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Go to your favorite store that sells knapsacks for hikers and students. REI is great if you don't mind the price premium.

I have to disagree - those stores are wonderful if you're hiker, student, or someone who needs a backpack for use on the trail or for daily use and who incidentally wants to carry a camera along. They're much less useful for the photographer who wants to carry a camera and incidentally some other stuff.
 
Visit REI or some other serious backpacker/hiker/student type store *first* in order to learn how to fit a backpack and how a properly fitted one feels... Then go to a pro camera shop to get advice, try on different bags, and to actually select and buy your bag.
 

Load all your gear into each and every pack they have, and put the pack on your back. Include the packs which you're sure wouldn't work.

I concur 100% - you'll never know if a bag is going to work unless you load it and try it out.
 

You should be able to find something that comfortably fits everything and which doesn't scream, "Mug me! I'm carrying around thousands of dollars of easily-fencable equipment!" Instead, you're going after the "I'm a poor student lugging around waaay too many textbooks" look.

I tried that route, and ended up with a backpack designed for poor students and too many textbooks - but which absolutely sucked for carrying a camera. The bad part is that I spent too long convincing myself the bag would work if I just kept trying and ended up keeping it too long to be able to return it. Even worse - said student bag ended up costing just as much than the camera bag I eventually bought. (Sturdy and comfortable bags aren't cheap.) I ended up going with a bag that wasn't quite so stealthy but which actually worked as a camera bag.
 

The goal here is just something that'll keep stuff from scratching as it rubs against each other plus a very little bit of shock protection. No backpack will provide more than that, so there's no point in pretending.

With a daily use camera bag, you're not so much worried about large shock loads on your gear as you are about the wear and tear caused by bouncing around and banging against each other as you go about your daily business - and a proper dedicated camera bag excels at that, while your solution provides little-to-no protection. (It takes a hell of a lot more than a bit of padded cloth or a winter sock to protect a lens as large as those described by the OP.) When you've spent a couple grand on a decent DSLR and lenses, you're stupid to not protect that investment by spending a couple of hundred on a proper bag. If you're a dedicated photographer (rather than someone who just carries a backpack and happens to carry a camera), a proper bag also offers something a half-ass solution doesn't - organization. Places for extra cards, for extra lenses, for filters, for your cleaning kit...
 
A proper bag pays for itself a hundred times over. Spend the time and money to do it right, and you'll never regret a penny.

A) Don't take the laptop in the first place OR leave it on your back in the backpack
B) the "toploader" style of camera bag is ordinarily slung over your shoulder

You now have 2 hands free. If carrying your backpack in-hand, you still have one free.

I don't usually take my laptop with me, but whether I do or not I have both hands free to use with the camera because the camera bag is over my shoulder. With some of the places I've clambered around, having both hands free is essential.

Like the previous post, I don't understand what the problem is or why you would want to change from a toploader +- backpack. Having things in two separate bags means you can leave the laptop behind where you know it will be secure and only take the much smaller camera bag. In my toploader there's plenty of room for some memory cards, a usb flash drive, and I even keep my iPod in there. I only use one lens when traveling -- a 28-105mm lens with a faux-macro closeup setting. It's not as much magnification as a 200mm+ lens, but on the other hand I can just move closer to the subject (105mm to 200mm isn't *that* much difference -- only ~2x -- and the light performance is going to be worse with long lenses unless they're huge and heavy) and it means I don't have to swap lenses all the time or carry a lot of bulk. My goal has always been to travel as light as possible. If I know I have to do long-lens work or need to review pictures, then I put a bigger lens in the backpack and take it with me, but the camera still goes in the toploader over the shoulder for easy access.

The point is, two separate bags gives you more options and more flexibility than one when you go out for the day. I'd go nuts if I had to take my entire backpack off or swing it around every time I wanted to retrieve the camera to take a photo. I don't understand why the submitter's preference is for one bag unless they're prone to losing things.

I have a Fullframe DSLR (implying large large and heavy lenses) and a MBP 17". Fits perfectly in the FP 350. I really like the good and quick access to the camera, that can be taken out without fully removing the backpack.

Negative point is that only slim laptops fit in it. Don't expect to put anything thicker than a macbook.

I've had almost 15 kg of gear in it, and was still comfortable. Fitted nicely, MBP 17, Western Digital mybook (one 3.5 HDD format), 1 extra tele lens, 1 extra fixed focal lense (small) , flash and various accessories (power supplies, cables, etc). The bag is still compact for all that content. The compartments are well organized and optimized.

Largest drawback is that you can't nicely strap a tripod or monopod to it. I miss that a lot.

http://products.lowepro.com/product/Fastpack-350,2087,14.htm

I bought the perfect camera bag for my Canon SLR gear. The Lowepro Stealth Reporter line of bags look very nice and are practical. They look like normal messenger bags (so they don't necessary scream "steal my SLR gear!"), have a rain hood, and are in professional black. My SLR+grip and several lenses fit in there nicely.

Noone batted an eye, except for the security explosives screener who laughed, "Seven kilograms?!?" Normally I hate this and people who do it. But I tried to justify it as a one time one way trip (I was immigrating).

Pelican Cases have a good reputation, but they don't look as chick as the Halliburton. LowePro also makes some hard cases for cameras, but they don't take a computer (yet, I am sure it will very soon); they are a hardcase and a matching bag inside it.

The reality is that you don't want attention on your bag, as it might be stolen. I just recommended a person
to take the Styrofoam that came with the laptop to get to Heathrow. At least the laptop arrived in a working
condition.

I think the optimal solution is to find something that looks like regular luggage. Perhaps buying a cheap, beaten up luggage bag (garage sale?) to put the computer inside. Use duct tape and dirt for extra effect, and geek chicness.

Come on. 12" powerbook and a phone (which can also be gps and pda, if you like). What else do you need?

As for the bag, if you want to carry a load of fragile equipment in comfort and safety, ask a photojournalist. They've always had to do it, and to my mind the best equipment bag you can buy is a billingham. You could fit everything in a Hadley and not even look like a geek*, or add an SLR and some clothes and it'll still fit in a 445. Mine is over 20 years old and only just broken in.

*If that's a drawback, consider a Lowepro instead. But do you really want that 'this is where I keep my expensive laptop' look?

LowePro makes Notebook/Camera bags...

I just bought one of their Tropolis 1250 backpacks, and they're extremely nice. LowePro has always made good camera bags.

MMales in the US are too self conscious to carry around hand bags, because they resemble womens' purses http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~creswell/manpurse.html I used to carry a fanny/belt pack whenever I was travelling, but my wife finally refused to go places with me if I wore it. The only workable suggestion I can give is some sort of a manly camera bag with lots of pockets and straps, such as something from http://lowepro.com/

Mod parent up. Yes! 100% insightful. Better have TEN $300 camcorders than have one $3000 camera. Note: JVC makes some wonderful budget camcorders that can be had for $300 or even less. Best video quality you'll get in this price range will be a JVC. The other thing - If you've seen the Fog of War with Robert McNamara and remember the egg packaging anecdote, then I highly suggest you no longer look for a "rugged" camcorder but for a good protection from a camcorder case. Lowepro makes some good ones that'll take the abuse http://www.lowepro.com/.

check out this little bag here.

It looks like a courier bag, but has nice padded compartments for your expensive fragile geek gadgets.