Think Tank Retrospective 20 Camera Bag
The Retrospective 20 soft-sided shoulder bag keeps your camera protected from damage with its padded cushioning and inconspicuous generic shoulder bag looks that keeps prying eyes away from your expensive gear.
Ease of Use, Performance: 24/25
Look & Feel: 24/25
Features 24/25
How much I enjoy 25/25
Total: 97/100
The Think Tank Retrospective shoulder bag has a soft-sided canvas appearance but hides your expensive camera gear from onlookers to keep your gear safe. The Retrospective 20 can easily fit a full sized DSLR or pro sized full bodied camera along with a full length telephoto lens on or off the camera as well as more gear.
The Retrospective line of shoulder bags from Think Tank are soft-sided shoulder bags that have all the high tech features of today's camera bags in an inconspicuous look. The Retrospective 20 fits a pro size DSLR with zoom lens attached, 2-4 lenses in main compartment along with the full set of gear you need for your camera.
The Retrospective 20 has a soft material much like canvas but feels quite durable as well as has a couple of layers of facing and inner material for padding and strength. The bag uses these numerous layers to protect your camera and gear as well as give the bag a flexible form to fit numerous lenses and cameras.
The Retrospective 20 easily fits a full or pro size camera with zoom lens or even two if you want, I had no problems fitting two DSLR cameras in the Canon Rebel line in the bag together. The bag easily accommodates other gear like numerous lenses depending on the lens size and even a lens in a hard lens case like several companies sell.
The Retrospective 20 is about 13 inches wide, 12.5 inches tall and 7 inches deep with interior dimensions about 12 inches wide, 11.75 inches tall and 6 inches deep. The bag comes with the shoulder bag itself, a form fitting rain cover, two hook-and-loop fastening folded dividers for placing a camera on and three other dividers.
The Retrospective 20 looks much like a diaper bag or other handy carry or shoulder bag but not like an expensive camera bag with its pinestone green or black color. I really like the Retrospective 20 with its plain outer looks but filled to the brim with modern camera bag features, especially the ones exclusive to Think Tank products.
The Think Tank Retrospective 20 has the five dividers to allow you to customize the bag how you need to for your camera and gear, especially with the two fold down dividers. You can place the fold down dividers in the middle of the bag to hold your camera upright in the bag and allow the lens to hang down toward the bottom.
The other dividers make for a good variety of dividers for added protection and keeping gear separate in the main compartment and readily available inside the large front flap. The Retrospective bag has a large front flap that secures using the sound silencer hook-and-loop closures or just fold the flap over for quiet access.
The sound silencer flap securing feature has two large patches of loop fasteners on the bag itself and hook fasteners on fold over flap to secure the flap closed. The flap patches have a loop patch that can fold over the hook patch that holds the flap closed so that it completely covers the hook side of the hook-and-loop to make it unusable as a hook-and-loop set.
The silencer feature allows you to have the bag securely closed with the hook-and-loop fasteners or readily accessible without the ripping sound of the hook-and-loop fasteners if you want like when out on nature photography. The front flap also has a plastic covered business card pocket that makes a great way to identify your bag and hold business cards that are readily available to pass out when you want to.
The front of the bag under the flap has one large pocket that closes with a hook-and-loop flap that is nice for text books, full sized camera bodies or other gear. The front pocket of the Retrospective 20 is one full size a little smaller than the body of the bag and about two to three inches deep.
The Retrospective 10 and 20 have the full size pocket while the retrospective 30 has two pockets because of the larger size of the Retrospective 30. I received the Retrospective 20 which is a great size for a large camera body with lens and enough gear to take in the field for remote shooting locations or nature photography.
The main compartment is the large area featured to carry the most equipment and has loop material all on the inside for the dividers to be used anywhere inside. The main compartment has two sets of smaller pockets inside with the rear pocket a single zippered compartment about half the bags full size.
Against the front of the bag in the main compartment is a set of pockets with one large pocket and a couple of smaller ones that make it perfect for smaller gear. Your camera batteries, memory card folders, lens covers and even lens filter pouches would fit in this area nicely.
The main compartment of the Retrospective 20 is large enough to fit two Canon Eos Rebel camera bodies with lenses attached and another lens easily. The bag can fit a wide variety of large photography gear and has the room you need for a single large sized DSLR camera and several lenses or even a spare DSLR body.
The main compartment has two side pockets inside for holding a zoom lens or flash unit as long as you don't have a water bottle on the side pockets outside. The Retrospective has two outside pockets that make for a nice place to hold a smaller water bottle or a flash unit but this makes the pocket directly inside unusable for a full sized lens.
I found that the two pockets on each side both inside and out make for a nice place to hold things like a water bottle on one side and a lens or flash on the other. You can fit a full sized flash in the side pocket inside with a water bottle such as the Brita 24 ounce On The Go Tritan water bottle in the outside pocket.
The outer pockets have a lower pocket as well as a side loop that is an inch and a half wide that can be used to hold a carabiner to clip on other products like small pouches. The strap that attaches under this loop and goes down inside the side pockets is stitched on to the side of the bag all along the bags height to the bottom seam for durability.
The strap is also made of this inch and a half wide webbing that is soft and nice to use for a shoulder bag as well as having a nice shoulder pad. The shoulder pad is also made from the same material as the shoulder bag and has some sections of non-slip material so keeping the pad where you want it while wearing the strap over your shoulder works well.
The top of the bag when it's all closed up also has a smaller inch wide carry strap that allows you to easily carry the bag and make not using the shoulder strap easy. The inside pouches and pockets have hook-and-loop closures to keep things secure while carrying and the main pocket easily is secured using the silencer hook-and-loop closures as well.
The back of the bag also has a zippered compartment for carrying magazines, newspapers, those all important traveling documents or manuals for your camera. The entire bag is easily covered with the included rain cover that slips over and closes around the bags shoulder strap and carry handle.
The rain cover keeps water out of the pockets and front flap by completely covering the front and sides with only the back open but the material of the inside of the entire bag is waterproof. You can also waterproof the outside of the bag using a common water proofer like Thompsons Water Seal but the stretch cord lined cover fits snuggly on the Retrospective.
The rain cover will not keep a full torrential downpour out of your bag as the side that would rest against your body will be open some but the cover is held in place by two small clips around the straps. The rain cover does not cover about a foot square area of the back but you can keep water out of this area by waterproofing the outside of the bag if you want.
The soft material and rugged good looks does not make the shoulder bag look like a fully featured camera bag, it looks a lot more like a diaper bag or just a large tote. The bag is easy to use and very comfortable to carry and mine has seen plenty of use in the past few months.
Summer is my busy outdoor season but this year during a visit from family and the outings to the zoo, local parks and just to the hotel they were staying at showed the Retrospective 20 as a comfortable and useful camera bag. The bag is sturdy and keeps all my gear handy with the variety of pockets and the large size means you can carry not only the gear you need but extras like a soda or water bottle and some snacks.
The Retrospective 20 may look like a slightly worn but sturdy looking tote or diaper bag but inside the true nature of the fully featured camera bag shows through with the nylon interior and hook-and-loop fasteners that keep all your gear secure. The Think Tank Retrospective bag is a fantastic shoulder bag for your camera equipment and makes an excellent bag to keep your gear hidden yet protected.
I highly recommend the Think Tank Retrospective 20 as an inconspicuous camera shoulder bag that earns itself my Blue Ribbon for Excellence.