A Photographer’s Vest for Fast-paced Shooting
Review by Fernando Santos
Created by Colorado-based company, Newswear, the Mens Digital Chestvest is not your typical photo vest with tons of small useless pockets. Designed with the professional photographer in mind, the Chestvest sits around the bottom of your chest area, distributing its weight on your waist and shoulders. It has just four big pouches on the front, but the pouches are large enough for almost any lens you may want to use on the go. I could fit lenses as large as the Canon RF 600mm F11 (collapsed) and the Canon RF 100–500mm. The pouches are all 3″ deep. Two pouches are 11″ high, and the other two are 7″ high. Width varies between 5.25″ and 7″.
All pouches have a covering flap hosting a small pocket that you can use for accessories, such as batteries, filters, memory cards, cleaning cloth, etc. There’s one additional small pocket on the inner side of the vest that you can use to store your wallet or your phone, for example.
The covering flaps use large hook-and-loop fasteners and, while not a problem in a noisy environment, when photographing a musical event or a theatrical play, you may want to put the flaps inside the pouches in advance, so that your gear remains accessible without having to make noise opening the flaps.
The $145 vest is well-built. Padding is almost non-existent, but that shouldn’t be a problem for typical usage. In fact, it can even be an advantage, as the vest takes less space around you, and is easier to pack for travel. There are a few photo belt systems on the market that could be an alternative, but I found the Menswear Mens Digital Chestvest to be a better option, particularly when space is tight, and when you need to be seated.
