By this do you mean Maxpedition cannot carry the amount of weight that a "hiking type of backpack" can carry? I'm pretty sure that a big pack like the vulture II wasn't designed for carrying pillows. And all the reviews on youtube were by people using them for outdoors purposes. I guess you're referring to it being frameless, thus weaker and not as good as a pack with a frame. Or do you mean that all their pockets and snaps and crap are not necessary? To be more specific, I'm not hiking for days carrying 70 pounds. I'm usually, not always, hiking for brief periods at a time with less than 20 pounds but i want it to be able to handle more weight than that. (Sorry for not clearing that up to begin with)
So far i've been looking at the kelty redwings and the vulture ii, both seem to be pretty good.
I have no experience with the Volture II. My condor II however is a great backpack. I carry a reservoir, a gun, a sweater, socks, pens, a knife, my lunch and some odds and ends in it. I know it is durable, great for organization, and has molle attachment points on every inch of it, but any time I go camping it flat out sucks. I feel that the maxpedition lines shine in urban jungles. There are sharp metal edges, hard floors, people, and all sorts of obstacles in the urban jungle. It's a great bag, but its not an outdoor pack. I learned this first hand.
I purchased all sorts of attachments, and lashed items to it just to find out that things start swaying back and forth, the load is uneven, the support of the waist belt is minimal at best and the shoulder pads are nothing in comparison to hiking/camping packs. It's very easy to get caught up in the modular appeal but it's not as practical in use as it looks on the net. This is just my unbiased opinion.
If your walking along a stream, you have some tackle on you, spare reel, some live bait, some lunch, rain gear, then the maxi bags would be great. If you have sleeping bag, clothing layers, water, tent, tools, first aid, mess kit, fishing gear, and odds and ends then the max bags wont get it done for you. The internal frame on hiking packs, even the smaller ones with plastic frames are more rigid then the cell foam in the maxi bags. They are designed to put the weight on your hips not your shoulders/back. Though the material isn't as rigid and "tough" feeling as the maxi denier/cordova it is more then durable enough to treck through brush and walk away unscathed. It isn't designed for the urban forest, they don't have to protect against metal objects, concrete floors, and being tossed around in tactical situations. It's designed to make it through sharps in the outdoors, like branches, thorns and things like that.
You should really check out some packs at a local sports store. Start with a 65 liter pack. So you can see how suspension and stuff works. That would be about 40-50 lbs. Much more then you need but it will help you to see the difference between a pack and a shoulder bag.
I also was looking at a kelty at REI and it was a quality bag. I've also seen alot of reviews on Kelty's and as I said before, pretty much everything in that 125-175 dollar range is comparable (regarding hiking packs).
If it really is just for streaming, have you given thought to a hip bag and fishing vest? I can carry my entire tackle box in that setup, although I look like a jackass with all my stuff hanging off of me.
All the youtube reviews of maxpiditions seem to be a bit fanboi-ish to me. I have a lot of their products, and I am happy with them when using them in roles they can excel at, I don't think any of them would work for "camping/fishing/outdoors" as mentioned in the OP.
