About a month ago, I attended one of Cathay Photo's organized talks, called "Larry Frank's Wild World Of People, Landscape & Travel Photography" Evidently I was blinded by the word "Wild" to represent Wildlife, so I was quite sad to see next to no wildlife pics presented :P But he did present a few very good tips, and the one that I kept in mind and used the most was how he carried his camera - with a camera strap of course, but carried reversed to what most people on the street carry them. Hence, he'd have his camera and lens pointing in towards the small of his back. This worked a real treat for my usual camera strap (Mine is Paksafe's Carrysafe 100). It was so much easier for walking around crowded areas, and in general, people wouldn't even know I'm carrying a bulky slr since it's hidden behind my back.
Now the problem with that is rapid shooting. Due to the way I prefer to carry it, slung across my body, the camera straps really get in the way when I want to take a quick snap shot. More often than not, I'd just take it off when I find interesting subjects to shoot. So when I saw the R Strap a few days back for sale in Singapore, I thought I'd be nice to pick something up like that for instant shooting. Now I've used it for 2 days, here are the pros and cons:
Pros:
Works as advertised. As the connection between strap and camera is now made at the tripod socket, when you lift it up to your eye level, the straps dangle loose at your chin, nothing getting in the way.
It also feels more comfortable than my old strap. Doh!
Cons:
Oddly enough, I'm not very happy with it for use on buses, trains and general walking in crowded areas. Because the connection point features a 360 joint, the camera does tend to swing in all sort of odd directions when adjusted to hang directly behind in the small of my back. If I adjust it to hang by my side, it does tend to stay in position better, but that allows it to be seen by people.
Again, because my connection point is now at the tripod mount of the body, it is not possible to put the camera flat on a table. A tad annoying here.
I'll be using it for the next few weeks and see how it pans out. I'm quite certain that I'll be keeping it, but further use in the field will be the ultimate judge. They've got a few other models with pockets and what not. But I like to keep things light... if only they had a D200 in a D40x form factor :)
No comments:
Post a Comment