Who cares about camera bags? Well....I do.

This is an old, Domke Little Bit Bigger camera bag.

I see a lot of super crappy camera bags out and about.  What the heck are you people thinking?  Seeing a huge, ballistic nylon, super-size-me bag that looks like a black shipping box rigidly swinging from a strap that has a death grip on your shoulder tells me that you didn't think that bag purchase through all the way. I know, I know, you're an engineer and you read the tests and selected a bag for maximum gear safety.  Your brand X behemoth bag can protect the contents at drops that accelerate to 20 g's.  It's bullet proof and has dedicated compartments for everything from your micro-fiber cleaning cloth to your 18-500mm zoom and your GPS something or other, and your flashlight and your cellphone(s),  and your MP3 player and a few books on lighting and a couple of sandwiches and a six pack of lite beer.   Swinging the "big bags" through an unsuspecting crowd won't win you many friends.    In term of coolness the giant, semi-rigid, b-nylon bags are the comb-overs of camera bags.  Better to just carry everything in a paper bag from the grocery store.


 You want something better out of life than to own the U-Haul of camera bags. I've looked at almost every bag on the market over the last thirty years and I've bought dozens of them.  Maybe more.  I had a brief romance with a minimalist Leica canvas camera bag but it just wasn't the right size.  I still have three of them hanging on a door in the studio, in various sizes.  Tamracs are the Pontiac Firebirds of camera bags.  Too bulky and inefficient.  The interior size is minute on most of them compared to the exterior dimensions.  Ditto the Lowes and the Katas.  In fact, all of the bags that are constructed of dense, rigid foam, covered with ballistic nylon are heavy on "protection" (as if it mattered) and light on comfort and usability.  And as stylish as a leisure suit.

You want a bag with give.  You want a bag that ages gracefully.  You want a bag that's underwhelming and personable.  And, most importantly, you want a back that wraps itself around you like an affectionate lover.

In the end, if you are a professional photographer who carries his own cameras onto commercial locations, or in the service of art, or you just want to look like one, you can't really carry anything but a Domke cotton canvas bag.  The size is really up to you but good taste dictates that you select one that's just big enough for whatever you have planned, photographically, for the day.

If you are shooting with micro four thirds cameras and lenses you certainly don't need anything bigger than the original, F2 bag.  If you shoot with APS or full frame cameras you don't need anything more ample than the Little Bit Bigger Bag in the photo above.  If you get one of the Little Bit Bigger Bags and you come back whining that you've run out of space you are wrong.  You just tried to put too much worthless stuff in the bag.

Let's get straight about one thing: A camera bag is not a "storage solution" and a photo shoot is not an automatic opportunity to bring every last piece of photo-crap along when you leave the house. Tobacco colored filters? Really?  If you've done your due diligence and practiced your craft over and over again you should know which two zoom lenses you really need to shoot with or, alternatively, which three primes you need to pack for the day.  If you're shooting unhurried and close to home do you really need a back up camera?  I didn't think so. An extra battery or two? Sure.  Wanna pack even lighter? Leave the cellphone at home and concentrate on shooting.

But back to my point.  The small Domke bag (the f2) and the Little Bit Bigger Bag are both made out of cotton canvas.  Over time (if you use it) it gets softer and softer. Comfortable to the touch.  The bag is made to smush when there's not a lot in it.  It kind of wraps around your hip instead of gouging rigidly into it.  The smaller bag should always be bought in the dark brown color.  It's stealthy and visually appealing in its simplicity and grace.  In the large bag your really only have the choice between a very, very light tan and a deep black.  I have them both.  Just get the black.  Over time it will fade like the corners of an enameled Leica M3, showing the equivalent of camera brassing that says, "My camera bag earned this soft, weathered finish from time in the field."

My Bigger Bag is perfect for what I do.  I can comfortably fit in two big camera bodies and four lenses, plus a flash.  The front pockets are reserved for camera batteries and memory cards.  The end pockets for flash batteries and off camera flash cables.  The back pocket?  You get to use it any way you want.  It will accept my 13 inch laptop but it's stupid to carry a laptop around if you're going out to shoot.  If your camera bag feels heavy it's either not well made or you put too much stuff inside.  See above.

Big, dumb bags are insidious.  They aren't really scalable because they are more rigid than the unstructured canvas bags. Human nature (which you can't resist even though you say you can) impels you to fill every pocket; every nook and cranny.  And the fat bag throws off your normally graceful gait. The more you carry the harder it is to be creative.  It's a known law of the photographic universe.

I started out with a Domke F2 (original) bag in brown.  I still have it after nearly 20 years.  A short time later I got the bigger bag because I was doing a lot of airline travel and the bag, with my two shooting cameras and four lenses, and necessary junk would all fit under the seat in front of me.  It still will, even with all the TSA'ing and downsizing.

The black, bigger bag has been with me through a blizzard in St. Petersburg, a junket to Monte Carlo, a torrential downpour in Seattle and just about everywhere else.  It won't protect gear from rank stupidity and will  punish you until you learn to be vigilant in caring for your gear.  But it will make you a better photographer because it will carry your stuff gracefully and call less attention to you than more unyielding baggage.  In a way, all baggage is part of a balancing act.  Too much means you're not selective enough.  Being prepared is one thing, carrying your whole inventory on your shoulder is just crazy.

These are just suggestions.  If you're as headstrong as I am you'll go out and buy whatever the hell you think is right.  But I'm here to tell you that when I've met the best and the brightest, the superstars, the Rollingstones and Beatles of photography, every damn one of them is hauling their carefully selected camera gear around with them in a Domke canvas bag.  Not some high tech monstrosity of a bag. And certainly nothing in bright colors or attached to a cutesy name.  You've been informed.  No one can force you to have good taste.  But if you are in the market for a great camera bag I suggest you try one of the Domkes.

full disclosure. I own too many Domke bags but, it can't bear to let any of them go.  I don't own Tiffen or Domke stock and no one gives them to me for free.  The article is not meant to be mean or serious.  If it comes off that way I either wrote it wrong or you read it wrong.  And, true fact, Duane Michals actually did carry his cameras to several photo shoots in New York City in a Shopping bag from a department store.  Really.

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