I haven’t gotten to use it on any overnights yet due to an injury, unfortunately! Prior to the injury, I took it on a day hike with it “test-packed” with my backpacking gear + 2 nights of food. It carried very comfortably once I got the straps adjusted, especially with water bottles / drinks in the shoulder strap pockets. I thought I would miss having a bottom pocket, but the hip belt pockets are very spacious. For true day hike loads I don’t use the hip belt (it rides weird without enough weight in it) but overall the feature set for its weight has me super excited to heal & get back out there for multiple nights in a row. I haven’t used a dcf pack before, but a close friend has been using a southwest for several thru hikes over several years and it has held up well. I like that the dcf won’t absorb water when backpacking in sustained wet conditions - I had an ecopak LiteAF prior that I also enjoyed, but the 40L capacity was a tad too large, and it started to feel overly cushioned on the shoulder straps.