NEWTECH - Cotton Carrier and SpiderPro Camera Carriers
The common refrain from photographers with a few years' experience lugging cameras with neck straps is how much their neck hurts. Sure, soft/plush/wide straps help, but the weight is still there, tugging at your neck.
Friend and colleague, Northern Virginia Photographer Mark Finkenstaedt, turned me on to these two cool solutions - the Cotton Carrier, and the Spider Pro carrier. The videos are pretty self-explanatory, and worth a watch:
For you RSS Feed readers, here's the SpiderPro video link, and here's the Cotton Carrier link.
In addition, you can check out their websites at CottonCarrier.com, and SpiderHolster.com. We hope to get a chance to put these through their paces in our shop in the future, and if we do, we'll get a video out on them.
Please post your comments by clicking the link below. If you've got questions, please pose them in our Photo Business Forum Flickr Group Discussion Threads.
4 comments:
As a owner of the Cotton Carrier one the major benefits I have found is the chest vest which allows mounting a camera body and heavy zoom lens (70-200 or larger) without feeling the overwhelming weight if it were to be mounted on a waist belt.
I compared putting the same rig on a waist belt and found it less than ideal.
A camera body with a prime or short zoom (24-70) is the heaviest I would recommend for a waist belt system.
Tony S
I prefer hand straps to neck straps. Several years ago, I took a couple of my old climbing carabiners and slipped them through loops on my waist belt and one more through a loop on the shoulder strap of my camera bag. I simply hook the hand straps of my cameras through any convenient 'biner. The Cotton and SpiderPro systems look like they'd be easier and quicker to use and perhaps avoid some of the sway that occurs with the 'biners. On the other hand, the 'biners are inexpensive, and they do work.
The good thing about the Spider Holster is that I can put a shirt over it. A big problem for amateur photographers is that not all of us want to look like photographers. I find that people these days are SUPER sensitive about photographers and their cameras, so having my camera mounted on my chest, on a vest, atop a shirt isn't really that conspicuous.
First, note that I am shopping and have not used any of these products. I sure wish I could find a place I could try them all and compare...
Anyway, just thought I would point out another alternative, the HoldSLR. It can hang off most anything, belt, backpack chest strap, etc.. It has the advantage of protecting the lens and camera.
Here is the URL: http://www.holdslr.com/index.php
As to the Spider vs Cotton, I like the Cotton slightly better because it wont let the camera sway as much. Also, Cotton Systems does have a holster that can attach to your belt, so it could be as inconspicuous as the spider.
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