equipment reviews
yellow moon ym-902
During my trip to Cuba in May 2009, I had to walk for many hours a day and to climb the hills of Cuchillas de Toa in east of the country. I recognized that my biggest problem in the field was carrying a camera with a large supertelephoto lens (often with a TC) mounted and ready for use — not because it was heavy, or bulky but because I still had no convenient carrying system for it. I was walking for up to 7 hours a day in tropical mountain forests with my camera ready for a shot all the time but...
- ... I couldn't put the camera with the lens into a backpack because I needed it to be always ready;
- ... that gear was too heavy to be carried all the time on the neck, and it was dangerous too — because I could fall forward, and the lens would be the first to hit the earth;
- ... it was too dangerous to carry it on the strap and on a shoulder because shrubs and stones were hitting it, and the lens was hanging so low that it sometimes touched the earth, it was also extremely inconvenient because the strap tended to slip off the shoulder;
- ... therefore I had to carry the camera and that heavy lens in my hands most of the time, and that was particularly exhausting and dangerous because I needed my hands to grab trees and stones to free the way or to be able to move forward.
I were able to take even a larger lens in the field if I would have solved this issue. I had preferred to carry the gear either on my back — but completely assembled and instantly accessible — or on my chest — but not hanging on my neck and not with the lens hanging down. If it should be a bag, I was looking for a bag that had the following qualities:
- Large: Enough space for the longest lens available on the market (up to 800 mm — in case I would get one some day) mounted on a camera body and with hood on.
- Lightweight: under 2 kg.
- Top loader: Completely assembled camera and lens had to be accessible from outside without need for the bag to be opened.
I asked people at photography forums for ideas and looked at what the manufacturers of photo bags were offering. In 2009, I could find the following choices:
Manufacturer | Model | Weight, kg | Length, cm | Comment |
Andy Rouse | Viper | 3.06 | 75.5 | good volume-weight ratio but too big and overall too heavy |
Lowepro | Lens Trekker AW 600 II | 2.8 | 61 | about 70% heavier than YM-902, can't stay opened while being carried |
Kinesis | Long Lens Case 600 (L611, L622) | 2.1 | 67 | were my favourite, but no dealer in Europe |
Yellow Moon | YM-902 | 1.8 | 62 - 65 | the lightest among long lens bags available in Europe, most inexpensive of all 4 candidates |
Andy Rouse's Viper could accommodate almost all my photo equipment. It is well-designed but huge and too heavy for use as field backpack. For my purposes its usefulness was quite limited but it was quite pricy. The Lowepro Lens Trekker was a high-quality bag, very comfortable to carry and very-well manufactured. However, it had two disadvantages. First, with 2.8 kg, it was quite heavy. Second, to pull out the equipment one needed to open a zip lock, i.e. it wasn't possible to do it quickly. The L521 (Long Lens Case) from Kinesis was my favourite. It was almost perfectly meeting my requirements. Unfortunately that bag wasn't available for purchase in Europe and it was too expensive to order it in USA — because of high shipment cost and customs duty. Finally, I decided to go for Yellow Moon YM-902.
I searched the Internet for information about this bag and other Yellow Moon products but didn't find any. Also the company itself was unknown. In Germany, the YM-902 was available only from the shop Isarfoto, so everything I new about this bag was the data published on Isarfoto website — size, weight, a photo, and of course, price which didn't look high in comparison with other such bags. I ordered the bag there.
After I received my YM-902, my first impressions were quite mixed. Certainly, it had many positive features:
- The bag has a shape of a tube and was keeping it after the upper hood had been removed. Due to this it is possible to take out the camera with a big telephoto lens attached quickly by pulling it out through the top of YM-902.
- It is quite big but not huge. However, it has rather big side pockets, that make it wide.
- There are two exchangeable caps — one higher and one lower. For the bag to be closed, a cap has to be attached to the top of YM-902 with a zip lock. One can use either one or another cap depending on the size of the lens. With the bigger cap, the bag would offer enough space at least for a 600 mm lens — with a hood and a camera attached. Anyway, the longest lens that I had at that moment (EF300mm f/2.8L IS USM), with a hood, a teleconverter and a camera attached was only about 53 cm long. It looks like this bag can accommodate almost a twice as long gear when the bigger cap is used.
- The YM-902 doesn't have a rain cover but the fabric it was made of was looking like it would withstand a "normal" rain. It appeared to be better than in Lowepro and Think Tank bags which have weather protection covers.
- The bottom of YM-902 is reinforced with rubbered fabric, so that it should be safe to put the bag on wet earth or grass. It can also be cleaned very easily.
- The colour is brown and black — good for camouflage.
- The inner padding is quite good but not very thick, so that much space inside the bag still remains free.
- The bag feels light despite its size.
- The side pockets are large and offer much space for other equipment, food, or some cloths.
Unfortunately, I saw that YM-902 had quite obvious deficits, too:
- The carrying harness of YM-902 isn't so well fitted to human body as in a hiking backpack or in Lowepro 600 AW Lens Trekker. However, it was nice that the hooks that the shoulder straps are attached with are made of steel — not of plastic, as in bags of Lowepro.
- As I mentioned above, there is no cover for rain protection as in Lowepro, Think Tank, or Kata bags. However, it is a minor problem because such covers are available separately in tourist shops.
- To take out the lens and the camera, you have to zip off the top cap completely if the bag was closed. This lets me assume that YM-902 was designed with the idea that the hood will be removed in advance — i.e. before shooting — and the bag should be carried open to allow quick access to the camera.
- If according to the design concept the hood has to be unzipped and taken off, then there should be a place in the bag where the hood can be kept while it is not used. But there is none.
- The outer padding on the back side isn't good enough for this bag to be used as real hiking backpack but may be enough for excursions of 2 - 4 hours. But for sure, it wouldn't be comfortable to carry it the whole day long.
Overall, compared to Lowepro or Kata products, this bag looks like a cheap, old-fashioned backpack, i.e. it is not so stylish and colourful. I didn't view this as a disadvantage however because I was hoping that it wouldn't attract thieves as likely as typical photo bags.
Having used Yellow Moon YM-902 now for a year, I can only confirm the deficits of this bag that undermine its advantages. Although it is lightweight, it proved to be very uncomfortable for carrying: When it is empty it feels very nice on your back and particularly on shoulders — with its soft padded straps. But when you have put heavy gear into it, the bottom of the bag starts hurting your back. It is impossible to carry this bag for a long period of time because of that.
There are other big problems caused by the construction of YM-902. Its walls have two layers. Actually it consists of two tubes put one into another. The inner tube is the padding of this bag that can be taken out. What then remains it is a simple nylon shell. I don't see what the designers of such construction were planning it for. Did they think that someone would want to reduce the weight even more? The padding is quite thin, and taking it out wouldn't help much because the bag is already very lightweight. It serves as carcass that supports the shape of the bag. Without padding, YM-902 becomes very soft and can't even stand upright. When the padding is inside, there is no way to fixate it, i.e. it is simple put into the shell. Therefore the padding stays in place only when the outer pockets are empty. If something heavy is in the pockets, the shell is pulled down, and the padding protrudes above it. It may make sense that the padding can be taken out (for instance, if one would need to wash the shell), but why there is nothing it can be attached with when it is inside? A zip lock or a velcro band around the edge of the bag would be enough, but the designers didn't think about it. Due to this problem, the YM-902 bag can be carried open only when there is nothing heavy inside the pockets. However, the pockets are big, and when they are loaded even with small items, they become heavy. Hence you can use this bag open in the field is when you leave the pockets empty.
Unlike in the bags of Lowepro and Kinesis, the pockets in YM-902 can't be removed. This bag has 4 very large pockets. Two are smaller but still big enough to take at least a professional camera body. The larger pockets are so big that you can easily put two lenses or two camera bodies into each of them. When the pockets are empty, they remain on the bag a make it bigger.
The YM-902 is quite wide — anyway much wider even than the hood of my EF300mm f/2.8L IS USM, and when this big lens is inside, much empty space is remaining around it. There are 4 velcro stripes along the inner side of the padding. They should be used for attachment of two dividers — two plates of foam. One divider consists of two halves that should be put around the lens. This should fixate the gear inside the bag and prevent it from swinging or falling to a side every time when the bag is tilted a little. This may work for long transportation, but is very unpractical if the camera has to be frequently used. Taking out the camera becomes very cumbersome because of that. Even for transportation at long distances, this kind of fixation doesn't work well even with my — not very big — lens.
conclusion
The Yellow Moon YM-902 long lens bag has too many deficits. The only one advantage of it that comes to my mind is its size. It should be large enough even for the largest lenses — like Canon 1200mm F5.6 IS L USM or Sigma 200-500mm F2,8 EX DG. Unless you have such a lens, I think, you will hate this bag. Don't buy it!