Take a bow, Robert Weinreb. He’s a native New Yorker and professional photographer who’s faced challenges in his career, confessing to wrapping his cameras and lenses into knitted hats for packing into regular backpacks when going in search of ‘the shot’, most notably while trekking in harsh Himalayan environments. His solution was to get a Manhattan-based sewing shop to stitch up a bespoke camera bag of his own design and that’s how, back in 1977, Tenba was born. Almost 50 years later, Tenba has become one of the top names in the camera bag business. The name itself comes from a Tibetan word meaning strong, unshakable and reliable, backed up by a company motto of ‘Never Compromise’.
Tenba’s evolutionary design process has recently hatched the Roadie v2 collection, claiming to be the world’s first rolling camera cases with completely removable backpack straps. The backpack straps themselves are actually sold separately as optional extras but even so, the Roadie v2 series builds on the successful design concepts of the original versions, aiming to be the ‘most advanced camera carry solutions’ on the planet, and among the best roller bags for photographers. I got my hands on the Tenba Roadie v2 Spinner 21 International, which is literally a case in point.
