If you frequently take your camera out and about and take a lot of pictures on the go, one of the most important accessories is a strap that secures your gear to your body and prevents it from dropping. A neck or shoulder strap will give you the best security, but if you have a firm grip or are quick to react, a wrist strap might just work fine for you.
Peak Design, a small San Francisco-based manufacturer of clever camera accessories, is currently crowdfunding a newly developed strap system that comes in two flavors: as a neck strap and as a wrist strap. But unlike most straps that can do little more that attach to the camera and secure it around your neck or your wrist, the Slide and Clutch straps offer more functionality.
First, the main development goal of Peak Design was to create the best sling and hand straps ever made. That’s a very bold goal, but when looking at how the Slide and Clutch straps work, it becomes evident that its creators put a lot of thought into their products in order to make them as versatile as possible.
Both the Slide and the Clutch straps work with Peak Design’s Anchor Link system, which not only connects the straps to your camera or one of Peak Design’s own, versatile quick-release tripod plates such as the PROplates, the system can also take any camera strap you already own. In addition, the Anchor Link system allows you to use the Slide and Clutch or any other combination of shoulder and wrist strap simultaneously.
The Slide strap has a built-in fastening mechanism that can be used for two things. For one, it enables you to quickly and easily adjust the length of the strap so it can be fitted to a smaller or a taller person in an instant. Secondly, the fastening mechanism can be used to either secure the camera tightly to your body, or to quickly give you enough leeway to quickly raise it to your eye.
The Clutch strap also features a quickly accessible fastening mechanism, so that it can either be set to firmly press your hand against your camera for extra security, or to give your hand the space it needs to operate your camera’s controls.
Another goal that Peak Design had when designing their new straps was comfort. To that end, the Slide strap features a special padding that will make it comfortable to wear over your should as well as around your neck.
Both the Clutch and the Slide strap can be connected to Peak Design’s quick-release tripod plate system, which enable you to mount your camera to a tripod while keeping both the sling and the hand strap connected. As an added benefit, the tripod plates can be combined with the company’s CapturePRO system, which lets you mount your camera to your belt or your backpack strap for safe transport, comfortable carrying, and easy access.
So, in effect, what you get with either of Peak Design’s new straps is not only a secure, easy to us, and comfortable way of carrying your camera, you also get a complete system of accessories that can be combined in all sorts of ways.
Currently the Clutch and Slide strap are being crowdfunded via Kickstarter, but Peak Design has already surpassed the original funding goal, with still a month left (as of this writing). If you’re interested in one of Peak Design’s new products, funding rewards are available from $15, starting with a set of Anchor Links. For $30, you’ll get a Clutch strap plus Anchor Links, $50 gets you a Slide with links, and $80 gets you both straps plus a set of Anchor Links. By backing the project with $150, you’ll get the full set of Clutch, Slide, Anchor Links, plus a CapturePRO with the new quick-release PROplate. Backers can expect their items to be deliverd by October this year.
