Reviews |Fig Bags The Hanborough Review

Fig Bags The Hanborough Review

Fig Bags The Hanborough Review
Review

There are some fantastic camera bags around at the moment, but lots of them look like camera bags. Sometimes you want a little more style. You might want something that passes muster in the office, or doesn’t stand out in the city, or maybe just something that looks nice on your shoulder at a wedding.

Fig Bags makes a range of leather and vegan bags that are designed to look like bags rather than camera bags. Some are designed with women in mind, but others, like The Hanborough, are more unisex.

Fig Bags The Hanborough combines the simple lines of a leather satchel with a traditional camera bag. The exterior is made from hand-crafted leather, but inside there’s a soft, cushioned liner to protect your camera gear.

Key Specifications

  • Leather exterior
  • Secure and easily accessible clasp
  • Detachable shoulder strap
  • Two positionable dividers
  • Internal pocket to house a tablet up to 11-inches
  • Exterior dimensions D x H x L : 12.5cm x 25cm x 31cm
  • Interior dimensions D x H x L : 12cm x 24.5cm x 30cm

Inside

Fig Bags also supplies two simple dividers. These have Velcro down their two long sides so they can be fixed where you need them in the liner. There’s room to carry a full-frame DSLR like the Canon 5D Mark IV with a 24-70mm f/2.7 attached, plus one or two other lenses. The Hanborough is deep enough to take a 70-200mm f/2.8 lens provided it’s not mounted on a camera.

At the back of the interior, there’s a pocket that’s designed to hold an 11-inch tablet. If you need to, it’s also possible to fit a 13-inch laptop in The Hanborough’s main compartment. However, doing so means you can’t attach the dividers on one side of the bag and the camera-carrying capability is very limited. But this could be of use if you want to switch around how you use the bag for different occasions. 

Fig Bags offers The Hanborough in a range of colours. My review sample is listed as Navy, but when it arrived I thought it was black. The blue colour is more noticeable on the underside of the leather than it is on the outside.

Fig Bags The Hanborough Review

Build and Handling

The Hanborough is an attractive bag.  It also feels well-made but inevitably it picked up a few minors scuffs within a short space of time. However, I suspect that it’s one of those bags that actually looks better with age. It needs to be used a bit more to soften it up and look a bit less starched.

The leather strap has a large buckle for adjusting the length. There’s also a shoulder pad that helps distribute the weight a bit. It lacks the comfort of a really ergonomically-shaped strap, but it’s not as bad as I feared it might be when the bag is fully-loaded.

Helpfully, the strap is long enough to be worn across your body if you want a bit more security. I adjusted it half-way through its range to carry it like this. However, my 6ft-2 partner needed it at its longest length. It was still a little high, but he was happy to use it like that.

Fig Bags has used sturdy metal clips to attach the strap to metal loops at either side of the bag. However, if you prefer, you can leave off the shoulder strap and carry The Hanborough by its top strap.

Fig Bags The Hanborough Review

While there are buckles on the bag’s flap, there are also metal clasps. That means you can open and close the bag quickly, but you don’t lose any of the hipster satchel styling.

On the outside of the back of the bag, there’s a slim zip-closing pocket. That’s useful for essentials like your wallet/purse and/or passport etc.

Clip

Verdict

Fig Bags The Hanborough has certainly got the looks. And its padding inside should keep your camera gear safe. It’s also sensibly sized, you can get a reasonable amount of kit in there for the style of strap. Any more weight and it would be uncomfortable to carry for any length of time.

If you want a stylish camera bag, or you regularly take your camera to smart events, Fig Bags The Hanborough is well worth considering.

Check the price of the Fig Bags The Hanborough at BH Photo Video in the US.

Competition

If you need something that offers a bit more space a versatility for your camera gear, take a look at our review of the Billingham Hadley One