I knew Kata made bags for video gear, and off and on I've seen their camera bags. They're an Israeli company, although like everyone else their stuff's made in China. Their bags are kind of tough, like some Israelis I've done business with. Kata make body armour as well as camera bags, and it looks like the same designers may work on both. They don't make what I specifically use - chest mount bags - but their holster bags are quite close to what I need. I discussed a little with their support people online and eventually picked up their largest "holster" bag, the H-16. This is sized for 1-series cameras, so it's big enough for anything I'm going to carry in it.
Space
Checking internet witterings (like this one), I noted people griping about not being able to fit their 1-series body plus 100-400 and 70-200 in the same bag... that's hardly my problem - carry that much junk on your chest and you'd be an uncomfortable boarder. I mostly just need enough space for the body with a decent lens (say the 24-70) mounted with hood. If someone's going to pay me to hang around park-rats then maybe I'd like to carry a 580ex and power, plus perhaps a 15mm or 14mm. So that's three additional things: two lenses plus a flash.
The H-16 has plenty of space for that lot. In practice the side pockets are too tight for the 24-70 lens hood - that's best left in the main compartment. The lens sits there no problem though. Comparing against the LowePro equivalent TLZ-75, the Kata pocket design is definitely better. The TLZ doesn't leave you space for a second lens - well you can squeeze a small lens in the front pocket, but you have to leave anything 24-70 sized in the main compartment whilst you use it.
Design & Construction
The downside of all that space is that the bag's big. Comparing it against the TLZ-75 it actually doesn't seem as large as the design makes it feel. It's narrower (front to back) than the TLZ, but a few centimeters wider. As it sits on the chest that's not much of an issue; my arms are set wide enough apart so it's all good.
The Kata bag is a significant improvement over other similar bags I've owned. It actually looks like someone did some industrial design on the thing. It's a 3-D shape rather than a box of foam coated with nylon. As a hard-man's-handbag this is actually quite a pretty bag. I'm not precisely sure what's used to stiffen the structure, but the bag keps it's shape and feels right.
Kata have gone some way to solving the "how to get your camera in and out quickly" problem. The TLZ and all other bags I've used have a zip around the top, so in order to get your machine in and out you've got to hold the bag with one hand and take a zipper around three sides of the case before your you can shoot. You have to reverse the process before you can safely ride on. Sometimes I just carry the camera in my hand as this all takes too long... what you really need is a quick open/ close system which zips can't provide. I'd thought of modifying my TLZ with a velcro strap or a bungie, but Kata have just used a plastic clip. This sits under the front of the lid, and works with or as an alternative to the zips. You can still do the zip thing of you want, but mostly you I just clip the lid shut with one hand (easier than it looks), and move on. It's not completely sealed this way, but there's no way a camera's going to fall out even if you somersault, so that's perfect for me
As the lid zips get excessive use with a TLZ-style bag, they're always the first thing to fail, so I expect the H-16 will last much longer. I wear TLZ zips out at a rate of about one a year, and they're no longer covered by Lowe Pro's lifetime warranty, so that's important to me.
The bag opens front-to-back, the opposite way to the standard Lowe-Pro chest-mount bags. The Lowe-Pro approach allows you to see down into the bag easily at the expense of having the lid flap about in front of you if you don't fasten it. The Kata design reverses that, making it difficult to see into the bag and hard to access the top pocket, plus the bag's flapping up towards your face. In practice it seems to work ok, and you can peek past the lid easily enough if you need to see something you left in the bottom.
The H-16 has the usual belt-mount slot, a removable divider and a little battery/ media holder none of which I need. There's a completely separate rain cover, which I like as you don't need to carry it about in Phoenix in the summer. There's also a decent shoulder strap, of better quality than any I've seen or bought recently.
Chest Mount
So far so good... the catch? Well the catch is that there's no mount points for a 4-point harness. The two top points are there, but there's nothing on the bottom. I scavenged some D-rings from my collection of obsolete camera bags, bought a bit of tape from an outdoor supplier, and set to work with needle and thread. Actually I took the gear to a local craftsman whose stitching is significantly better than mine, and £10 later... I have a custom H-16 complete with two more D-rings for the bottom connexion to a harness. These don't take a lot of load, but they're critical to the standard X-shaped Lowe-Pro harness.
Riding With it
Riding snowboards that is.
Well the good news is that it works. The bag's profile is neater than the Lowe Pro's, and the width isn't an issue. The pockets (except the one in the lid) work fine when chest-mounted, and my added mount points work fine. You still get some "chin bang" when taking jumps. It's the harness (I'm using a Lowe tape harness) not the bag which gives the freedom of movement to do that. I can't figure out a better approach. Getting the camera in and out is fine. The size of the bag is such that the camera (in this case 5DMk2 plus grip, 24-70 with hood mounted) flops into it nicely.
The bag's waterproof enough for damp days of warm snow; I haven't used the rain cover. Even when slightly damp the bag retains its shape and all the pockets still work.
The catch is easier to operate with a smaller lens than the 24-70, which is a tight fit in use. It's easy to do in the dry and warm, a little trickier out in the field. The zips are an easy alternative though, so if I didn't get it all in neatly I'd just do the zips up and that worked fine. Overall the set-up speed is the same as the Lowe Pro, and a bit quicker if you can use the clip.