Lensloop

That is until you see the Lensloop. Lensloop are another company that have started off using the kind donations of investors on the Kickstarter website. The Lensloop is available at http://www.lensloop.com/ and costs $35.

It's essentially a length of seatbelt material such as what you'd find in a car. This has a high quality robust brass clip on it which fastens to a large D-ring.

Attaching the Lensloop clip

The D-ring is attached to a tripod bush screw that fastens to the camera. The strap is easy enough to use as it's simply slung over a shoulder in the same way a messenger bag is. Or a seatbelt. The camera strap can be adjusted to hand height at your waist so it's easy to grab.

Attaching the Lensloop to a camera

This strap is ideal for street photography shooters or going to an show/event such as the Goodwood Festival of Speed. - any place where a lot is going on and you need your camera quickly. Lensloop market the strap as “The smarter strap” and we're inclined to agree. It's effectiveness is in its simplicity. There's loads of room to get the camera up to your eye quickly to take a shot and the strap is variable in length for all people of all heights.

Shooting with the Lensloop

Split Strap

The Split Strap is the third product in this test to gain backing through the Kickstarter project. The Split Strap is available at http://www.customslr.com/ and costs $28.95.

This product addresses the issue of a strap conforming to the body and distributing weight effectively. It appears that a simple slit in the centre of a wide camera strap is sufficient to do this. By adding this slit, it allows the two side of the strap to move independently and form to the photographer's shape.

Fastening the Split Strap

It's an interesting idea and we felt no problems through our testing of the strap. Aside from the usual issues of strap use and their inherent discomfort, we found the Split Strap nice to wear on a day out. The straps also disconnect half way down so if you want to move away from the camera, you can and you don't have to have a heavy strap still attached to the camera. Of course this feature isn't new. We first saw it on the Lexar Professional strap back in 2007 and more companies have added this feature since.

The main part of the strap is made of bouncy neoprene for comfort and there are non-slip icons on the underside to avoid slippage. The neoprene joins to the connectors via a thick canvas section. The rest of the strap is traditional strap material and there are no D-rings, just string which is more like a shoelace material.

Using the Split Strap

We can see this strap being used by photographers who move from location to location but use a tripod for a lengthy amount of time. If you're stood on a hill and it's windy, a strap blowing around could ruin the shot so removing it obviates the issue. It also adds weight to the back of the camera which could cause it to move on a tripod. Not good for long exposures so we think this is a good idea. The split will also help to ease the discomfort of carrying a camera around for a length of time.

Unclipping the Split Strap

That concludes our look at four of the newer, more innovative carrying systems for photographers. If you can recommend another carrying system, please share it with everyone in the Comments section below.

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