Pretty GoodThis minimalistic bag is the perfect size for my needs. It fits my Nikon D5100 with 70-300mm zoom attached, a 35mm 1.8 and an 18-55mm (soon to be upgraded to a 16-85mm, which will also fit), plus a Canon S95 point and shoot, filters, memory cards, charger and spare battery. Not much room for anything else, besides a magazine and airline ticket/passport. I don't yet have a an external flash, but I think it might be a very tight to cram an SB900 into the bag along with the other stuff. Anyway, after hours of searching online, this was the one I found that best met my needs, mainly due to its size.
I wanted a bag that is as compact as possible with just enough room for the essentials, while being durable and providing decent protection for my gear. It's small enough to put into a larger backpack when I travel or need to carry more stuff, which allows for maximum flexibility. For me, this is ideal, because if I need to carry more than what this bag can hold, a backpack is much more comfortable. I plan to get the Lowepro CompuDay Photo 250 backpack and slip this Domke bag inside of it as a carry-on bag. Hopefully it'll work out well.
The entire inside of the bag (except for the the top) are lined with a padded fabric that the velcro-edged partitions will stick to, allowing for easy configuration. The front flap that covers the bag is secured by a large strip of velcro, and there's a zipper underneath to open the bag (which I leave unzippered when I'm in picture-taking mode). A second zipper opening at the bottom of the front panel allows for access to lenses or anything else at the bottom of the bag. There are two open pockets on the front panel, but they're fairly shallow (don't know why they didn't just extend the height of the pockets by a couple of inches to the top of the bag). There's also a flat open pocket on the back of the bag that is good for tickets/passport or a folded up newspaper or magazine.
Everything's well made and the quality of the "ballistic" nylon is top notch (though I wouldn't trust it as a bulletproof shield if you're traveling in Afghanistan). The strap appears to be made of heavy duty cotton/canvas webbing with anti-slip strips on the underside. The swivel hooks and plastic fittings are of high quality. I wanted a bag that is low key and doesn't look like a camera bag, and this fits the bill nicely. It looks like a non-descript shoulder bag. Some have complained about the large, red Domke logo on the front. On mine, the logo is dark green and is almost unnoticeable against the black bag. Looks like they've responded to customer suggestions on this. I like the new low-key logo, however it's easily removed, if desired, by picking loose the threads on the logo patch.
I was originally looking for a bag this size, but a little thicker so it could hold a netbook. I wasn't able to find one, but upon receiving this bag, I found the perfect solution the rings (to which the shoulder strap attaches) on my 10" netbook case just happen to line up perfectly with the rings on the Domke bag. I simply placing the netbook bag in back of the Domke, then attach the Domke shoulder strap to the rings on both bags. Works great and it feels as if they were a single unit.
How this bag could be improved:
The strap should have some kind of shoulder pad included. The strap alone, while well made, can get uncomfortable if carrying a full load for awhile. No doubt they're hoping you buy the add-on pad that Domke sells separately, which has mixed reviews. I'm going to look for another pad, instead of having to buy a complete new strap.
Small collapsible pockets on the sides would be good for a water bottle or other small items, though there is a loop on each side, to which a bottle holder can be attached w/ a carabiner. Small pockets on the inside of the top flap would also help.
For the bag's price, I think it's reasonable if some of these things were addressed. If this was done, I'd have given it 5 stars.
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