Vaonis Stellina Backpack

Too big and not big enough

It is too cold here for Stellina, and sometimes for me, so haven't had it out on the road yet. But I loaded Stellina into it and tried it on in my apartment. The pack is well made with a pretty standard harness and hip belt. I haven't figured out how to change the height of the sternum strap yet. It is a little strange in that the entry into the main compartment is via a zipper on the panel where the suspension is attached. This means the entire weight of the pack and contents will be supported bt the zipper. Will the bounce in my step cause the zipper to open which would result in the rest of the backpack falling away from my back and dumping the contents onto the sidewalk?This wouldn't be an issue if I were just moving from the trunk of a car to the center of an adjacent field, but I have to walk up to 1.5 miles from my apartment to an observing location. The main compartment is deeper than it needs to be, particularly at the bottom. This results in some shifting of Stellina when I walk around. I think they should have built stabilizer straps into the main compartment as well as the two on the outside.the extra interior space at the bottom will be a good place to store a jacket as this is heavy even with the hip belt sharing the load and I will be sweated up before I reach my observing site and will then cool down and chill while I am standing around doing nothing while Stellina does its thing. The top compartment, for the tripod, is not deep enough to take the diameter of the tripod top. I had to stress the zipper to get it to close over that end of the tripod. There is a lot of empty space around the legs which, I guess, is where you are supposed to put the barreries but that means they are going to slide around when I walk. The thing I like the least is the location of the tablet/laptop sleeve. It is on the inside of the access panel, so between my back and the Stellina. And the access panel has a curved semi-rigid insert. I am a bit worried that the curvature of the stiffener and the compression of my laptop between Stellina and my spine may prove injurious to my laptop screen and/or system board. All that said, the backpack is a better alternative to dumping Stellina in a wheeled red tool bag and bouncing it over expansion slots and transformer grills in sidewalks and potholes and manholes in the streets.