The Limbo Connection's photos with the keyword: Safrotto

Nikon D700 and AF Zoom-Nikkor 35-70mm f/2.8 lens.

A Safrotto copy of a Domke F-2 bag, and surprisingly good. Jim Domke created the original bag bearing his name which was so popular that he founded a company in the U.S. to produce them. That was in 1976. In 1990 he sold his company to a firm called Saunders. Saunders sold the operation to a big American photographic company called Tiffen in 1999. However, Tiffen went bankrupt in 2003, and Topspin bought their assets, including Domke bags. The company continues trading under new ownership, but this is yet another example of the name surviving for marketing purposes. On the web you can find customers' complaints about the deterioration in the quality of Domke camera bags in recent years. They claim that the canvas is thinner and that some of the fittings are now plastic. Some comment that the Safrotto lookalikes are made using better materials, and with small design improvements, at a cheaper price. If they are to be believed, the Safrotto bags are more like Jim Domke's original than the current offerings from Tiffen. Safrotto bags are made in China and sold extensively in the U.S. market. They seem a good deal less common in the U.K. I bought this one second-hand for £6, which represented the bargain of the year for me. It’s every bit as sturdy as Domke bags I have previously owned, including an F-2 Emerald and an F-4AF, but as they too were second-hand, I never knew under whose ownership those bags were made. Although some Safrotto products are very similar to Domke camera bags, they are not marketed with the same model designations. I have read on the web that at some point in the troubled history of bankruptcy and changes of ownership, Safrotto bought the rights to the Domke designs. One contributor remarked that the Domke name owners have never brought any legal action against Safrotto, which would be odd if they were making unauthorised copies. Instead they had some text on their web site for a couple of years asking viewers not to buy the "inferior knock-offs". Photographed with a Nikon D700 and a Nikkor O.C 35mm f/2 lens, factory converted to AI capability.

The Safrotto camera bag resembles, but is not an exact copy of, a Domke F2 bag. Avid followers of my bag fetish will recollect my reporting critical comments read on various websites about the alleged diminished quality of the canvas used in the production of Domke bags since some hard-to-place moment in the ownership status of the brand name. I have not the faintest idea of whether this is true; I have no examples of Domke bags from the time when Jim Domke owned the production to use as a comparator, and even if I did, I wouldn't pay out for a current example. Nor do I know when this (presumably Chinese) Safrotto bag was manufactured, but I can tell you for free that the canvas is of considerable weight, and so also, therefore, is the bag that has been produced with it. Not as heavy as a comparable sized Billingham though. The bag horses are frightened to kick lest they break a fetlock. More bag news soon! Nikon D2Xs and Tamron 35mm f/1.8 lens.

The manual focus 28mm f/2 Nikkor lens stood at the top of the tree. Owners of the f/2.8 version think their lens is somehow better, but I doubt that can be so.

A Safrotto copy of a Domke F-2 bag, and surprisingly good. The shoulder pad is from the Billingham range; otherwise all original. Jim Domke created the original bag bearing his name which was so popular that he founded a company in the U.S. to produce them. That was in 1976. In 1990 he sold his company to a firm called Saunders. Saunders sold the operation to a big American photographic company called Tiffen in 1999. However, Tiffen went bankrupt in 2003, and Topspin bought their assets, including Domke bags. The company continues trading under new ownership, but this is yet another example of the name surviving for marketing purposes. On the web you can find customers' complaints about the deterioration in the quality of Domke camera bags in recent years. They claim that the canvas is thinner and that some of the fittings are now plastic. Some comment that the Safrotto lookalikes are made using better materials, and with small design improvements, at a cheaper price. If they are to be believed, the Safrotto bags are more like Jim Domke's original than the current offerings from Tiffen. Safrotto bags are made in China and sold extensively in the U.S. market. They seem a good deal less common in the U.K. I bought this one second-hand for £6, which represented the bargain of the year for me. It’s every bit as sturdy as Domke bags I have previously owned, including an F-2 Emerald and an F-4AF, but as they too were second-hand, I never knew under whose ownership those bags were made. Although some Safrotto products are very similar to Domke camera bags, they are not marketed with the same model designations. I have read on the web that at some point in the troubled history of bankruptcy and changes of ownership, Safrotto bought the rights to the Domke designs. One contributor remarked that the Domke name owners have never brought any legal action against Safrotto, which would be odd if they were making unauthorised copies. Instead they had some text on their web site for a couple of years asking viewers not to buy the "inferior knock-offs". Photographed with a Nikon D700 and a Nikkor O.C 35mm f/2 lens, factory converted to AI capability.

Lacock Abbey, Wiltshire: The Brew House. The Brew House, as it is known, in the courtyard of Lacock Abbey was one of the additions made by Sir William Sharington when he acquired the building in 1539. Previously Lacock was a monastery. It was secularised after the Reformation. People of the sixteenth century drank beer in preference to water because it was safer. The Brew House was sympathetically restored during the 1970s, having lain derelict for many years. The equipment would still be capable of brewing beer if desired, but it would not be to the standards of the modern brewing industry. However reviled some of today’s makers of beer have the misfortune to be, the absence of hygiene would not be a criticism they would expect to endure. Photographed with a Nikon D700 and a Nikkor 20mm f/3.5 AI-S lens.

Not so cold that I needed the scarf, so I tucked it in the corner of the camera bag, a Safrotto Domke-inspired design discovered on eBay a while back. The internal dividers which came with the bag were a bit unwieldy and so I have jettisoned them and inserted a Billingham SuperFlex. As you can see, cramming the scarf in dislodged the SuperFlex. I have remarked before that choosing a camera system is child's play compared to settling on a camera bag. Photographed with a Nikon D700 and a Tamron AF 70-210mm f/2.8 SP LD lens.

Nikon D700 with a Nikkor 180mm AF ED f/2.8 lens on a Tamron MC-4 1.4x teleconverter. The focal length of the lens was thus extended to 252mm.

This is a detail of a Safrotto canvas camera bag. These bags are made in China and sold extensively in the U.S. market. They seem a good deal less common in the U.K. Safrotto bags - at least this one - are very similar to Domke camera bags. Perhaps Safrotto bought the rights to the Domke designs. Jim Domke created the original bag bearing his name which was so popular that he founded a company in the U.S. to produce them. That was in 1976. In 1990 he sold his company to a firm called Saunders. Saunders sold the operation to a big American photographic company called Tiffen in 1999. However, Tiffen went bankrupt in 2003, and Topspin bought their assets, including Domke bags. The company continues trading under new ownership, but this is yet another example of the name surviving for marketing purposes. On the web you can find customers' complaints about the deterioration in the quality of Domke camera bags in recent years. They claim that the canvas is thinner and that some of the fittings are now plastic. Some comment that the Safrotto lookalikes are made using better materials, and with small design improvements, at a cheaper price. If they are to be believed, the Safrotto bags are more like Jim Domke's original than the current offerings from Tiffen. I don't know if this is the case. I bought this bag to see if Safrotto products were decent, and because it was blue, and because it was a secondhand bargain. The bag seems reasonable; not built like a Billingham bag, but many times cheaper new or used. The velcro dividers are a disappointment but better than nothing. I don't yet know how it holds up in the wet, nor how it wears. Domke bags have straps which often wear badly, so that might be a weak point. If you need a camera bag, and you like blue denim jeans that are faded with much wear and laundering, and you favour simplicity in design, you might very well enjoy using a bag like this one.