Domke - Bags for photographers on the move

A few years ago I was in a photography shop in London when I spied an old bag in the corner onsale for a tenner.  I couldn't resist, even though I had no idea what I'd use it for.  A few years later I found myself living on the other side of the planet and having to cover a demonstration - a rare thing where I live. I needed a small bag to carry a spare lens, a notebook and not much more.  The Domke bag that I had, which I since discovered is an F3X, was perfect.  Not so good that it prevented me getting hassled by the police, but that seems to be de rigeur the times we live in.

Fast forward a couple of years and I began to work regularly for newspapers as a press photographer.  I noticed that most of my wiser colleagues, with very few exceptions, were toting Domkes.  Quite happy with the ThinkTank belt setup I've been using for a while now, I didn't really understand what all the fuss was about.  The Domkes don't seem to protect your cameras very well, don't seem very waterproof and look, well, small.

Then I began to have a few jobs where I really needed an understated camera bag.  Just last week I had to get an impromptu portrait of the son of an injured man in a hospital.  Although the hospital wouldn't have had a problem with a photographer during visiting hours, it was hardly going to help our case to convince the son to talk to us, if I walked up with a full-on black belt kit and big SLR hanging off my shoulder.  Luckily, the day before I had borrowed a Domke F3 from a colleague to trial for this article, and it was ideal; understated, compact and looking very little like a camera bag.

Here's a friend of mine's olive green ballistic nylon F3 in action at a celebrity wedding that we'd been sent to cover in a paparazzo style.  They're available in several colours (blue, black, tan and green) and two fabrics; the original retro denim and more modern ballistic nylon like the Lowepro series.

 

Domke bags are the brainchild of Jim Domke, a photographer who in the 60s and 70s wanted to find an alternative to the big, bulky and often hard sided camera case/bags that were used.  He came up with the idea of minimal padding to save size and weight.  After all, if my bag's padded I'm still going to treat it carefully.  And the smaller the bag the safer it is in many ways; less likely to draw attention, less likely to get snagged, less likely to get in the way in crowds.  So he made his own camera bag with soft sides and minimal padding.  Before he knew it, everyone wanted one.

Here's a selection of older bags that a venerable friend of mine had kicking around in his studio when I was last there for a coffee that were early adopters of the Domke design ethic.. two old Billingham bags and a Tenba.  Although the padding and insides are a bit worn, they're still as solid as the day they were built (about twenty years ago) and look really cool.  On a practical side, no one would give you a second glance with one over your shoulder, which is handy a lot of the time whether you're a pro or amateur.

A good tip if you've got an old modern bag lying around but have any affinity for older bags is to pick one up on ebay and slide in the insert from your modern bag.  For example, the inserts from the Lowepro Stealth Reporter 400 and 550 fit the old Billinghams perfectly.

So anyway, what makes the Domke F2 so good ?  Read on.. with the proviso that the one I borrowed from my friend is rather worn out.  And that's the cool thing I've found about them; they very quickly get a little worn like your favourite old pair of jeans.  This example has had a particularly tough life so is about to be retired, but not before I had a good go with it.  Despite not being in ideal condition for a review, it's worth noting that apart from the hole in the slim rear pocket, it's still as bomb-proof as the day it was born.  The strap is worn to half its width but still is totally solid.

Rear view showing the slim book/CD/magazine pocket.

A close up showing the burly shoulder strap point, carrying strap point and D ring (one of two at each end) that allows you to clip your keys to the bag or use Domke's back carrying system (which I think looks really silly.)

So now we go inside... a new F2 comes with a padded four compartment lens insert but I'm using the two inserts I had in my F3.  Without the inserts you only have the padded bottom as shock protection but the whole point of these bags is their compact size and ability to hold a lot of gear.  You don't want to throw your camera bag around however padded it is, so it's not really a problem.  That's what makes Domkes so good... you really don't need the padding of a lot of other camera bags because when push comes to shove, a big knock or drop is going to damage the equipment inside anyway.

And below you can see the bag with all the stuff I carry.  Bear in mind too that if this was my bag I'd have a bit more stuff tucked inside, like a lens cleaning cloth and business card wallet.  The top flap of the bag has a waterproof finish and a zipped pocket under the lid for incidental sundries like that.  My 70-200 tripod collar, off camera cord and 1.4 converter live in the end pocket and the notepad and mini Maglite in the opposite end pocket.  My camera with a 28-70 f2.8 lens that I commonly use for news jobs also fits, but I was using it to take these photos. It fits into the spare spaces in the inserts.

So I've been using it for a couple of  weeks now and will be buying one on an impending trip to Hong Kong.  Drawbacks ? The only one I've found is that as any shoulder bag will, when it's fully loaded it quickly becomes a dead weight on your shoulder... which is a one-way ticket to back problems in later life.  For jobs where I know I'll be on my feet for a long time and it won't matter how much I stand out, I'll stick with my ThinkTank Modulus kit.  But for assigments when I don't know where I'm going, for how long and it's likely that I may need to look like Joe Nobody, I'll be using my Domke.  I've even got an idea to get the best of both worlds, but I'll report on that if it works.

Take this evening, for example, when I had to turn up unannounced to interview the family of a recently killed pilot (known grimly as a 'death knock' in the trade).  Not the sort of thing you want to do with a camera on one shoulder and a belt kit of lens pouch/holsters on the other.  The understated Domke was just what I needed.  The family weren't at home.....