Further to my last post about the purchase of a new camera bag to house my Fuji X-E2, the new bag duly arrived courtesy of Amazon. As with all Domke bags it looks as though it’s built to last and the quality is just as it should be.
As I stated yesterday, the bag is black apart from a very visible red badge sewn into the outside of the flap. The excellent shoulder strap has two clasps which fasten onto the strong loops that are sewn on to either side of the bag. The base of the bag has some kind of stiffener sewn into it, as it is quite rigid.
Pulling back the flap to open the bag, the first thing that you will notice is the grip and noise of the two patches of Velcro that hold the flap closed. The hoop side of the velcro is on the front of the bag, whilst the ‘smooth’ velcro is sewn under the main flap. In the image above you can see the velcro on the front of the large pocket.
The inside of the bag is different to my F6 in that it has a (very) lightly padded container sewn into the main bag structure (the F6 has no padding at all). There are also two Velcro fastened inserts which can be moved around the inside of the container to facilitate placement of equipment to suit the user. I am quite happy with the amount of padding in the bag. I don’t want a bag to stand out from my hips, I like them to form themselves around me which is why I chose the lightly ‘armoured’ Domke canvas bags.
The interior of the bag is accessed by the very strong looking zip. The picture above shows my X-E2 with 18-55mm f/2.8 – 4 zoom lens fitted in the central main compartment and my 35mm f/2 lens slipped into the bag at the right-hand side. There is still some room on the other side of the camera for other bits of pieces. On the front of the bag there is also a full length pocket in which you can put spare batteries etc. You can also see the strip of smooth velcro at the top of the inside of the flap.
My first job with the bag was to remove the obtrusive red Domke label. This I did quite easily with a seam-puller from my wife’s sewing box. The next step was to remove the two patches of hoop-side Velcro on the front of the long pocket. Velcro is just too noisy to put on the main flap of a camera bag. Every time you open it you get the loud crrruuunch sound. I removed these with the seam-puller again, but left the smooth panel of Velcro on the underside of the flap as there was no need to take it off with the hoop side pieces removed. I then had to ensure I could close the flap so I found a 25mm side release buckle and two lengths of 25mm webbing. The female buckle part, I sewed on to the main part of the bag at the front near the bottom, whilst the male clasp part I sewed to the main flap.
The image above shows the bag with the two hoop-side panels of the Velcro removed from the front of the pocket, you can just see the needle holes from where they were removed.
I’m now looking forward to using the bag.
sensored-view.com 
You should go into camera bag design! Seriously! I much prefer your modified version!!
LikeLike
Thanks Carol. I think the reason why photographers have so many bags is because they can never find the perfect one – its always a compromise. Jim Domke converted a fishing bag for his first camera bag back in 1976 – that’s how he started. As you know I don’t like my camera bags to look too much like they’re carrying expensive equipment, so the more non-descript they are the better. I also prefer them to stick close to the body so the well-padded Tamrons and Lowepro (though excellently protected) are not for me.
LikeLike