Domke

Domke is an American brand of photography bags and accessories. Jim Domke created the first Domke bag in the year 1976, while he was working as a photographer with the Philadelphia Inquirer, a daily newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. As a news-photographer Jim saw that most of the bags used by photographers get torn or break very easily. After the then Director of Photography, Gary Haynes, recommended that it would be more cost effective if the publication made bags themselves, Jim created his first Shooter's Bag; this bag was specifically designed to allow a photographer to assemble his gear and take pictures without removing the bag from his shoulder. The first Domke bag, the original F2, is still manufactured today. The Domke F2 is today available in cotton canvas or 1050 Denier Ballistic Nylon. After realising that the original F2 "held too much", Jim Domke designed the SuperCompact FX3, a bag that was specifically designed to handle "the same gear just less of it". In 1987, Jim designed the Gripper Camera Strap, a heavy cotton web strap with two rows of natural rubber woven right into the strap, which prevented the strap from sliding off while shooting.

Domke bags are today manufactured by Tiffen Company; however Jim still sells F2 Original, the FX3 Super Compact and the Gripper Strap through DigiPic Tools.