A protective, easy-access mode of transport for your SLR camera can be hard to come by if you’d like to carry it with a laptop and other common digital photo gear. As with traditional camera shoulder bags, a photography-specific messenger pack 
can be bulky and heavy enough that you end up with an aching back. Luckily, we found Lowepro’s new Fastpack series of camera bags, which combine the right amount of storage with an easy-to-carry design.

Like many of its features, photos taken with the 10-megapixel Kodak Z1085 IS look good initially but lose their luster on closer inspection. Most images are stippled with visual noise, and background details often jumble together. An optical image stabilizer keeps many handheld shots steady, and a manual mode even lets you set the aperture and shutter speed. HD-video mode captures high-resolution video, but muddy quality looks worse than footage at a low resolution. We can’t get too excited about the Z1085, but it does manage to cover the basics.