Home > Consumer Reviews > Kata H-14 GDC Holster Case

High quality built bag. Kata has the best built soft cases for protection of your expensive gear. I also own the R-102 backpack. This holster can fit a Canon 30D with grip, 70-200 f/2.8L (hood reversed) on the side pocket, 430EX flash (defuser mounted) on the other side pocket, Sigma 10-20(hood reversed) on the bottom of the bag with my camera and EF-S 17-55 IS (hood reversed) mounted. Plus extra batteries, cards, cleaning cloth, filters, etc.

I just got this holster, and I love it. I also have the Kata R-103 that I use to carry almost all of my equipment. I use this holster however for my "light days". With it, I can bring my D-80 with the 18-135mm bolted on, a 70-300 VR lens, and the SB-800 flash unit with ease. There is enough space to put in a couple of EN-EL3E batteries. It has an pocket where I put my memory cards, and spare flash batteries. With the TST, military standard nylon and internal foam padding, I am assured my gear is safe. It also comes with an all-weather cover that shields the entire holster and equipment from rain or intense heat from the sun.

Maybe your camera kit has a nice, big, permanent home, but you need someplace a little more stripped-down and portable to keep your essential stuff when you are out and about...

The Kata H-14 GDC Holster case holds my Canon 5d with quick-release tripod plate attached, the 24-205mm zoom attached, and there's extra room as well as side pockets. The ribs look like an umpire's vest, and serve the same impact shock-reducing purpose.

The quality of manufacture and the utility of the bag is excellent!

(CRABBY NOTES: but the bag has a slightly larger profile than I would like...I'm a girl...and wanted the bag to be less noticeable..I maybe shoulda looked at the next size-down holster. It really is a quality item, but as a woman, I am pretty picky about bags, and this one is a bit big! But, I cannot deduct stars just 'cuz i wanted something smaller!)

Love this bag! It is very sturdy and well made, though was a little bigger than I expected. Of course that extra size means that it can hold a lot of stuff. It fits a Rebel XT + grip with a 17-40mm mounted (no hood) in the main compartment along with a 50mm F/1.4 under it. A 430EX flash in one side pocket and a 70-200mm F/2.8 (hood reversed) in the other side pocket!

From the minute I saw this bag I was very interested in it and really wanted to love it. I think it's a great looking bag and tried to find it locally so that I could physically see it in person to tell if this would fit my equipment and how comfortable I was with this bag and how it would fit me size wise, but my search was not successful so I ordered it on Amazon. I normally purchase everything on Amazon and if I did find it locally and liked it I still would have most likely ordered it online as there is no doubt that Amazon has the best price I've seen. Ok, on to the bag....

First of all I can say without a doubt this bag is of top notch quality, extremely well made and just a fantastic looking bag as well. Now in order for you to be able to tell if this bag would be sufficient for you, the only way to do that in my opinion is to have an idea as to the person reviewing it and when it comes to a bag, height and overall size of the individual can make a big difference. So, that being said, I am a female, 5 feet 3 inches, small build and I was looking for this bag to fit the following equipment...Canon EOS 40D 10.1MP Digital SLR Camera with EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM Standard Zoom Lens lens hood reversed, a few SanDisk SDCFX3-2048-901 2 GB Extreme III CompactFlash Card (Retail Package), an extra battery, my Flip Video Ultra Series Camcorder, 60-Minutes (White) w/ a few extra batteries, a small Giottos Rocket Air Blaster, and a LensPen. This bag is fairly large for a person of my size, now I don't really have a problem with it being large but it is also very heavy without any equipment in it. For a man, I'm not sure that this would be an issue, for me it was. Right off the bat I did not like the way it opened, although I'm positive that you can feel confident that your equipment is protected, for this type of bag that they are referring to as a Holster (which I will get into next), they over did it a bit. In my opinion this is not the type of bag that you are able to pull your camera out of quickly - there are buckles, then zippers, velcro you name it and the top does not open in reverse (very inconvenient). Ok, back to it being a Holter style...I personally would not consider this a holster style bag at all, the picture is very deceiving, the bag is much bigger and bulkier than it looks. But again, for a man I think it would be a great "look" though most photographers I know that are men aren't so into the look as they are the function and ability to protect their camera's/lenses. If you don't use your camera regularly and you have a descent camera to warrant a bag like this and function is not your top priority but want a high end bag to protect your equipment and you take pics just when you go on vacation or something then you will be happy with this bag. As for the interior, again very high quality and all of the equipment above WILL fit into it BUT the side pockets I want to point out take space out of the main compartment when they are filled.

To sum it up, beautiful bag, not very functional though fantastic protection for your equipment but if you are female under 6 feet my guess is you will not be thrilled with this bag. The size of this bag is not here nor there, you can fit the basics but not as much as you would think for a bag this size and if you are only going to be able to fit the basics you can get a much smaller more streamlined bag that's less expensive and will protect your equipment. If you love this bag and really want it, I can tell you that the Canon EOS 40D 10.1MP Digital SLR Camera with EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM Standard Zoom Lens plus lens hood reversed will DEFINITELY fit. I really stress this because with most of the reviews of camera bags that I have come across are reviewed by people using a much smaller body such as the Nikon D40 or Canon Rebel and in my search for a bag, it was hard for me to know what would fit so I'd like to make it easier for anyone else who is considering this bag with a larger bodied camera.

What I wound up with...
I returned this bag and purchased three others (I was always looking for three bags). I purchased the Tamrac 517 - Tele-Zoom Pak - Blackfor running out with just my camera and the lens mentioned above, I purchased the Canon 100DG Bag for Canon SLR Camerasfor storing ALL of my photography equipment as well as my Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000 and card reader (I have no intention of carrying this bag unless I take everything on a trip and then my husband will carry it for me because no matter the bag size I can't possibly carry all of my equipment myself, this is a BIG bag and heavy but extremely functional, fantastic quality and works great for what I'm primarily using it for...storage), and last I purchased the Mountainsmith Zip-Top Camera Tote XS, don't let the XS fool you, this is not an XS bag. This is one of the most clever bags I've ever seen but I think it's geared more towards women. It's a tote style with double handles and a large padded strap to wear across your body, the top half functions as a purse or whatever you want to put in there (it's a large section) and the bottom half (also large) is a heavily padded, Ultra-luxurious compartment for your camera equipment, it's also got additional pockets as well and will hold all the equipment I mentioned above plus more. This too is a TOP quality bag. I use this when I'm at the park w/my son and need to carry some things for him, my wallet, keys, cell phone and my camera equipment (but want to carry more than just the body and lens - this bag will hold the 40D body 28-135 lens (w/lens attached) and another Canon lens, my Original Lensbaby Canon EF Mount SLR Camera Lens (LBOC) plus Lensbaby Macro Kit (AMACK), extra battery, memory cards and more) and don't want to carry 2 bags - I LOVE this one!

Hopefully this review will aid you in your purchasing decision, if you have any questions, feel free to email me (my email address is on my profile).