Loading non-photo stuff alongside bodies and lenses in an F-Stop ICU?

**horizon** · 07-23-2013, 03:11 AM

Just ordered an F-stop Loka with a medium pro ICU - looking forward to receiving it and using it in Mallorca in a couple of weeks. It was hard to decide between medium pro and small pro - every now and then I will want to carry all or most of my gear, but most times on day trips I will have much less photo gear and the medium ICU will be half empty.

The question is: does anyone fit anything else than photo equipment inside the ICU (e.g. jacket, extra layer, flashlight, etc) if you run out of space in the rest of the backpack, or is this anathema? Of course I would not store food or water in there (duh), or dirty / soaked clothing, but even with a flashlight if you're exceptionally unlucky batteries could leak.

When I hike with my wife and son, I end up taking quite a lot of stuff with me (basic premise is we can survive a small nuclear war for a couple of days at least

) so I can imagine situations where I would need to stuff each available cubic inch.

**Fuzz** · 07-23-2013, 04:01 AM

Not sure what you're worried about, but I've carried non-camera stuff along with camera gear in the camera compartment of many camera packs (Clik-Elite, LowePro, Dakine, etc.) when traveling: clothes/jackets (if dirty then I put in a plastic bag first), books, Kindle, laptop/cellphone power adapter/charger, external hard drive, etc.

**supermodel159** · 07-23-2013, 12:13 PM

For traveling, I take the ICU out and carry it as my "personal item" on the plane. I fill my TolipaBC with all my clothes/stuff, then, once at the hotel take everything out and put the ICU back in the pack. It works well.

**horizon** · 07-23-2013, 02:37 PM

Thanks guys. I guess I was thinking of what I could pack within the ICU on a long day's hike, to leave more room for essentials outside the ICU.

One example: Last year I hiked the Torente de Pareis in Mallorca with my wife and 10-yr old son. We had read that it was difficult, but thought "we've hiked on proper mountains before, how difficult CAN it be". Well...a 5hr route took us 9 hours, we carried 4.5 litres of water with us and finished it in the first two hours, with no water for the next 5.

That wasn't fun. So next time I'm taking more water...outside the ICU of course!