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Camera bags

Review: Acme Made Union Ultra Zoom Camera Bag

Chris Gampat
No Comments
05/22/2011
3 Mins read
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Last Updated on 06/24/2011 by Chris Gampat

It just so happened that the Acme Made Union Ultra Zoom camera bag ended up in my hands. The company, who is seemingly affiliated with Lowepro in some way, shows great knowledge in their design of camera bags for different niche photographers. The Union Ultra Zoom is a small camera bag that seems to be the softshell turtle of the bunch for Micro Four Thirds, superzoom, Sony NEX and other small camera owners.

Technical Specifications

  • Sized to fit new ultra-zoom and mirrorless interchange lens cameras.
  • Dedicated pocket for batteries or other small accessories.
  • Quick-access lens pocket for easy storage and retrieval.
  • Multiple carrying options: adjustable shoulder strap and rear belt strap.

    • External Dimensions

    Height: 6″ | 15.2cm
    Length: 4.75″ | 12.1cm
    Width: 4″ | 10.2cm
    Internal Dimensions
    Height: 5.7″ | 14.5cm
    Length: 4.25″ | 10.8cm
    Width: 3.5″ | 8.8cm
    Weight: .3lb | .136kg

Built Quality

On the outside, the Acme Made Union Ultra Zoom is a lightly armored infantry soldier that you’d send in right behind your front lines into the field of battle. In the above photo, it’s right next to my Olympus Pen Premium Leather Case. The case on the right is nowhere as sturdy and can’t hold anywhere as much as the Ultra Zoom case can, but it’s quite a bit sexier with its retro styling look.

Nontheless, the Ultra Zoom camera bag doesn’t seem like it was designed for sex-appeal, it was designed to do work.

On the back of the camera bag is a belt strap that can attach onto your belt, the strap of anothercamera bag, etc. So to be clear: if you’ve got a larger camera in another camera bag, you can strap this onto the camera bag’s strap.

Space

Inside of this quasi-clam shell is a heck of a lot of room. It can hold your super-zoom camera, Micro Four Thirds Camera, Sony NEX camera, Fuji X100, rangefinder, etc. When I put my EP-2 in there, the camera bag still had lots and lots of room for other things. I saw this as both a plus and a minus. It’s a plus because I can stuff whatever else I want to in there. It’s a minus because I don’t want my camera to move around a lot while it’s inside. When I took it around for a photowalk, it didn’t seem to matter too much as the camera still stayed relatively secure.

On the side of the above photo is a little pocket to hold an extra battery, SD cards, microfiber cloths, etc. The design of the bag is to naturally curve around to protect the camera in what’s seemingly like a clamshell case, but more pliable. If I were to take this camera bag around on a photowalk or into a large crowd where it may get bumped, I know the camera inside will be protected.

This is a camera bag for the traveler, OCD protective photographer, the photographer with kids, and the photographer that wants to carry a lot of stuff in a very small package. With that in mind, it isn’t necessarily for me just yet because of the fact that I already have a Olympus Premium Leather case and I’m very happy with it.

If I didn’t have said case, you’d have to rip this out of my cold, dead hands.

In the meantime though, you can win this bag from us by:

– Leaving a comment on this post about why you like small and tough camera bags

– Following us on Facebook

– Following us on Twitter

Within a week, we will announce the winner.

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acme made camera bag lowepro micro four thirds review sony nex traveler union ultra zoom
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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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