Review: Nanuk 925 Hard Case (Initial)

Review: Nanuk 925 Hard Case

Thoughts and Opinions:

I just purchased the Nanuk 925 Hard Case and it is a worth while purchase so far. I decided to write a review of it now with first impressions and then do a review after I have used it awhile.  

So far I am very impressed with the case.  It is sturdy and well built, no complaints there.  The Powerclaw latches are very easy to open and close.  I have opened and close a Pelican Hard Case before and it was a chore.  You needed to push down on the top of the lid on the Pelican case to get the latches on and close the latch.  The Powerclaw system works much better and is a whole lot easier to use in my opinion. 

The cubed foam was easy to use and take out.  I did not have a difficult time setting up my case however I had one too many things to put in it but that is okay.  I bought the 925 because it is small enough to fit as a carry on for airplanes.  I highly doubt I will bring all my gear if I go for a trip.  My 35mm and 105mm will probably stay home for sure.  I would debate between the tokina, 17-55mm and the 50mm.  Probably just take the 50mm and the 17-55mm but I digress. 

I plan to use the case more to transport my gear safely and still use my bag for walks and hikes etc.  My D90 with the MB-D80 is sadly too tall for the case.  I could take off the lens and lay it flat but I lose space so I have to take off the battery grip.  If I use the case for my "bag" then I will be using it at a shoot so I can put on the battery grip and that's fine.  If I am walking around and such I dont want to keep taking the grip on and off so I would use my bag in that case.

Because of taking off the grip I lost some room in my case so I can no longer carry my chargers in the case.  This is okay because I usually don't bring my chargers with me because I have back up batteries I bring along.

The grip of the case is nice on the hands and the case is lighter than I thought it would be with all my gear in it.  That was a pleasant surprise.  The case is everything I wanted so far.

Just looking into the future a little, the case is great however it will get a little complex once I sell or get new lenses.  The foam will be a little hard to use if I  got a new lens.  I would need to swap out lenses and hope the new one fits into a space I have in the case.  I am day dreaming about a 70-200mm in the far future and for sure would need a new case if I got that.  

Due to space, my flash had to be put vertically so it's fit is a little tight but I don't think that will be an issue.  Other than that and taking off the battery grip it has been good.  But as I mentioned earlier, I bought the case for that size rather than buying a case for all my gear since it would be too large for carry on.

Usage:

So far I have just put my gear into the cubed foam but it has been good so far.  Other than packing my gear I haven't done much with it but the latches were great, as well as the construction. 

Pros:

- Easy to use latches

- Solid construction

- Nice handle grip

- Water seal is inset in the lid so you can't break the seal but rubbing against the lid

- And all the features it has (Crushproof, Waterproof, etc)

Cons:

- Couldn't fit my D90 with battery grip vertically however that was fine since I bought the case so it could be a carried onto a plane.  But if having not having all your gear with you is a issue, buy a larger case.  There are 7 sizes I believe that Nanuk makes so I am sure you can find something that could work.  I just wanted to start with one I could fly with as carry on.

Photos:

Gear in Nanuk 925 - iPhone Photo

Thought so far:

I won't make any conclusions at this point but I do like what I have seen.  It is a great hard case in my opinion.  I have only tried opening and closing a Pelican case before and the Nanuk is much easier to open and close.  Nanuk seemed to have better features than the other hard cases on the market.  Nanuk is new and because of this I think that they have rethought some of the design ideas for hard cases.  I plan to take this on a road trip with me so I will definitely put it to use.  

Later I will write another review of the case when I have used it more.