Camera bags

Review: Blackforest Bags K2 Leather Edition (A Proper Man-Purse of a Camera Bag)

Chris Gampat
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07/31/2018
3 Mins read
Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Blackforest Bags K2 Leather edition review product images 6

Last Updated on 07/31/2018 by Mark Beckenbach

The Blackforest Bags K2 Leather Edition looks nice if you’re into Gucci.

When the Blackforest Bags K2 Leather Edition came in for review, the first thing I thought about is how much it looks like a man purse. I’ve reviewed tons of stylish camera bags before, but more than anything else that I’ve used, the Blackforest Bags K2 Leather Edition seems best meant to accompany your super high end camera. Yet the Blackforest Bags K2 Leather Edition isn’t available at a super high end price. This version is the all-leather option, but there are offerings with canvas if you please. It’s not going to hold a laptop or most computing devices, but it will be more than enough for most things you’ll need to have with you while out shooting.

  • Comfortable because you’re not stuffing it with gear
  • Long walks with it will start to wear on your sides.
  • All leather
  • Pretty much the ultimate man purse

Pros and Cons

Pros

  • Comfortable providing that you didn’t stuff a ton of gear in there
  • All leather
  • Weather protection

Cons

  • Pretty much the ultimate man purse
  • Long walks with it will wear on your side, but that’s with all messenger style camera bags.

Gear Used

The Blackforest Bags K2 Leather Edition was stuffed with a Leica M4P, MiNT Instantkon RF70, Sony a7r III with lenses, film and more.

Blackforest Bags K2 Leather Edition Tech Specs

Specs taken from their website

  1. Full grain leather
  2. Premium cotton twill interlining
  3. YKK zips & premium fittings
  4. Outside specs – 10” L x 7” H x 4.5” D
  5. Inside specs – 9” L x 6” H x 4.0” D
  6. Weight – 1.0 kgs

Ergonomics

The Blackforest Bags K2 Leather Edition is a bag with full grain leather, premium chrome hardware, and a top handle that makes the entire thing resemble a high end lunch box. When slung around your shoulder, it will look like a genuine man bag; not that there is anything wrong with it, but perhaps the canvas versions may look better in person. The access is done via clips that you simply press down on.

The strap on the Blackforest Bags K2 Leather Edition has a little bit of padding, though not much. Understandably, it doesn’t need to be very padded due to the light weight. The back of the bag has a slit pocket for small things. Honestly, not for a whole lot.

Open the Blackforest Bags K2 Leather Edition up and you’ll see the violet red interior. It comes with two dividers and can be used to separate your gear accordingly. Then there is another pocket in the front for storing even more small things.

Build Quality

The Blackforest Bags K2 Leather Edition, despite its appearance, is a very well built camera bag. There is a ton of padding inside that is bound to make your camera gear feel super cozy, and there are pockets and dividers which are very much needed. You can stuff keys, Polaroids, eye drops, eye glasses and lots of other daily essentials in here. Plus the design lends itself to being weather sealed. I genuinely cannot complain about the build quality here.

Ease of Use

Using the Blackforest Bags K2 Leather Edition is a piece of cake. There is nothing remarkable or complicated about it except for its design. You can easily call it a lunch box, but to be honest there are tons of men here in NYC who wear smaller bags like this simply because they don’t need something super large. In fact, smaller messengers are typically the way to go. The all leather version of this bag though can be a tad too ostentatious, but I’ll leave that opinion to you.

Conclusions

The Blackforest Bags K2 Leather Edition is a nice bag. I say that will utter honesty and editorial credibility. But I’m not quite sure that it’s the bag for me. Maybe if the leather gets beaten in for a really long time then I’ll consider it. But for the most part, I’m much more of a canvas guy. For functionality, you really can’t complain about it. There’s a lot of room to stuff a ton of little things in there. The strap is nice. And overall, you’ll appreciate the construction of the interior’s cushion.

The Blackforest Bags K2 Leather Edition earns four out of five stars.

Blackforest Bags K2 Leather Edition camera bag Canvas cushion interior leather leica strap weather sealing
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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.