I am referring to a rain cover for me, but I can see a rain cover for the bag is a good idea. I might invest in one. Another Amazon site visit today I guess.
Oh, I see, sorry. For that purpose, I have a bright red pocho. Essentially a big plastic bag with holes for head, hands, and torso. The simplest possible thing, but it compresses nicely and keeps you dry.
Funny story about that. Shortly after I first got the poncho, I went out for a walk wearing the poncho and my trusty rain-hat. Had a great walk. Nothing better than a calm walk in dense rain, I love it. When I got home, I took off my hat and shoes, and went about slipping out of the poncho. Unbeknownst to me, the poncho’s hood had flopped just so as to form a nice big bag to collect rain. So I stood in our entryway, wet on the outside, but cozy and warm under the poncho, and proceeded to empty several liters of ice-cold rainwater right down my neck onto the floor.
I had a good laugh about it, and learned my lesson.
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Thanks everyone for your input, I have taken some notes from it.
I ended up going with @Tamas_Papp’s suggestion of the Decathlon Escape 500 23L. I checked it out in person and it’s quite a good bag, especially for the price. My favorite part is that the laptop compartment can be completely ignored and it barely ads any bulk to the bag, so it can function more as a single compartment bag. The smaller version of this bag also seems quite good, might pick it up in the future… It seems to fit the fuji XF150-600.
My other choice was the CabinZero Military 28L. It was my first pick as it ticked all the boxes, but it was more than twice the price for not a lot more in my opinion… I will not abuse these bags as I will barely use them, so even 20-50% less durability over a few years is not concerning, and I have my doubts that the decathlon bag has less durability than the cabin zero.
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FWIW, I find my bags from Decathlon extremely durable. My smaller backpacks usually start their life in the “nice” environment (going to work, travel to conferences, etc), then after they wear out a bit I use them for hiking.
Usually the water bottle pouches give out first, but these I just sew together. Then after 8–10 years of heavy usage the backpack straps start fraying which is when I retire the bag, which at this point looks like something a hobo with a modicum of self-respect would not carry around.
The zippers are usually still OK at this point, they must source them from a good supplier.
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