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Shoulder bag showdown: PolarPro vs. Peak Design

Digital Photography Review news -

Photo: Mitchell Clark

This week, PolarPro announced the RoadRunner collection, a range of photography-focused bags with a lightweight yet rugged design. I recently bought a 7L Peak Design Outdoor Sling, because it promised many of the same things, so I've decided to put it head to head with PolarPro's 6L shoulder bag. We'll compare how the bags are built, what they can carry and who they're made for.

Two strapping bags

One of the major differences between these two bags is clear right from the names: the Peak Design is a sling bag, where the strap goes around your body and the pouch rests against your front or back. The PolarPro bag, meanwhile, has a strap that goes around your shoulder and a bag that sits down against your hip or side. Both straps can be completely detached from the bag and have ample padding for carrying even relatively heavy loads.

Photo: Kevin Mahoney

PolarPro's strap is made of adjustable webbing with clips on each end that attach to rings on the bag's body. The Peak Design bag's strap attaches with hooks but also has a clasp in the middle, making it easy to buckle and unbuckle.

Perhaps too easy to unbuckle – I've heard several people say they've accidentally opened the clasp, leading to them dropping their bags. While it's never happened to me, it's not hard to imagine; instead of a traditional buckle that you have to press in on both sides, the Peak Design bag opens with a single push of a lever, which isn't really ideal for a bag meant to hold expensive gear.

I don't think I want my camera bag to be this easy to unclasp.

One last gripe about the Peak Design's strap: it's much easier to switch which shoulder you're carrying the PolarPro on since you won't have to adjust the strap at all. If you want to switch shoulders with the Peak Design, you'll have to detach both sides of the strap and flip it around.

Exterior Design Photo: Mitchell Clark

PolarPro's bag is made out of a 600D ripstop nylon that the company says "resists" water. The Peak Design, meanwhile, is made out of a 210D ripstop material that the company calls "weatherproof," a label it also applies to the zippers. Despite the clear weather sealing, the Peak Design's zippers are about as easy to open as the PolarPro's unsealed ones, which isn't always true for water-resistant zippers.

PolarPro's bag has a beefy, rubberized handle on the top lid, which feels much better than the cord handle the Peak Design uses. However, if the lid for the PolarPro is unzipped, that handle essentially becomes useless, whereas you can use the Peak Design's handle to move it around even if it's open. Doing so is obviously a bit reckless, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

Photo: Kevin Mahoney

Empty, the 6L PolarPro bag weighs 579g (20.4 oz), while the Peak Design weighs 335g (11.8 oz). However, adding the X-small camera cube required to turn it into a proper protective camera bag on par with the PolarPro brings the weight up to 555g (19.6 oz).

Interior Design

The Outdoor Sling and RoadRunner shoulder bags have a very similar layout – one main zippered compartment, then a smaller front zippered pocket. Both have a wide array of pouches designed to hold things like lens filters, batteries and SD cards, though I found the Peak Design's to be much easier to use. The ones on the PolarPro have a top flap, which keeps things from falling out when you open the lid but also makes it difficult to insert or remove larger items like camera batteries.

Photo: Mitchell Clark

Those main pouches are the second big difference between the bags. The interior of the Peak Design is the same ripstop as the face fabric, and the compartment doesn't feature any padding or dividers to speak of. To get those features, you'll have to add on Peak Design's X-Small camera cube, which fits neatly into the main pocket, taking up most – but not quite all – of the space. The cube comes with two dividers and can be used separately from the Outdoor Sling.

The Peak Design bag looks far less spacious when fitted with the camera cube you'll want to keep your gear safe.
Photo: Mitchell Clark

The RoadRunner, however, comes with all of that from the get-go, as its body is essentially a camera cube with rigid, padded sides. The interior is lined with microfiber, which lets you re-arrange the two included dividers however you like. Like with many camera bags, the dividers attach to the side walls with hook-and-loop flaps.

The RoadRunner has an additional zippered pocket on the front, which is quite slim – you could fit a passport or a notebook and pen in there, but not much else. The Peak Design has a pocket that is similarly sized but on the inside of the main compartment.

Carrying Capacity

If you're looking to fit the most camera gear possible, the PolarPro is the clear choice, despite the fact that it's marketed as a 6L bag while the Outdoor Sling is marketed as a 7L bag. The reason is that the RoadRunner's rating is for the padded compartment, while the Outdoor Sling's is for the bag overall – the padded X-small camera cube, meanwhile, only has a volume of 3.5L.

There's still a fair bit of room inside the PolarPro when carrying an EOS R5 II with a 20mm F1.4 lens.
Photo: Mitchell Clark

What does that mean in real-world terms? Well, a Canon EOS R5 II with a 20mm F1.4 prime just barely fits into the Peak Design camera cube – you have to reverse the lens hood to make it work. Meanwhile, the PolarPro can carry that same camera/lens combo* and a Canon PowerShot V1. You could also fit a Lumix S1RII and a 24-70 F2.8 in the RoadRunner, with room to spare for a small battery bank. The Peak Design cube has no chance of carrying even just the camera – it'll technically fit in the main compartment of the sling with no cube but with very little space left to add your own padding, which you'll almost certainly want.

With the EOS R5 II in the X-small camera cube, there's really not much room left in the Peak Design.
Photo: Mitchell Clark

Both bags are more comfortable with smaller systems. The Peak Design bag would easily accommodate my Fujifilm X-T3 and a pair of F2 primes or my Nikon F3 with a 50mm F2 and a digital point-and-shoot. However, the PolarPro can, too, with room left over for extra bits and bobs.

The story flips if you're carrying stuff that isn't camera equipment. Without the camera cube, the Outdoor Sling can expand a lot more than the PolarPro can. I've carried a X-T5 with a 16-55mm F2.8 attached, two wireless mic packs, a 72mm ND filter with a hard case and two Cliff bars in it, with a fleece beanie to keep it all from banging together. The PolarPro could handle the same gear with no problem, but the beanie and snacks might be a tough squeeze.

I've also carried an XL Patagonia R1 Air fleece and XL Arc'teryx Atom puffy jacket in the Peak Design, and it all just barely fit. The puffy alone fills the PolarPro, with pretty much no room left for gear – that's likely down to it being substantially more structured than the Outdoor Sling.

* The EOS R5 II's large viewfinder hump does bow the bag out slightly – I wouldn't try to put too much in the other pockets while carrying it.

External Storage

Both bags have an option to attach a tripod to the bottom. The RoadRunner uses adjustable webbing, while the Outdoor Sling uses elastic straps. Both solutions have one end attached with a hook, letting you easily detach them to speed up the process of taking your tripod on and off.

In my experience, both bags were relatively comfortable to carry with the aluminum Peak Design travel tripod attached to the bottom, though I probably wouldn't want to carry anything much bigger than that.

Even when carried at an angle on your back, the Peak Design bag does a good job of holding onto the tripod.
Photo: Mitchell Clark

Both bags also include a back pocket, which can be used to carry pretty much any size phone. Peak Design's has slightly more padding and a magnet to keep it shut but a narrower opening that can make it a little finicky to get your phone in and out, depending on how you're wearing it. Despite the PolarPro's pocket being completely open, it's deep enough that I have no concerns about my phone falling out of it.

Neither bag has any real affordance for carrying a water bottle. Since I almost always want to have one with me, I just attach my bottle to the strap with a carabiner. This is slightly more convenient with the PolarPro since you're generally not going to have to unclip the strap to take the bag off your shoulder. With the Peak Design, you have to make sure the bottle's not going to fall off the strap when you unclip it to set the bag down.

Aesthetics

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so which bag you prefer will likely come down to your personal tastes. However, I do suspect most people will find the Peak Design bag to be more attractive – it's not just a utilitarian-styled box that hangs off your shoulder. The Outdoor Sling also comes in three colors, and I'll admit I had a hard time choosing between them.

Images: Peak Design

The RoadRunner sling, meanwhile, just comes in black, though it features some tasteful dusty gold accents. The inside of the bag's main compartment is also that color, making it easy to see your gear. The Peak Design bag also features a light gray interior.

Versatility The Peak Design is built to act as two different kinds of pack.
Photo: Kevin Mahoney

That strap brings up the Outdoor Sling's biggest selling point: versatility. You can wear it not only as a sling across your front and back but also as a lumbar pack or belly bag around your waist. This not only gives you a different way of carrying it but also lets you use it in addition to a smaller backpack.

It's also made for a lot more than just carrying cameras. While you can remove the dividers from the PolarPro, you can't get rid of the padding, and its rigid sides and shape make it harder to really stuff it full. The Peak Design bag, meanwhile, is more freeform and can easily accommodate items you'd need when traveling or hiking.

It also comes with a detachable stabilizer strap that wraps around your back and keeps the bag locked in place if you're doing something especially active while wearing it in sling mode. I've taken it with me down a mountain bike trail, and once I added the stabilizer strap, I had no worries about it creeping around to my front and messing with my peddling.

The stabilizer strap means you can use the Peak Design on all sorts of adventures. And while I have worn the PolarPro while riding a bike, it was only on a flat, paved road at a very relaxed pace.
Image: Peak Design

While the 6L RoadRunner bag can't fill quite so many roles, the lineup is a bit more complete. Peak Design also sells a 2L sling, though there's no camera cube made for it to add padding. You also can't get a larger bag without stepping up to the much heavier 10L "Everyday" sling.

If you need a bag that's bigger or smaller, PolarPro has you covered.
Photo: PolarPro

PolarPro, meanwhile, offers a 1L case designed to protect compact cameras like the Fujifilm X100 series, or the Leica D-Lux. There's also a 12L shoulder bag designed for larger loads. The comapny says it can fit a full-frame mirrorless camera and a 70-200mm lens, along with an additional lens and powerbank or mini drone. The larger bag's back pocket can fit an 11" iPad.

The Extras

Both bags clearly have a lot of thought put into them, and that's made clear by their design flourishes. For example, both have a lanyard in their front pocket, so you can rest assured that you won't accidentally drop your keys while digging around for something else.

PolarPro also includes not one, but two microfiber cloths attached to the inside of the bag, which can be used for cleaning off lenses, screens and viewfinders if they happen to get grungy on your adventures.

Each bag has delightful design touches

Peak Design's bag is bring-your-own-cloth, but it has little pockets on the back where you can tuck away any additional straps that would otherwise just be dangling around. And, if you're not carrying a tripod, the elastic straps on the bottom can be used as compression straps to give it a slimmer profile.

The Peak Design can also be used as a chest pouch when paired with the company's Outdoor backpacks – you simply take the sling strap off and lash it to your pack's shoulder straps. If you can do something similar with the RoadRunner shoulder bag and backpacks, PolarPro doesn't mention it.

Price

The 6L RoadRunner retails for $99, which initially seems more expensive than the 7L Outdoor Sling, which is $89. However, the X-small camera cube is an additional $50, bringing the total up to $140, though you can bundle them at the time of purchase to knock $14 off the price.

Even with that discount, the Outdoor sling is still the spendier option by a wide margin if you need the camera cube. I have used it to carry gear without the cube, though I wouldn't recommend doing so unless you're very careful and also have soft goods in there to add some padding and gear separation.

So which bag do I buy?

If you've made it all the way through this article and are still unsure which bag is for you, this is my take: if you want a bag exclusively for photography gear, the RoadRunner is the way to go, especially if you want to access your gear quickly. It can just plain hold more, and I'd be comfortable leaving the lid unzipped if I'm actively taking my camera in and out of it since it's on the top; unless I'm doing a somersault, the camera's not going to fall out of it. I'm not as confident about that with the Outdoor Sling's zipper placement, though the one time I accidentally left it open, it managed to keep everything inside.

However, if you want a versatile travel/adventure bag that can also carry camera gear, the Peak Design is definitely worth a look – assuming you have a relatively small setup. While the PolarPro can just manage a high-end full-frame mirrorless camera, I wouldn't want to carry one very often with the Outdoor sling. It's happiest with a crop sensor camera and maybe an extra lens, or with a small drone.

To put it another way, I spent $140 of my own money on the Peak Design Outdoor Sling and camera cube, and I don't regret that now that I've tried the RoadRunner, which PolarPro provided as a review sample. However, that's only because I already have a massive camera bag for when I'm testing out the big cameras, and I was in the market for a small, light bag that I could wear while biking, hiking or traveling. If either of those things weren't true and I was shopping for a bag, I'd pick the PolarPro.

Peak Design Outdoor Sling 7L:

Buy at Amazon Buy at B&H Buy at Peak Design

PolarPro RoadRunner shoulder bag 6L:

Buy at B&H Buy at PolarPro

‘Invisibility cloak’ allows transplanted brain cells to evade immune system

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Researchers have successfully developed nerve grafts, currently being trialed as a treatment for Parkinson’s disease, that are invisible to the body’s immune system, according to a new study. It could mean risky post-transplant anti-rejection drugs are soon a thing of the past.

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Category: Brain Health, Body & Mind

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Watch: Crafty robot uses wings to help it hop where others fear tread

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Flying robots have some big advantages over their ground-going counterparts, but they're definitely not very energy-efficient. An experimental new bot addresses that tradeoff by using a wing-assisted mechanism to hop instead of walking or flying in the traditional sense.

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Oppo's latest flagship phone features a Type 1 sensor and Hasselblad colors

Digital Photography Review news -

Image: Oppo

Phone manufacturers are perpetually on a quest to craft the best camera phone. Oppo has announced its latest entry into the competition with the Find X8 Ultra, promising groundbreaking camera tech made with Hasselblad color calibration. The Oppo Find X8 Ultra competes with the likes of the Xiaomi 15 Ultra and Vivo X100 Ultra and features some camera specs that surpass the iPhone 16 Pro Max and Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra.

The latest Oppo flagship features a five-camera system, all of which offer a 50MP resolution. The star of the show is the main camera with a Type 1 (13.1 x 9.8mm) Sony sensor. Oppo says it is 63% bigger than the iPhone 16 Pro Max's main camera and 69% bigger than the 200MP main camera on the Galaxy S25 Ultra, as GSM Arena reports.

Image: Oppo

Also found on the Find X8 Ultra are 3x and 6x periscope telephoto cameras, both of which feature brighter apertures than the Find X7 Ultra. The 6x telephoto camera also gets a healthy bump in sensor size compared to the previous model's Type 1/2.51 (5.7 x 4.3mm) sensor. That means greater light-capturing ability across the board.

The ultra-wide camera, though, gets a slight downgrade. The Find X7 Ultra featured a larger Type 1/1.95 (8.2 x 6.1mm) sensor. The aperture remains at F2.0, however. Finally, the front of the phone uses the same 32MP 21mm equiv. F2.4 camera as the previous model. On the video front, all of the cameras are capable of 4K60p video, while the main camera and 3x telephoto offer 4K 'Dolby Vision' recording up to 120p.

Sensor size Equiv. focal length Aperture Main camera Type 1 (13.1 x 9.8mm) 23mm F1.8 Ultra-wide Type 1/2.75 (5.2 x 3.9mm) 15mm F2.0 3x Telephoto Type 1/1.56 (8.2 x 6.1mm) 70mm F2.1 6x Periscope telephoto Type 1/1.95 (6.5 x 4.9mm) 135mm F3.1

Oppo also promises that the Find X8 Ultra's cameras' photos will have better color accuracy, in part thanks to a 'True Chroma' sensor, which it says uses a nine-channel multispectral system to analyze the scene's color temperature. It works in tandem with the Hasselblad processing, promising to deliver accurate skin tones in any lighting conditions.

There's also plenty of other tech behind the scenes aiming to improve image quality even more. That includes Oppo's 'HyperTone Image Engine,' which the company says improves computational abilities and performance in tricky lighting conditions. AI tone mapping also provides better depth and detail, particularly in backlit scenes, according to Oppo. Finally, the ProXDR engine improves brightness and color information.

Image: Oppo

Despite the impressive camera specs, the Find X8 Ultra hasn't ended up absurdly massive like some other camera-focused phones. Oppo claims the Find X8 Ultra is the thinnest flagship camera phone currently available, measuring 8.8mm (0.35") thick. The emphasis there is on camera phone – the iPhone 16 Pro Max and Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra are slightly thinner, though they use smaller cameras. The Xiaomi 15 Ultra, meanwhile, ranges from 9.3mm to 9.5mm, depending on the material.

Keeping things slim hasn't resulted in compromises in terms of performance, either. In fact, the battery gets a decent bump from the Find X7 Ultra, using silicon-carbon battery tech with a 6100mAh battery, which is nearly 21% larger than the previous model. Oppo also upgraded to the Snapdragon 8 Elite with up to 16GB of RAM and up to 1TB of UFS 4.1 storage. The display remains the same, with a 6.82-inch QHD+ AMOLED display with a 1-120Hz refresh rate and a peak brightness of 1600 nits. Finally, it has an IP68 rating against water and dust ingress.

Oppo also announced the Find X8s and X8s Plus, which are less camera-focused. Unfortunately, as enticing as the Oppo Find X8 Ultra looks in terms of camera chops, it will be available exclusively in China. Oppo typically sells its devices in Europe as well, but that isn't the case with its latest release. It will go on sale on April 16 in China for CNY 6,499 for the base model (12GB/256GB), CNY 6,999 for the 16GB/512GB model and CNY 7,999 for the 16GB/1TB model.

Old wind turbine blades recycled into stronger plastics

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Recycling massive wind turbine blades can be difficult because they're built from sturdy materials to weather the elements for decades. Researchers at Washington State University have devised a way to leverage those properties, and use discarded blades to create strong and durable plastics – without resorting to the use of harsh chemicals.

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Category: Environment, Science

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Pixel 9a Sample Gallery: Does the camera downgrade matter?

Digital Photography Review news -

Photo: Abby Ferguson

Google recently announced the Pixel 9a, its budget offering in the Pixel smartphone lineup. For this model the company opted to ditch the camera bar for a flat camera bump, resulting in a larger battery but smaller cameras. Though it sticks to the two-camera design, with a wide-angle main camera and ultra-wide camera, its main camera uses a 48MP Type 1/2 (6.4 x 4.8 mm) sensor, down from the 64MP Type 1/1.7 (7.3 x 5.5mm) sensor found in the Pixel 8a's main camera. However, Google says that other upgrades, such as software and silicon improvements, make up for the dip in resolution and sensor size, and promises that the 9a is capable of capturing "class-leading photos and videos."

We've had the opportunity to take the phone around for a week, testing out the cameras to put together a sample gallery.

See the sample gallery

The Pixel 9a is hitting shelves on April 10 in the US, Canada and UK. It will be available on April 14th in Germany, Spain, Italy, Ireland, France, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Portugal, Switzerland, Poland, Czechia, Romania, Hungary, Slovenia, Slovakia, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia and Finland. Australia, India, Singapore, Taiwan and Malaysia will have to wait until April 16th.

Please do not reproduce any of these images on a website or any newsletter/magazine without prior permission (see our copyright page). We make the originals available for private users to download to their own machines for personal examination or printing; we do so in good faith, so please don't abuse it.

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Cyclists warned of hidden bike faults putting their safety at risk

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Many cyclists may be riding blind and risking serious injury, with more than than one in 10 having experienced an accident that they found was due to a structural failure undetected in the bike. Researchers now call for more stringent testing of bikes to identify these red flags before things go wrong on the road.

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Category: Bicycles, Transport

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Toyota Sienna pop-top minivan camper is ready to roam US highways

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A Japanese-badged MPV put together in the US and turned into an American camper by a Korean mini-camper specialist – that about sums up the new Unicamp Toyota Sienna Pop Top camper van. Or at least it tracks its melting-pot roots – the new camper minivan has a much larger story to tell, filling a major void left by midsize van market deserters like Ford and Nissan to serve as the affordable, flexible small pop-up camper the US market could desperately use. The Unicamp Sienna is ready to pull over at a moment's notice and spend the night, leveraging a standard hybrid powertrain, three-row passenger seating, and optional all-wheel-drive for the ultimate in impromptu road trip versatility.

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Adobe's working on a way to make AI do the Photoshopping for you

Digital Photography Review news -

Image: Adobe

Last week, Adobe announced that a handful of AI-based features would be moving out of Premiere Pro beta. Now, the company is teasing even more AI tools for Premiere Pro and Photoshop ahead of Adobe Max London on April 24. In a blog post, the company provides a basic overview of what's coming, promising even faster edits and helpful tools for learning.

All of the new features rely on agentic AI, or tech "capable of conversing, acting and solving complex problems." It's essentially a highly capable chatbot that combines elements of generative AI with decision-making and execution capabilities. Adobe says its approach to agentic AI is similar to its approach to generative AI, aiming "to give people more control and free them to spend more time on the work they love – whether that’s creativity, analysis or collaboration."

Image: Adobe

To that end, Adobe teased that at Adobe Max London, it will showcase its first creative agent in Photoshop, found in an all-new Actions panel. "Our vision is for Photoshop to be able to analyze your image and recommend smart, context-aware edits," Adobe explained. It says the editing platform could find ways to improve your image and actually make those improvements with a single click. It also says it wants users to be able to use natural language to access "more than 1,000 one-click actions in Photoshop" for faster and simplified edits.

In the video examples provided in the blog post, prompts are typed into the AI agent, which then handles the edits for the user. The creative agent adds all of the edits as layers, just like if the person were to be making the changes themselves. That means you can still go in and tweak things by hand as needed.

Adobe says this isn't exclusively about speeding up the editing process. Instead, it also envisions the creative agent as a way to learn Photoshop. Given how complex and overwhelming the software can be for new users, such a resource could be helpful. Plus, Adobe says it could also handle repetitive tasks like preparing files for export.

Image: Adobe

Adobe also envisions agentic AI coming to Premiere Pro. One example it provides is using the creative agent to create a rough cut. Getting started on projects is often the hardest step, after all. "While AI can’t replace human creative inspiration, with your input it can make some educated guesses to help you get your project off the ground."

Adobe's Media Intelligence can already help you search for clips by automatically recognizing objects and visual compositions. The platform also understands spoken dialogue and can generate captions and transcripts. So extending those features to a tool that can help quickly cut together clips to help you get started doesn't seem that far-fetched. "We envision a world where you can direct a creative agent to help you refine shot choices, craft rough cuts, assist with color, help mix audio, and more." Like Photoshop, Adobe also wants to use agentic AI in Premiere Pro to help users learn the software, including understanding keyboard shortcuts for complex actions.

Adobe says that the Adobe Research team is currently working on the foundational pieces of the company's agentic AI framework. It will likely be showing off the tools and providing more details during Adobe Max London, which you can catch online for free on April 24.

Thunderous jet-ignited V12 engine rolls out as world's most powerful

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Remember the Mjølner? Not the mythical hammer of thunder from whence the name originated, but the equally earth-shaking V12 engine under development by Danish hypercar marque Zenvo. Welp, rip that "under development" tag clean off, as the first unit of the world's most powerful road-going V12 engine has been completed. The new quad-turbo 6.6-liter power plant will develop over 1,200 hp without violating the stricter emissions regulations coming into effect in the near future. And it will be just one of three motors powering Zenvo's latest hunk of four-wheel insanity.

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