Manfrotto Uncover Messenger / Sling review: expandable and adaptable for camera gear and daily life, with smaller and larger options to choose from

Say ‘Manfrotto’ and the word ‘tripod’ almost inevitably follows. The company has made some of my all-time favorite tripods and tripod heads, and goes all the way back to the 1960s when the Italian photojournalist Lino Manfrotto started selling light stands. In more recent times, the company has gone large on camera backpacks, bags, and roller cases, with several product lines becoming available. The latest of these is the ‘Uncover’ collection, which so far features a pair of backpacks and a pair of messenger / sling bags.

The idea behind all four Uncover bags and backpacks is that they can adapt to your needs on a day-to-day or even minute-by-minute basis. That’s thanks to two crucial design elements. Firstly, they all have a removable camera insert, which you can fill with a camera, lenses, and other photo accessories, or ditch altogether so that you can use the outers as general-purpose backpacks and bags. Secondly, they all have a roll-top facility, so they can expand to carry more stuff, or shrink to smaller sizes to suit the journey and the load.

Focusing on the messenger bags, there’s the smaller Uncover Messenger / Sling 7L and the larger Uncover Messenger 12L. The 7L has a capacity range of 7.5L to 9.5L, and includes a small camera insert that can accommodate a camera body and one or two lenses. The 12L has a larger 10.5L to 14.5L capacity and a bigger camera insert that can hold a camera body with up to three lenses or a mini drone. Both aim to be among the best messenger bags for photographers on the market.

Latest Videos From

Watch full video here:

Manfrotto Uncover Messenger / Sling: Specifications

Manfrotto Uncover Messenger / Sling: Price

There’s no shortage of manufacturers making photo-friendly messenger bags these days. Big names that spring to mind include Billingham, Lowepro, Vanguard, Tenba, and Peak Design, to name but a few, and of course Manfrotto. The price range kicks off from bargain-basement buys to luxury bags at premium prices.

The new Manfrotto bags occupy the middle ground, with the smaller Uncover Messenger / Sling 7L costing $139 / £99 / AU$199 and the larger Uncover Messenger 12L priced at $179 / £129 / AU$269. But more than just camera bags, these are bags for life, adapting to varying needs with or without carrying a camera, potentially making them good value for money, as you’ll get maximum use out of them.

Manfrotto Uncover Messenger / Sling: Design & Handling

There are some clever design touches sprinkled throughout these messenger bags, more so with the larger 12L one than the smaller 7L version, but I’ll start at the top with something they both have in common. That’s the expandable roll-top section, which enables the bags to grow to meet your needs when you have more stuff to carry.

The roll-top concept is a neat idea but one thing I’ve found less ‘neat’ about them in the past is that they can tend to look a bit messy when rolled up for compactness. There’s no hint of that here. Instead of rolling up, the expanding section simply folds over and is held in place by hidden magnets. It’s an elegant solution that gives a more elegant look to the bags.

Another potential problem area is the placement of the shoulder strap. If it’s ideally positioned for when the bag is compacted, it’s often less than ideal when it’s expanded. Again, Manfrotto has come up with a clever solution in that the bags feature two pairs of strap attachment loops, while the strap itself has spring-loaded metal catches at each end. The upshot is that you can quickly and easily snap the strap onto whichever pair of loops fit the bill.

The modern, stylish look of the bags extend to the straps, which I’d describe as being made from seatbelt-like material, wrapped in a padded outer. They’re as good as they look, with a generous range of adjustability and being very comfortable to wear. They’re also quite resistant to unwantedly slipping off your shoulder, so you can safely wear the bags as shoulder bags as well as in cross-body messenger style.

One thing I always like to see is a grab handle, so I can conveniently pick up the bag with one hand as an alternative to hanging it off a shoulder. The larger version comes complete with a long rope-style grab handle on the back (in addition to the front grab handle) which is comfortable and dependable, and there’s also a small loop just above it. There’s also a flat pass-through strap just below, for securely attaching the bag to the handle of a luggage trolley. The scaled-down 7L bag has neither the rear grab handle nor the trolley pass-through – just the small upper loop.

Getting back to things featured in both bags, the ‘FlexGrid’ front panel is made from tough, dual-laminated Cordura with laser-cut holes. Another neat idea, this enables you to hang all sorts of bits, bobs and accessories off the front of the bag, simply by attaching them or tying them to the FlexGrid.

There’s an additional slim pocket on side of the 12L bag, and a larger expandable pocket on the other side. The latter is big enough to take a drinks bottle or other similarly sized extra, putting it within easy reach and without taking up precious room inside the main compartment of the bag. However, both of these are omitted in the 7L bag, which has no side pockets at all.

I personally find a slim rear pocket very useful in any shoulder/messenger bag and this is very much present and correct in both of the 7L and 12L Uncover bags. It’s great for keeping paperwork, travel documents and other thin stuff in a self-contained area, out of harm’s way.

A quick look underneath the 12L bag reveals a pair of adjustable straps with fasteners. You could use these for attaching a wide variety of things, like a short umbrella, but in a photographic context, I’d use them for attaching a travel tripod. Again, you don’t get this facility with the 7L bag, which is strapless underneath.

It’s not really a problem but you can’t actually get into the main zippered compartment of the bags without first lifting up the expanding section to its full height. The quick-action folding design with magnetic attraction again comes to the fore. Once opened, the camera insert can seem a little buried away, far down inside the compartment.

As I mentioned earlier, one of the things I like most about the Uncover design is that you can remove the camera insert altogether when you’re not carrying your camera, and use the entire main compartment for daily or travel essentials. The removable camera insert itself has a fully zippered top flap and a carrying handle, enabling it to work as a camera bag of sorts in its own right.

The camera insert comes complete with adjustable dividers that you can fold and bend into the ideal configuration for your kit, as well as placing them in the best locations thanks to Velcro strip fasteners. Folding one or two of the dividers can work well if you have thin lenses or other accessories and don’t mind double-stacking them.

The 12L bag comes with three dividers in total, that have differing designs. The two darker grey dividers are just crying out to be folded into specialist shapes, and even the light grey ‘flat’ one can be folded over to make an elongated cube, as shown above.

Carrying a bag around with an expensive camera kit inside it can be a nerve-wracking experience. To give a little peace of mind, both bags feature a small hidden pocket, designed to hold an AirTag or similar tracking device.

The main compartment of both bags also features a tablet sleeve with its own secure closure. Only the size differs, the 12L bag accommodating an 11-inch tablet and the 7L bag being able to hold an 8.5-inch tablet, like an iPad mini. However, a major drawback for some prospective buyers is that neither of the bags features a laptop sleeve.

Last but not least, there’s a mesh pocket that runs full width along the inside front of the main compartment. It’s zippered and offers a dedicated area for keeping small but sensitive or precious items.

Manfrotto Uncover Messenger / Sling: Performance

There’s always a feel-good factor in having a bag that you like the look of, and I think the Manfrotto Uncover bags do look attractive. However, they’re only available in a single black/grey colorway option, which might not be to everyone’s taste. From a performance perspective, a more vital aspect is that the bags are robust, resilient, and give good protection to whatever you're carrying inside them. That’s especially true for carrying camera kit.

Toughness is ensured by Manfrotto’s custom ‘TriTex’ three-layer fabric, from which the bags are constructed. The material is designed to be highly durable and water-resistant, and the bags also feature weather-sealed YKK zippers. The net result is that you don’t need an additional slip-over weather-proof cover, as supplied with many bags, which can take up space and be a chore to use.

An upside of the ‘bag within a bag’ design is that camera kit gets double the protective padding in its dedicated insert. However it also means that kit isn’t quite as immediately accessible and that precious room is used up by basically stowing one bag inside another one.

I was a little disappointed that even with the larger 12L bag, I packed my Nikon Z6III camera with mounted Z 24-70mm f/4 S lens in its retracted state, along with a second similarly sized lens, and pretty much all of the space in the camera insert was used up, as shown in the image above. Sure, you could squeeze in a few more items if you had a more compact camera and smaller lenses but let’s face it, the Z6III and its retractable kit lens isn’t exactly a big camera.

I don’t have one of those super-small ‘travel tripods’ with swing-up legs, which would be an ideal fit for attaching to the 12L bag, courtesy of the adjustable bottom straps. Even so, my not overly large Manfrotto 190go! Tripod doesn’t look entirely out of place. Either way, the 7L omits the tripod straps.

Manfrotto Uncover Messenger / Sling: Verdict

I’m all for versatility and adaptability. I like that the roll-top design of the Manfrotto Uncover Messenger / Sling bags enables them to grow and shrink on demand, accommodating different amounts of daily paraphernalia. I also like that the camera inserts, which are a bit like camera bags in their own right, are easily removable in just a few seconds. The bags, therefore, convert from photo bags to regular, general-use bags on the fly. Further plus points are that the bags are very durable, attractively styled, and comfortable to carry.

It’s not all great news. The ‘bag within a bag’ design eats into the available space, and even the larger 12L version has relatively little room for photo gear in its camera insert. Naturally, the 7L bag has even less. The 7L bag also lacks side pockets, a rear grab handle, a baggage trolley pass-through, and tripod tethers. Unless you’re desperate for the smallest bag you can get away with, the 12L has a lot more to offer. Even so, I feel that the fairly small amount of camera kit that it can carry is a limiting factor.

Alternatives

The Vanguard Veo Range 36M/38M is one of my favorite pairs of messenger bags, available in 14L and 17L sizes respectively. They have a space-saving, double-deck configuration, integrated tripod compartment, and can hold a surprisingly large collection of kit, all for a very affordable price.

The Peak Design Everyday Messenger 13-inch V2 is a really smart-looking, high-quality bag that’s beautifully made and impeccably turned out. It can hold a lot of kit, more so than you might think when just looking at it, and features lots of extra pockets and cubbyholes, as well as having flexible internal organization.