days and remains comfortable. The pockets and other storage options are good, and can be removed if weight is a priority.
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I've just been round to Cotswolds to take another look at the Atmos 50 and it's a very nice bag. One slight concern is the access to the bottom of the pack, given that it's only got the top opening and the back system eats into the space, you get quite a narrow deep load area. For the extra grams I think it would really benefit from a secondary access. They also had the Aether 70 which comes across as a far more basic pack and more important lacks a lower compression strap on the side. I carry my tripod strapped to the side of my pack so this puts me off. I'd love to see the OMM, but trying to find somewhere in the south east that stocks them could be tricky... The Kestrel 48 also looks promising, any ideas when these might appear in stores?
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Going back to basics one of things I really like about the full vented back Osprey bags is that ability to store your bladder in the air space. I think this is genius as it makes refills so much easier (I drink alot). I wouldn't even consider trying to refil the bladder in my Deuter as you can't get it back in without emptying half the bag. I do run hot so the vented backs are a bonus, that said I've not tried any of the AirScape type foam and mesh options so I've no idea how effective they are?
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www.rockrun.com still have the exposure 50 for only £55 At that price it's almost worth buying just to have it in the collection!  Just like the Rab Lofoten I'm about to take back in favour of the Super Dru. It was £109... Looking at the details on the Exposure it appears to be a very nice pack, but it has no compression straps on the sides and as mentioned, I like to stow my tripod on the side of my bag, strapping 3Kg of tripod to the front of a rucksack might not do great things for my balance!
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I must stop adding to my own threads, but this is quite a good review of the Atmos 50 and confirms a couple of the concerns I have.... http://www.backpackgeartest.org/reviews/Packs/Internal%20and%20External%20Framed%20Backpacks/Osprey%20Atmos%2050/Owner%20Review%20by%20Mark%20Ferguson/
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 The Kestrel 48 also looks promising, any ideas when these might appear in stores? Should be now. I went into OpenAir in Cambridge last weekend and they had a 38 long-back and were awaiting the 48's this week. Had a phone call the earlier in the week to say they and short-back 38's and more colours are in. Apparently Ospray had a little trouble getting them through customs in a timely manner. Beth
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 I have just bought a Kestrel 48 and it looks and feels promising. I was quite surprised by its size, it looks quite close to a 65l Karrimor that I have. It has a zippered opening to the bottom, sleeping bag, compartment. I bought it from ebags for £76.50 with free delivery and it took only 2 days to arrive. That offer has sadly now ended.
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 OMM Mountain Mover. I lack the literary skills to fully describe just how much I like this bag. I don't. It's great Regarding your stated needs, it doesn't have a 'cooling' back system, but for your camera equipment - it has deep mesh pockets on the exterior, a large lid pocket and it is unbelievably capacious just inside the lid - you can keep adding and adding stuff.
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 As already noted - if only they'd introduce different back sizes......  On tha Atmos 50, I've heard people comment on difficulty in packing larger items because of the curved back. Also make sure to try it on - an awful lot of people swear by it as one of the most comfortable packs they've ever had, but a minority, myself among them, find it absolute agony with the lower end of the frame digging in against our hips. Fortunately I found this out in the shop!!
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Hi, I've got the deuter ACT Lite 50 +10 and I run really hot too. I have the osprey stratos 34 and love it, but I have found that the act lite actually cools my back more because it pumps the air around the back cavities rather than just letting air get to my back. I found it took a little adjustment to get right but once it was I dont really feel the weight of it and with lots of places to hang kit off it may just be what you're looking for. However the water bladder does sit quite low in the pack, more towards the base and could be difficult to refill when full but all I do is put it in one of the side pockets held in place by one of the compression straps and this solves the problem. Any questions just ask. Andy
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Thanks for all the input on this. The ACT Lite's look quite nice, how long have you had yours Andy, is the pump system something that could stop working over time?
Certainly the packing of the Atmos 50 concerns me. Obviously with a top loading pack anything at the bottom is hard to get at, but when I looked at one more closely today the curved back system really does protrude into the load area!
I'd be very interested to see a Kestrel in the flesh, but I'm concerned about the venting offered by the Airscape system. To my eyes the foam and mesh would get 'mixed' up with your clothing and not perform as designed, especially loaded up with the kit I'm thinking about?
In my student days working at McDonalds I used to be able to break a sweat wearing a thin cotton shirt in a freezer at -20 so any system is going to have it's work cut out, but certainly I feel more comfortable with my venter Deuter Futura over my older conventional TNF bag....
Regarding the comments about stowing the bladder else where, I suppose part of the logic of having it against the frame in the middle is that it doesn't impact your balance? Load it in a side pocket etc... and you're going to have 2Kg off to one side....
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What about the Gregory packs with their 'Jet Stream' back system eg, Z55:
http://www.gregorypacks.com/prod.php?ID=85#
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