This got longer then I expected to write, but should help your questions about the Ibex specifically.
I've had the SwissGear Ibex for a couple of months now and like it so far with no real complaints. I bought it from Best Buy who had it for $100, but they price matched
NewEgg at $65 when I showed it to them on my phone.
Here's my break down.
[1] Overall I like this bag. All the zippers feel quality (though I have no certification in zipper quality assurance.
). I haven't really tested it in weather yet except for one time. I chose a bad day to ride my motorcycle and had a 30 minute ride home in the rain from work. Since it was on my back at highway speeds I think most of the rain stayed off of it, but at times it did catch some. When I got home everything was dry inside and I made sure to check the inside along the zippers and seams for any seepage of which there was none. Straps are mesh breathable padding and have a little bit of flex to them under weight, their 'shock absorbing technology', but have a separate nylon strap for reinforcement shoould it 'bottom out.' The back has similar mesh padding with channels supposedly designed to help your back breath preventing sweating. Carrying handle is the popular plastic coated, braided steel cable with a nylon strap and rubber handle piece. The bottom of the bag is some pebbled faux leather looking material which after two months of being set down on all the normal surfaces including concrete it's not marked up at all so happy there. Of note, however, if you do a lot of air travelling, this bag is not TSA friendly. Meaning the laptop section won't unzip and fold flat on a TSA xray. You'd have to still remove the laptop for the scan. Not an issue for me.
[1]
[url=http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/1383/1000000288.th.jpg]Image[/URL] [2]
[url=http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/7523/1000000289.th.jpg]Image[/URL]
[2] In the front pocket I have a bunch of odds and ends stuff. Some mail, a WD Passport HDD, Snow Leopard CD, pens, markers, business cards, hi-lighter, Square Reader, USB MicroSD card reader, Logitech G5, Tums, and the 85W power brick for my 15" MBP. Things fit well enough. The little pockets on the left, where the pens are, holding the business cards are relatively thin. Not much else able to put in those. Mesh pocket is where the Square Reader and USB thumbdrive is so they don't get lost. No where else really to put those safe, and easily accessible.
[3]
[url=http://img809.imageshack.us/img809/7131/1000000290.th.jpg]Image[/URL] [4]
[url=http://img577.imageshack.us/img577/3042/1000000291.th.jpg]Image[/URL]
[3] The next pocket you see some papers, my Kindle, and a small notebook (similar in size to the Kindle). In the mesh pocket behind I keep the longer extension for the MBP power brick. This pocket loses a little bit of space if you load up the front pocket as it extends a bit into the second. Not a big deal.
[4] The main pocket is pretty large. I've fit a couple of text books in there last semester without issue. Right now you see my little software binder, another notebook, and more papers. The bottom of this pocket has a reinforced flap that you push down to the bottom of the bag helping it to stay upright and expanded. Makes for easy loading since the bag isn't flopping around on you and when empty it'll stand up on it's own. Again if you load up the second pocket it might creep a little into the main pocket. The papers you see are in a separate partition that is expandable up to about two inches. That's kind of nice if you want to organize two sets of things or perhaps separate something for protection from other things in the main pocket. There's also the rubber hole to run headphone cables (pic 7) out of here. This is because there is a metal grommet leading to the next, smaller 'valuables' pouch (pic 5) allowing you to keep say your iDevice in the small pouch and run the cable through the grommet then out the rubber hole. Maybe I'm being paranoid about water/rain, but I would have liked to have seen the rubber headphone hole be a little tighter fitting to help prevent any water from seeping in. As I said, I may just be paranoid about it though.
[5]
[url=http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/5808/1000000292.th.jpg]Image[/URL] [6]
[url=http://img585.imageshack.us/img585/5728/1000000293l.th.jpg]Image[/URL]
[5] In the valuables pocket I have my SkullCandy earbuds in their little case which you can't see, iPhone cable, badges for work, and a point and shoot camera. I like this pocket as it's separately padded which is nice, easily accessible from the top of the bag, and has a separate pocket inside for a cell phone or camera as I'm using it for.
[6] The laptop compartment has lots of padding. The wall between the main pocket and the laptop compartment is padded. Then the sleeve the laptop slides into is padded itself and the back of the backpack is again padded as well. The laptop sleep is pretty big and will support up to a 17" laptop according to the propaganda. You see here my 15" MBP in a Booq Vyper M3 case. The sleeve has a velcro retention strap to prevent the laptop from slipping out works well enough. In this compartment there is also a mesh pocket and a thin pocket that would be good for say folders or something. I have a USB smart card reader in the mesh pocket. One thing I'd like to see differently, but I'm not sure how to change, is that anything large in mesh pocket might interfere with your laptop depending on how high it sits in the sleeve. I had hoped to put the power brick and extension in this pocket, but I didn't care for how the items packed in there.
[7]
[url=http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/1295/1000000294.th.jpg]Image[/URL]
[7] Finally, on the sides of the bags are two small zippered pockets and mesh water bottle pockets. The zippered pockets are alright. The openings are slanted I guess making it easier to get at smaller things at the bottom. I have a charging brick and micro USB cable from my old Motorola Droid in the pocket shown. These pockets would be alright for little things like this. The water bottle pockets are alright. The mesh doesn't feel like it's going to tear at the littlest thing. I've only used these a couple of times to carry a pop bottle, but you could put anything in those really if you were ok with it being a little bit more exposed. You can also see the headphone port in this pictures. It's on the right hand side of the backpack as you're wearing it.
Like I said, I like the bag overall. I was originally looking for a messenger bag, but saw this at Best Buy and picked it up. That being said, I may still pick up a messenger bag for when I don't need to carry so much and I think the
Speck CorePack Fly is what I'll pick up.
For your needs I think this would do alright. The second pocket would handle full sized, over-ear headphones fine even if they had their own case. There's plenty of compartments, though, I don't think they would work well if your film classes are going to require you to carry around a bunch of lenses and filters. If so there are better bags out there that are designed for that purpose. They may sacrifice space for larger text books to separate the lenses, etc.
