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Domke Photographer's Vest
Written circa 2000/2001

I resisted buying the one accessory that no photographer seems to be without for some time because I thought it was so clichéd but I gave in to buying my first photo vest from a desire to go sans heavy camera bag for some light duty street shooting. Shoulder bags are quite functional for carrying equipment from place to place but not so good for actual shooting times. They tend to sway back and forth acting like a useless appendage that gets in the way. A vest filled with the basic accessories and a camera or two hanging off your neck or shoulder makes for a much easier way to shoot. Of course two cameras hanging off you with some pro-calibre and pro-sized lenses does not make for an inconspicuous look. 

I did a brief search for a vest that was more fashion and street friendly then the military looking Domke PhotoVest. I looked at various outdoors, fishing and work wear stores looking for a vest suitable to use as a photo vest without the high cost of the Domke vest. Although I was unable to find a vest to my liking my younger cousin and my father did find a vest that seemed very promising. My cousin eventually tired of the vest as a fashion statement and gave it to my father who has a thing for multi-pocketed clothing. He in turn offered it to me but after I had already bought the Domke vest. It was still interesting to compare the two though and it reinforced the decision I made to buy the Domke as the right one after all.

One note I want to make about fishing vests, for fishing great, for photography absolutely useless. One reason why I didn’t rush out to buy a Domke right away was because I didn’t like the lowish cut of the vest. I wanted a vest cut a bit higher but the fishing vests I saw were cut extremely high with multitudes of tiny pockets all over the vest for lures and flies. The high cut of fishing vests only makes sense since fishers want to wade as deep into the water as they can and need something to go over the hip waders. Expensive too for quality offered, which was not particularly high.

There are other companies that make photo vests too such as Tamrac and even Nikon makes some vest (or at least markets them). Unfortunately, Domke holds a dominant position in the vest market in my local Vancouver area, even more so then Lowepro has for the camera bag market. Seeing another photo vest that is non-Domke is a rare sighting indeed. It seemed I had little choice but to buy the Domke, so I did.

Leo’s seems to bring in products from a US based source for a very low price and then proceeds to undercut officially imported Canadian versions. My Kenko Auto Extension tubes were bought in this manner and my local source at Broadway Camera had a hard time believing that Leo’s could sell the tubes for less then Broadway Camera’s buying price. The Domke vest I bought from Leo’s appears to be the same case.

When I first got into photography the Domke vests were priced in the $120-130 CAN range and steadily climbed up to their present price of about $180-190 CAN. I bought mine at Leo’s for $100 CAN (all prices quoted pre-tax added in) and I very much doubt that any store in Vancouver would even come close to matching that price. The lowest I’ve seen the Domke sell for locally in recent times was in the $160 CAN range. Given that the price of this vest is only $60 US through B&H I can only conclude that whoever is distributing Domke products in Canada is ripping us off.

I’ve seen a similar situation occur when Amplis Foto dropped Stroboframe flash brackets from their product line. The new distributor promptly raised the prices a significant amount on all Stroboframe products but thankfully Amplis picked up Newton flash brackets to ensure competition for these products. Amplis Foto is very fair in their pricing of the products they import into Canada.

You need only compare the prices on Bronica equipment in Canada to those in the US to see how significant the savings are. Some Bronica lenses are priced the same in both Canada and the US, an example being the 180mm lens priced roughly at $2100 in Canada and about $2000 in the US. Problem is, is that one Canadian dollar is only worth about $0.67 US so we can see that in the US the same 180mm lens would be worth nearly $3000 CAN if the same company had distributed to both countries.

Anyway, back to the Domke vest. It’s made from heavy-duty cotton and certainly feels tough and durable. I wear a size medium and found that it wasn’t as low cut as I had originally thought and also found that it was a comfortable length to wear and work with. Obviously the vest has ample pockets outside and inside and even at the back. A mesh shoulder and top torso area helps to keep you cool and the shoulders have a bit of extra padding to make for carrying heavy pro-sized cameras and lenses less of a burden.

The pockets are not padded nor are they sizable enough for me to fit in my F100/MB15 combo without a lens attached nor for the 80-200mm f2.8 lens. But for smaller lenses and most everything else the pockets are roomy enough. I like storing unused film in one of the open bellows pockets on the left side of the vest and then storing the used film in the zippered pocket directly above the open pocket. I also appreciate the side hand pockets. Not that these pockets are much useful for anything else but still nice to have for a quick warm up of the hands when desired. The internal pockets on the lower section of the vests are even roomier and I can fit my whole Cokin filter kit (a CD storage booklet) inside one of these pockets. The back of the vest has a large storage pocket too but I don’t normally use them but I could certainly see them as a good place to store maps or papers for out of town trips.

The Domke vest is already a bit shabby looking new and with further washing and wearing and beating up from use, it will look even shabbier but then it does add in a bit of charm and provides that little bit of character. Character that denotes a world-weary journalist lugging his/her equipment around from assignment to assignment and all the while wearing the rugged Domke vest. Okay maybe not or only in my dreams.

I didn’t get a true measure of just how good the Domke is (despite its made in China origins) until I compared it to aforementioned consumer vest that came closest to what I wanted from a photo vest. The images show them side by side and although you certainly can’t see the major differences I can only state that the Domke is far superior to the civilian fashion vest.

Firstly the material used is in favour of the Domke as the rugged looking vest is made with tougher fabric then the lightweight consumer vest. Pockets abound the Domke vest as befitting a photographer’s vest and although the consumer vest also has a decent amount of pockets, not as many or in the locations you would also want them. For example the Domke has the large cargo pocket at the back and sizable pockets on both sides of the inner vest whereas the consumer vest has only an inner wallet pocket. The consumer vest had a higher cut, which made it less industrial in look and feel but at the cost of practicality. The Domke can be stuffed full of gear and still be worn comfortably. 

I also looked at the designs from the mail order company the Vested Interest and found their designs to be too bulky for casual street shooting but for outdoor bush use they appear to be far superior to the Domke for comfortable packing of larger and heavier gear. The Domke really is a street vest although I would certainly find it useful as a camping and general outdoors vest too. 

So for those of us in Canada, if you can find the Domke vest at the same price as I bought mine for ($100 CAN) then I would recommend it but at anything higher, buy it from B&H because as nice and convenient as it is, nobody should pay $200 CAN for a few pieces of heavyweight cotton.

Link to Domke, part of the Saunders Group of companies

Link to the Vested Interest for those who need super heavy duty bush vests far beyond what the Domke can provide.