Your Epiphanie Bag experience?

[ccblue]

I'm hoping some of you that have had your Epiphanie bags can tell me you experience with them.
Every time I look at the web site I have to clean the drool off the keyboard, so I'm already enamored. Are they really as cute and functional as they appear?
I'm specifically looking at the Belle and the Ginger. I'm taking two wonderful trips this year and need a new bag. I have lowepro 100 sling, which is too small and I can't stand. Also have a backpack that works really nice for carrying all my gear while traveling. However, I've found that the backpack just isn't practical when you're on a city street or with a fairly fast moving tour group.

I'd like a bag that I can easily get the camera in and out of and not have to put it down to switch lens. I have some issues with my neck and shoulder so I need to keep the weight down. The Ginger and Belle look like I could load them up heavily for the airplane trip, but for daily sight seeing I could par down the equipment and drop in my wallet, etc. Based on your experience would these bags meet those needs?
Ginger vs. Belle?
Looks like Ginger has more pockets and is a bit taller (I'm thinking the height and what appears to be a narrower top means less chance of lens tumbling out). However the wider opening top on Belle would make things easy to pull items out and it actually appears to hold more, and yes I'm madly in love with that turquoise.
They both look a little fat at the bottom, I seem to have a chronic problem with knocking things over with my camera bag, which I'm sure has nothing to do with my own fat bottom.
Unfortunately, I'm making all these assumptions based on pictures, can you give me your experience? Do you run into things when you have it with you, can you easily change lens while its hanging from your shoulder? Does it leave a crease in your shoulder?
Thanks in advance and sorry so long winded.

[angie wags]

I am not familiar with the bags you are considering, but I do have the Lola. My equipment is big, and I have problems getting my camera in and out of it. I have the Nikon battery grip attached to my camera, so that doesn't help matters. The bag is heavy on my shoulder. Again...I have heavy equipment.

I have much better luck fitting my stuff into my Jo Totes bag. However, I don't see my bag on that site anymore, so I guess it isn't available.

[MIDA78466]

I have the Lola and have the same problem as Angie getting my camera in and out of it. I have the Nikon D7000. It looks great but it is not as functional as I thought it would be.

[Aino]

Well, I just ordered the Ginger and am hoping that I will love it - since I have also drooled over it for a veeeery long time.
I plan to use it with a D90 and an extra lens + flash - and everyday stuff (wallet/phone/keys).

I will write a short review when I have gotten it and used it for a while.

[anke]

I have the Ginger and with my Nikon D700 including the 24-70 lens I have no problem. Of course I don't have the battery grip. But I have plenty of room to carry another lens, wallet etc. I have had the bag for about a year and noticed a rip on the front pocket, hopefully easy to fix. Other than that, I use it all the time. It is heavy with the gear and I carry it like a purse, not across the body. I like the way it looks, but I will explore some kind of tote or something different also. But I do love the Ginger!!! Especially for every day stuff

[Standifg]

I received a Jo Totes Missy Black for Christmas. Haven't used it yet but it does have room for all my goodies .. camera with lens, two other lenses, flash, extra battery, and a point and shoot .. but I think it is going to be heavy and it seems a little stiff. Appears to have enough room to pull the camera out without getting "hung". I hope it works as I hate to waste $100 but I probably won't get to put it to full use until the 30 day return period has expired. I've also had my eyes on the SLR Sloop Bag at Photojojo .. love the Berkeley Beige .. appears to be a comfortable, casual type bag and not stiff like a lot of camera bag material ... $149. So if anyone has one of the bags from Photojojo, I would love to hear what you like/dislike.

[beehive50]

With my beautiful Epiphanie "Lola", I carted my camera, a medium zoom and a 50mm... and wallets, passports, a bit of makeup, gloves and scarves all over Europe for 10 days and LOVED it! It was stylish, yet held everything I needed for a day of sightseeing!

Oh, and I did use this as my purse, too, the whole time... including on the airplane. And, even stuffed, it 'crammed' nicely under the seat so I had that baby in my sight the whole time!

I did use the 'across body' strap 'cuz the bag did get heavy w/all that stuff in it! And, I will agree that it's a bit awkward getting the camera out of Lola quickly... I think it's because of the way it zippers on that curve/arch... anyways, that hasn't dimmed my love of Lola!

Now, I haven't actually seen all of the different bags in person (I did looks at tons online when I was shopping!), but looking at measurements, I think you'll find they all have fairly wide bottoms... they kind of 'have to' to accomodate the camera gear. And, you definitely want the bag to sit flat and not tip over when you set it down!

My thoughts... for what they're worth!

[ccblue]

Debi, Your thoughts are much appreciated. Thanks for pointing out that I will want to put the bag down and not fall over. I was getting so stuck on being able to pull the camera out easily without putting it down that I didn't think about that. I think the Lola is beautiful and considered it at first, but did think I would have a hard time getting the camera out of the bag.
I don't have a battery grip so that should help.
I'd love to hear more - do we have any Belle owners in the house?

[TU_Jenn]

I have the belle (about a year now) in turquoise and love it. When I travel I usually have it packed with: my Nikon d60 with the 18-55 lens attached plus: sb-600 flash, sony dcr-sr220 video camera, 55-200 lens,a small case that hold 3 filters, a 35mm prime lens and: my cell phone (the vera bradley tech case), my olympus P&S, extra SD & XD cards, my wallet (usually a small one) and if necessary, I tuck my nook laying flat on top. Oh yeah - a hard case with my sunglasses. I can usually zip it - and it still fits under the airplane seat (or in the overhead on the regional jets). I also have a little kodak zi8 mini video recorder that I've been known to stick in there. In the outside pockets I then toss in lipstick, powder, some single-vial eye drops and change. It really does hold a lot for me - but when it's full I definitely use the cross-body strap.

The only things I've noticed with it are that 1) I really wish it had the little metal feet to protect the bottom and 2) I have noticed a couple nicks in the exterior material.

But - I still love my belle (although I covet the Lola too). I also really like the new bags that hold a laptop, but I don't think my 16" dell would fit.

HTH!

Jenn

[ccblue]

Jenn, thank you for the list I was able to compare it to what I want to carry and it sounds like I'll have plenty of room. Funny too, I just ordered the Zi8 after seeing some glowing reviews. Are you happy with yours? I have a nice camcorder about the size of a zoom lens, I'm thinking I'll leave it at home and lighten my load. I'm a decent photographer, can't say the same for videography.
I've forced myself to look around at other not so pretty bags and I keep finding myself coming back to Ginger and Belle. (and not just because they are so pretty) Now to decide between the two.

[TU_Jenn]

I liked my zi8 but had some problems with it - it just went wonky and the picture would look like almost like some sort of liquidy-color filter was over it. I'm going to replace it with the new version of the kodak that is waterproof - because that's when I tend to use it. I've found that I rarely use my bigger video camera other than events like school programs, etc. and whip out my olympus to do video or the kodak. I'm also thinking though about just replacing my olympus with the new canon waterproof - it does movies too - and is uses standard sd cards instead of the XD version that olympus uses... if I do that I won't get the kodak again (although it does HD and the p&s don't - so I may still get one - it's so easy to carry!) Can you tell - i love gadgets! :-)