I needed a backpack for my camera and accessories that could hold as much as possible ( I had stuff lying around everywhere in the house) and I was not prepared to spent a fortune on it. I ran into a Godspeed SY 607 backpack. I had never heard of this brand before nor could I find a lot of info on it. So I decided to write a review on it.

- 'Godspeed? Sounds like Chinese junk!'

To be honest, those were my exact thoughts when I first came across the bags. There's a small web store where I buy most of my accessories. The owner is very helpful, does not charge any delivery costs ( not even when you buy a 1 euro item!) ,ships your orders fast and has fair prices. And he had a number of these bags for sale. One of them was the SY 607 model. The biggest and baddest. For a price of around a 100 Euros I thought it was worth the risk.
 
Given my experience with this shop I ordered straight away and only then started to do some research to see what further info I could find on the manufacturer and the bags. Well.. it's not much.. The bags are coming from a manufacturer in China called Guang Shun Luggage & Bags. Apparently this company has been in the bags business for quite some years already, employ about 500 people and do OEM bags for Canon for instance. Godspeed is their own brand name and they are working hard to promote this brand all over the world.  So we have a Chinese company indeed.  At first my heart sunk. After all, Chinese products are better known for quantity then quality. To put it mildly.
But after I learned that Lowepro bags and National Geographics bags ( not exactly the cheapest either) are also made in China I felt a little better. Since Guang Shun is producing bags for other brands, the one I ordered may just as well have been made in the exact same plant as the Lowepro ones.

- The bag

The bag arrived the next day and my first impression was: 'this thing is huge!' This will definitely hold all my stuff. The outer material is made of water-resistant 1680D nylon and the inside is soft padded. Dividers allow you to change the layout according to your liking. All seems looked fine to me, strengthened where needed and the zippers all look like they can stand serious use with ease.
 

There's room to strap a  tripod on the front.The little bag that holds the two feet of the tripod is made of some rugged material and there are two straps to secure the tripod both containing a clip so once the strap is adjusted for your tripod it is a matter of unclipping the straps to get the tripod off. The front of the bag is secured with two clips on the side as well. This prevents the bag from opening up completely if you set it upright with part of the zippers unzipped. The top of the bag typically contains a body with a lens mounted so it is not an unlikely scenario. The front of the bag contains two pockets, the top one ( big enough to put my entire hand in up to the wrist) contains a wireless remote in my case, so plenty of space left. The pocket underneath is big enough to store your lunch in.  Not shown in any of the images is the top of the bag. Here you'll find another two straps (with clips) that could be used to for instance hold a rolled up blanket.

The image shows only one body tucked inside in the bag. A Canon 40D with a Sigma 150 2.8 macro lens attached (hood reversed). But it would fit two like that opposite each other with ease and you could probably even fit a lens in between. I just quickly tossed everything I own in the bag without thinking about the arrangement. But to give you an indication: it contains a 40d with Sigma lens mounted, a Canon nifty fifty, Sigma 17-70, Canon nifty-two fifty, two FD lenses ( 28m and 50mm) that I use reversed, a Canon 430 ex, two Phillips flash units, a bunch of filters, batteries ( even a charger), three mini tripods, an Ebay wireless trigger set, a bunch of flash diffusers and color filters, a rocket blower and more.

 

The inside of the front flap contains 3 pockets, two of which can be zipped up and the third has an elastic band that can be tightened. I've got a bunch of filters, cables and other small stuff sitting here. This front actually contains another compartment that allows you to store more stuff. 

 
On one side of the bag is another zipper. Once opened a nice space between the padding for your back and the padding of the main compartment is revealed. There's space over the entire length of the bag there, so my notebook fits with ease. Heck,  I could even fit two notebooks in there!

Then the 'backpack' part, aka 'how's it hanging?' 
 

The whole of the back is nicely padded with channels running between the padded areas to help cool you down. There's a lightweight metal frame to support the bag when you carry it

 Like I mentioned earlier, I got it new for around a 100 Euros which IMHO is a steal and my wife proved it when I showed the bag to her the first time:
- How much?
- A 100 Euros dear..
- I don't believe you!

But logical when you think that a similar sized bag from a major brand can easily set you back three times that amount.
I couldn't find any other pricing information other then the Dutch prices, except for godspeeditaly.com that charges double what I paid and some sites with Korean/Chinese pricing. I also found a page on some trading site, that had an asking price of 59 US dollar each. But you had to order 10 or 20 bags as a minimum order. I can't remember what site that was nor did I save the link.. sorry for that.

- The verdict

I think this is a great bag for the price paid. Time will tell if the zippers and the seems will hold and how well it carries  for longer periods. There's plenty of room and it meets my initial goal of having one bag that contains all of my stuff. The downside of this bag are it's availability. It is hard to find (outside of the Netherlands). I couldn't even find any on Ebay. Anther thing I didn't like are the two decorative, but sadly also reflective stripes on the back. The stripes are too thin to really make a difference when a speeding car is coming from behind, but present enough to cause unwanted reflections when out in the field trying to keep a low profile. 
And it would have been nice if it had come with some sort of rain cover..