Ortlieb is a company well known in the bicycle community because they are the name brand in waterproof panniers. They are pretty much unknown in the mountains. Luckily, when I was working in a bike shop years ago, I was looking through our distributor’s catalog and noticed that Ortlieb also made a chest harness compatible camera bag called the Aqua Zoom with the same construction as their industry leading panniers. Waterproof materials bonded with RF welded seams and an opening that closes with what is basically a giant zip lock slider.

Ortlieb makes another camera bag called the V-Shot that is even more water proof (it's rated for brief submersion), but it uses a waterproof zipper around the perimeter, but my experience is that those waterproof zippers are pretty stiff and difficult to operate quickly. I'll try to get my hands on one for a future review.

I bought my first one seven years ago and it lasted six years of absolutely brutal use before the slide closure started to fail. It probably would have lasted longer if I had actually used the lubricant Ortlieb supplies with the bag.

When I finally had to replace it I took a look at the camera bag market and discovered that basically nothing had changed - Ortlieb was still the only company I could find that made a truly mountain-weather-proof bag and they (for better or worse) had made zero changes to the product in the intervening years - even the colour was the same. So I replaced the old one with a new one and didn't miss a beat.

When hiking, or skiing, you need a chest mount bag if you are carrying a big camera. If your camera is in your pack, you've missed the shot by the time you get it out. If you use a second shoulder bag or clip it to your harness, it just flops around and gets in the way. Small cameras you can clip to your waist belt, but big cameras need a chest mount.

To chest mount, you have two options - if your bag has at least two D-rings (basically if it has a removable strap) you can use a couple of small carabiners to clip it directly to the shoulder straps of your main pack. I'm not wild about this technique with bigger cameras because it can flop around and sucks while skiing. If your bag has four D-rings (like the Ortlieb), you can use an independent harness. The independent harness keeps things from bouncing around by holding the bag at all four corners. It also decouples your camera from your main pack so you can dump your big heavy pack and scramble to a better vantage for your shot.

Ortlieb sells a nice low profile harness with elastic in the upper straps which means less jarring on your neck when things get bouncy. You can also make your own solution out of webbing or plenty of other companies make harnesses.

But, this isn't about harness systems, this is about the bag itself.

So, let me get to the review part and give you the pros and cons about the Ortlieb Aqua Zoom.

Pros:

The Ortlieb Aqua Zoom is actually, seriously weather proof. Sealed up I'd do a river crossing without any fear. I wouldn't want to hold it under water, but brief dunks or torrential rain are a total non-issue. That right there makes this a unique product. If you know of any other camera bag with that sort of ability to shrug off weather, please, please, please let me know.

The Ortlieb Aqua Zoom's slide lock is crazy fast. Combined with a chest mount you can be skiing or hiking and have the bag open and the camera out in two seconds. No excuse for missing a shot.