Is the Lancer 300 the ultimate backpack for photography?

Coalax’s Lancer 300 is a serious backpack for serious photography and features an exoskeleton design, hands-free multi-angle tripod, detachable power station, and more.

We first became aware of the Coalax Lancer 300 when a friend backed it on Kickstarter  and took to social media to show off about it. Essentially it’s a backpack designed from the ground up for photography with every single feature thought out to make the process of taking pictures out in the wide open as frictionless as possible. 

Comfort might potentially be on the back seat. We remember framed rucksacks from the Jurassic era and they weren’t exactly joyous affairs. But then taking a state of the art backpack now and filling it with all kinds of angular camera equipment is hardly conducive to a comfortable walking experience. And by the looks of it the exoskeleton is held away from the body, so it's probably not going to chafe too much.

Where it scores stupidly highly though is in being designed for purpose. Attached to that exoskeleton is a 24 litre, divided compartmentalised bag that can host two cameras and up to five lenses (70-200mm). Then there’s a 6 litre detachable drone bag and a multi-angle, hands-free extendable tripod that can be mounted on either side. This offer 1.5 metres of extension and 360-degree rotation. It also features a 1/4'' thread, opening up pairing options with various action cameras from the likes of GoPro and Insta360 (making it a perfect selfie stick) as well as lighting equipment.

Lighting? Oh yes. One of the Lancer 300’s more eye catching options is a 336 WH power station. Coalax reckons this will enable you to charge a camera between 12-15 times, a drone 5-6 times, smartphone up to 30 times, a laptop 4-5 times, and even give you 4-5 hours worth of power for a mini fridge. Very civilised. It’s got all the outputs you would expect to be able to do all that, and can be charged either from the mains or there’s a 25 W solar panel that can be used on the go. This extends the power available by up to 30%.

The IPX6 waterproof rated power station weighs 3kg (6.6 lb) and takes the weight of the entire unit up to 5.6 kg (12.3 lb).

It’s Kickstarter is finished, but the Lancer 300 is available via Indiegogo. Current offer pricing is $239 for the standard Lancer 300 ($299 list) and $399 for the Power Station version ($499 list). It looks like mass production is just kicking in too, so expect any units to ship over the next month or two. When our mate gets his (he’s in Canada) we’ll see if we can persuade him to do us a review…

Lancer 300 specifications 

Size

Whole Package: 310*250*515 mm / 12.2*9.8*20.3 inch
Top Pack: 300*200*150 mm / 11.8*7.8*5.9 inch
Main Pack: 300*250*365 mm / 11.8*9.8*14.4 inch
Power Station: 310*100*210 mm / 12.2*3.9*8.3 inch
Accessory Pack: 300*80*200 mm / 11.8*3.1*7.9 inch

Weight

Whole Package: (excluding power station/ accessory pack): 2.6kg / 5.73 lb
Power Station: 3.0kg (6.61 |b)

Capacity

Total Capacity: 30L
Top Pack: 6L
Main Pack: 24L
Accessory Pack: 4.8L

Power Station

Output Support: AC/DC/type
AC Output: 110-240V
Port C: 20W+60/100W PD fast charge
Weight: 3.0kg(6.61 |b) 
KW & Max KW: 300W & 500W
Battery Capacity: 336Wh
Charging Time: 5 hours 
Solar Panel: 25W/h
Waterproofing: IPX6