Best photographers' vests and jackets: 6 tested

Best photographic vests and jackets: 6 tested

Stealth Gear Extreme Photographers Jacket2 - £259.99/$411

If you're an intrepid outdoor photographer who's often found crawling through the mud, scrambling up windswept peaks or tracking sensitive subjects through woodland, then this jacket was designed for you.

It's not lightweight, but this robust jacket exudes quality in terms of design, the materials used and its construction.

Rather than going down the fashion-led route that some photography clothing manufacturers have adopted, Stealth Gear's products are squarely aimed at serious wildlife photographers who need to blend in with their surroundings.

To that end, this jacket features 'forest green', rustle-free 100% polyester micro-suede with DuPont Teflon: a material that feels soft to the touch and enables you to make quick, quiet movements, while offering complete protection against the wind and rain.

The array of pockets and compartments spread across the body and sleeves of the jacket means you can distribute a lot of kit between them, potentially dispensing with the need for a bag if you're travelling light.

The colossal lower pockets on the front of the jacket feature zipped sides to enable expansion, so you can stash items as large as a professional camera body - plus several lenses - and have them to hand at a moment's notice.

Seemingly innumerable extra internal and external pockets provide plenty more space for memory cards, spare batteries and other accessories, too.

Back ventilation, extra padding and reinforced panels around the elbows and shoulders, plus the innovative 'Sit-Anywhere-Seat' that unzips from the back to give you a dry place to perch are just a few of the numerous touches that add up to a high-performance jacket that does everything an outdoor photographer could want – and more!