Chris,
Sorry if my lower pocket guidance was off for you.
Absolutely no need to apologize! You provided a lot of great information. I agree that “cockpit layout” is definitely subjective, and moreover, my thinking is that if something seems like it might work, one has to take it out to the field to try it. Different does not always mean worse. I appreciate all the input you provided.
I look at the FP15 and see the lack of the side-pack water bottle storage, and say: “Okay, they designed that for mostly running, not hiking.” Because no fast packing hiker that I know uses a bladder. But then I’m confused by it, because there’s just one bottle holder on the front. So, with the FP15, you can only access one bottle of water at a time? Who does that work for? Run-commuters, and that’s it? Yes, also that center zip monstrosity, although to be fair, I haven’t tried it. I don’t like the looks of it, though.
I look at the FP25, and see the side-pack water bottles pouches, and say: “They designed this for mostly hiking, not running.” Because nobody runs with water bottles on the side of their pack (or, nobody wants to, anyway). But then they kind of bastardized it with two water bottle pouches on the front, instead of the great system they had on the FP30 (the non-zip pouch, in particular, was great for backpacking due to the amount of stuff that could be crammed in it. Not so with the new pockets on the FP25).
Ah well. I think if I can rig up just a bit more storage on the front of the FP25–or if I can get adept at reaching into the side pockets to reach snacks–it’ll do marvelously. Really, if I didn’t insist on the P&S camera, I’d have no real complaints about the front-storage.
I think all of this really underscores to me is what a great pack the FP30 was.
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