Are Kata bags worth their price?

Question

I've outgrown my modest bag and now I'm going on vacation, I need a new one. I need a backpack which can double as a cabin luggage (will need to hold laptop, D90, lenses, strobes, and some other gadgets), carrying the camera plus some food and clothing on short hikes, and camera storage at home. Kata has some great offers, like the Owl 272 pl or the Bumblebee 220 pl, but all the models I liked cost 180 to 280 Euro, which is the price of a decent prime lens. Other producers offer models in similar sizes at half or two thirds Kata's prices, the Lowepro Vertex 100 AW makes a good impression.

I haven't seen any of the bags with my eyes and will order over the Internet. I have the right to send it back if I don't like it, but as they are not always in stock, buying a second model if the first disappoints me could take too long, in the worst case it won't arrive before I fly.

So if you have had any hands-on experience with Kata bags (in general, not only the models I linked): do they have any tangible benefits over comparable models from other manufacturers, or is the higher price just a premium paid for owning a famous brand? Or do you know of any reliable test reports (not Amazon reviews, but tests made by reliable pro magazines) which confirm or disprove the higher Kata quality?

Answer

In my opinion, yes they are. But "worth the price" is something that is highly subjective.

The sad fact is that specialty bags carry a higher price, just because.

You have to ask yourself, how often do you plan on making use of it?

Kata bags are more comfortable, and are more rigid than Lowepro. My first camera backpack was a lowepro and I didn't like it. The inserts felt cheap, and while there was room for my gear at the time, the bag was bulky and didn't do a good job of distributing the weight.

I also found that Kata had a much nicer construction quality compared to lowepro.

I travel a lot with my gear, so for me, buying a nicer bag was important. I moved to the Crumpler line, because I found their quality to be top notch (even if it's a higher price).

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