Bleu de Chauffe Zoom Travel Bag: A Photographer's Review

A quick word on the brand first.

Bleu de Chauffe is made in France, in a workshop in Aveyron, right at the foot of the Millau Viaduct. Over ten years doing this, and every bag still comes off the bench of an actual leathersmith, not a factory line. I think I have a thing for French craftsmanship, I also love Beton Cire hats, also made in France. 

What sets them apart is the leather. Most leather in the world is chrome tanned, fast and cheap. Bleu de Chauffe uses vegetable tanning instead. Takes longer, costs more, but the leather ages the way good leather should. It patinas. Tells a story instead of just wearing out.

The whole aesthetic leans workwear. Function first, style follows from that. Exactly my kind of design philosophy, and exactly why I already own another bag from this brand: the Musette in yellow, a smaller everyday piece which I absolutely love. The Musette is not a camera bag but I use it that way and for EDC, throwing my Leica M in there when I wander for a day in Hanoi or a new city.  The Zoom fills a gap I didn't know I had, a proper travel bag with the same DNA as the smaller pieces I already trust.

What It Actually Is

The Zoom sits in Bleu de Chauffe's Premium collection and the price might scare a few people away as it's almost $700. For many of you, you're out right now and I get it. For me, it's a forever bag, not a fad bag and something that will get better with age.  It's a cross between a weekend bag and a tote. Cabin luggage sized, 40 liters, 45 by 40 by 22 centimeters. Big enough for a real trip, small enough that no airline is going to give you grief about it.

Full grain, vegetable tanned leather, water resistant, with a sanded velour finish on the underside. The handles are reinforced with natural rope and wrapped in full grain leather, so they should carry comfortable even fully loaded, and hold up without stretching out or going soft.

Then there's the detail I keep coming back to. The clasp. It's a tuck lock with a gun barrel finish, brass, and it might be my favorite hardware feature on any bag I own. One motion, it's open. One motion, it's closed. I wish more bag companies built a system this simple and this good looking at the same time.

Under the front flap is a large quick access pocket, perfect for a laptop, my passport, a magazine for the flight. The main compartment opens fully with a long zip, so packing and unpacking is fast, and there's a removable zipped pocket inside in cotton canvas for the small stuff that always ends up loose at the bottom of a bag.

How I'm Going to Use It

This is set up to be my carry on for high end commercial work. Japan this month for a shoot, then the US after that to see my family. On the plane it's carrying my laptop, an extra layer, whatever I need for a meeting the moment I land. It looks dressed up enough to walk into a client office straight off an overnight flight, but rugged enough to pair with jeans and a field shirt if the day calls for something less polished.

It doesn't force you into one look. Dressed up, it reads polished. Broken in with the right outfit, it should read like it's always belonged on the road.

It also plays well with the rest of my kit. I run Billingham camera and travel bags for a lot of my commercial work, and this pairs naturally alongside it. It also dresses up my Wotancraft bags when I want the overall look a little more elevated for a client facing day.

Price and Whether It's Worth It

The Zoom runs $669 plus taxes and duties included, with free worldwide shipping on bags. Not a small number for a bag. I'm not going to pretend it is. But this is vegetable tanned, full grain leather, handmade in France by an actual leathersmith, built to patina and get better looking with age instead of falling apart.

I've paid similar money for bags that didn't carry half as well or age half as nicely. Cost per year of use, and I plan on using this thing for a long time, it should even out fast.

Worth noting, the dark brown colorway I have is currently sold out on their site as of writing this. They do have other colorways available if this one is out of stock when you're reading.

The Verdict

I love this brand as a whole. The craftsmanship, the philosophy behind the leather, the workwear attitude that runs through everything they make. The Zoom isn't the flashiest travel bag out there, and that's the point. It's built to look better every month you use it, and that brass clasp alone makes me wish every bag maker paid this much attention to how a bag actually gets opened and closed a hundred times a week.

My only complaint is a lack of a luggage pass as I'm grown accustomed to using them for the seemingly longer and longer airport distances and immigration lines. I get why they didn't include one, it would take away from the seamless look of it, but I'd be happy to sacrifice style for function for it. 

I'll report back after Japan and the trip home to see how it holds up. First impression: this is a bag built to sit in a client meeting in the morning and still work for you off the clock later that day.

This isn't an affiliate link but you can shop this bag here and I encourage you to check out there entire collection of bags.