Domke F-3x Review

I have been wanting to post my opinions of this bag for sometime as it has been grab and go bag for sometime. Let me give one caveat to start. This is not a professional product review, it is my review of how I use the F-3x, nothing more. I will discuss how I load it, etc. so read on if you find such things interesting.

We all know about the pluses of Domke bags. The durability, flexibility, room, etc. is almost legendary, and if you don't know about these things Jon at POTN will gladly remind you. What I want to discuss is what fit in this Tardis like bag (that was for the Dr. Who fans out there). So lets take a look at what this bad boy can do.

Lets start with a shot of everything I load in it as my grab and go F3-x. (Excuse the pictures, batteries in my 40D were dead so I used my wife's P&S)



Here is where everything goes.

Main Compartment:

• 5DII with grip and L-Bracket attached
• 24-105 f/4 L hood reversed attached to 5DII
• 17-40 f/4 L in wrap around pouch
• 85 f/1.8 hood reversed in wrap around puch
  

Front Compartment:

• Hood for 17-40 f/4 L
• RRS B87-B flash bracket
• Extra AA batteries
• Memory cards
• Body & Lens cap
  

End Compartment #1:

• 580EX II
  

End Compartment #2:

• Pocket Knife
• Flashlight
• Rocket Blower
• ETTL cord courtesy of FlashZebra
  
• Glasses
  

Back Compartment:

• Lumiquest ProMax System

Here are two shots of it loaded up.

Front:



Top:



Everything fits well and access to the items is very easy. Only catch is that I must remove the 5DII to get to my other lenses. But that is not an issue since I only need them when changing lenses so the 5DII is already out of the bag.

And for everyone's reference here is a shot of the F-3x with the main compartment open, just so you can see how things look.

Extra lenses only:



With 5DII:



I have to be honest that it took me some time to come to this configuration. I started out by not pushing the bag any and as a result what I fit in it was limiting. However, over time I found myself adding this then that, and eventually learning the beauty of a Domke, its ability to continue to take what ever you throw at it. In fact, I'm sure I could fit more if I really wanted to.

The only thing to be aware of is that the bag can get heavy fast as you continue to load it up. That is what led me to get a Postman's Pad. The pad is amazing, it makes carrying the bag no matter how full a breeze.

One question I often get is if a 70-200 will work in the F-3x. I'm sure it would, but I have to be honest in that when I use my 70-200 f/2.8 I move to my F2. I like the extra room.

I hope you find this useful. As I mentioned the purpose of this post is not be a formal review but to provide an idea of what can fit in the F-3x. I guess the final question is "would I recommend this bag?" My answer...without a doubt!!!

Letting Go...

There is an old joke in photography that goes something like this...

A man is standing with his wife watching a beautiful sunset. They are lovingly looking into each others eyes when in the golden sunlight his wife says with a soft tender voice, "I love you." At this moment what is going through the man's mind, "I love you too", "You are wonderful", or other such niceties, nope. Instead, he is thinking 1/125th at f/5.6.

Its a fun little joke, but shows how many of us are constantly thinking of our art and not the moment. Here is where I would normally leave all of you to reflect on the need to let go and recognize where you are, blah, blah, blah. But nope, this is where I tell myself to recognize where I am, blah, blah, blah.

Today is my 13th wedding anniversary. I have been married to the most wonderful person imaginable for 13 years, it is hard to believe that she has tolerated me for so long. :-) In a tender moment this evening we sat down with our 8 year-old son to look at our wedding pictures. There was oohing, ahhing and fond memories galore. Through it all what did I do? Let me tell you, I kept looking at the pictures thinking that the backgrounds were underexposed and the poses were poorly executed.

Not only was I thinking this but I made the mistake of mentioning it to my wife. How stupid could I be, I was essentially implying that she did not look good. How dumb could I be? As you can imagine, there was back peddling and many assurances that she was in fact beautiful...which is no lie by the way. I even went as far as to say the photographer probably underexposed the background in order to draw attention to her. I think that one might have worked...ok it didn't. :-)

So the lesson for me is to let go of my obsessions and live in the moment. Being a photographer is fine and I do love it, but being a good husband is much more important to me. So honey if you are reading this, I love you and thanks for putting up with me for all these years. I hope to one day earn the love you shower on me so freely.

Picture a Week Project - Week 9

Eyes Have It

Had an opportunity this past weekend to hook up with my best friend and his family. Why is this special? He has been living in Europe for the past 4 years and I have not had the opportunity to meet either of his children. So when we got together at the park I of course brought my camera.

The shot above is his oldest son. The shot is far from perfect and is not nearly as sharp as it should be if I were on my game, had the camera in One Shot which does not allow for moving children. Grrr. :-) Anyway, this little boy's eyes just jump out at me. The are large bright and expressive. So this weeks post is dedicated to this little lad with the big expressive eyes.

I will have to make the time to photograph him again some time. There are stories to be told in the eyes.

Week 8: Baseball Fun

Week 10: Metro

Picture a Week Project - Week 8

Baseball Fun

So my wife walked up to me and said that she needed a quick portrait of our son in his Little League uniform. No pressure....

Furthermore, we had to do the shoot in our back yard in bright sunlight and no shade. Oh, and there was no time to setup lightstands, etc. so there was no chance of overpowering the sun with one speedlight. My goose was cooked.

Anyway, the pictures turned out okay even though I wasn't able to eliminate shadows completely. I was even able to get over my frustrations to take a couple fun pics, the above being my favorite. So what did I learn, to get past myself and my need to do things certain ways and just enjoy the moment. When with family that is the most important thing after all.

Week 7: Confidence

Week 9: Eyes Have It

Picture a Week Project - Week 7

Confidence:

I'm so happy!

This past weekend was my son's first communion which gave me the opportunity to hold a portrait session in front of the church at a gazebo at the local park. I was excited I would be shooting on a sunny day but in a shaded area, how would I approach this? Hmmmm, let me think...photographic geek-type excitement.

I ended up using two speedlights. One was camera right at full power shooting into a silver lined umbrella and the second was camera left gobo'ed to prevent lens glare and shooting at 1/16th. Both were gelled with a 1/4 CTO to match the sun and give the subjects some warmth.

In general, I'm very pleased with how these turned out. There are a few rookie mistakes, my son was moving around not keeping the church in a consistent postion and I managed to cut off part of his foot in the shot above, but again, given how hard it is to keep an 8 year-old still I'm very pleased. On a side note, this was the first shoot I've done with him where he didn't use the standard all teeth smile which anyone with kids knows is phony and reveals nothing about the subject. This time we were able to get an expression which reveals a bit of his nature. I think I'm starting to get over the hump on this issue. The title for this post comes from his expression, he just has an air of confidence...it seemed to just work.

Let me know what you think, and please share your experience as well.

Week 6: Pride
Week 8: Baseball Fun