Billingham 555 Camera Bag

Large capacity

Billingham enjoys a reputation for being the purveyor of quality-made camera bags that should last a lifetime and look good at the same time.   This reputation is well-earned.

And if you’re looking for the ultimate large capacity bag, the 555 is it.  In addition to being well made and detailed, it’s layout and design is capable of swallowing all your gear yet look good and remain comfortable worn on your shoulder or across your chest.  It has numerous pockets that can organize your equipment so you know exactly where everything is.  We talking large voluminous pockets, zippered slit pockets, interior pockets and the Billingham Superflex insert.

Top can be configured three ways

The top can be configured three different ways.  When you pull back the top main flap, the zippered top is exposed and as you can see in the photo above, there is an additional handle strap.  First, you can carry the bag with the top flap cinched and shut and the zippered enclosure closed.   Or the top flap pulled back and the zippered enclosure exposed. Or the top flap closed and the zipper pulled away from its center position and tucked front and rear.  Billingham refers to this last feature as the Tuk Top.  Sounds a little complicated but in fact it’s not.

Lots of gear

As you can see from the photo above, its capacity his huge.  In the main compartment is a Canon 5D with attached 17-40 mm f/4 L lens.  On one side of the camera is a 70-200mm f/2.8 L lens and on the other side is a 24-105mm f/4 L lens.  In the secondary compartment is a Canon 1V body and a 10D body.  And there is probably room for one smaller lens and of course, odd and ends.  Bottom line capacity as shown is three camera bodies, four lenses, and and miscellaneous accessories.

The only gripe I have is that in this configuration, you can not keep the 70-200mm lens attached to the camera body without reworking the interior by placing the camera on end with the lens in a horizontal position.  In doing this, the capacity isn’t quite a large and the Superflex insert quite as useful.

That gripe aside, its a wonderfully made bag that I would recommend to anyone looking for a larger bag.

Rear end