Panel-loaders for 4x5...

[Scott Rosenberg]

hi sheldon,

thanks for the offer. i've got an osprey eclipse already, which carries fairly well, if only the belt was a little smaller!!

[Bruce Watson]

I've got an osprey eclipse already, which carries fairly well, if only the belt was a little smaller!!

IIRC, the whole Osprey line comes with various harness sizes. Unless you are already using the smallest belt size, you should be able to get a smaller belt. Talk to an Osprey dealer, or to Osprey themselves.

[Colin Graham]

Scott, you should check out Gregory bags too- I was talking to a local outfitter and he said they custom fit for the Gregorys; in the backroom they keep many different harness and belt sizes to get it as close as possible. I'm tall and wiry too and getting a pack to fit is always a challenge. My mountainsmith is really a great bag, just doesn't fit at all. Anyway, the Gregorys have great suspension, pivots in the shoulderblades of the harness and also in the waist belt. You can put up to 90% of the weight of the pack on your waist and off your shoulders. Plus many of them have 3 full interior access points- top, bottom and front.

-Forgot to mention, they have waterproof neoprene bottoms as well, could be very useful here in the pacific NW

[Scott Rosenberg]

bruce, i called osprey and they told me that the belts were stitched and could not be changed. what more, they said they did not offer any options to their dealers outside of the general s-m-l-xl bag size, which are meant to vary the torso length.

colin, you know, i've got something on the order of 8 packs and i've never tried gregory! i'll see if i can't find one local and give them a try. they have some that look really nice on their site. my favorite packs for fit and durability are arc-teryx, but they don't make any panel loaders. they told me that the bags will fail first at the zipper attachment points, and so having that big zipper compromises the integrity of the bag.