Hasta La Gadget!

Jan 20

Sliding Sun Sniper Shoulder Strap

sun-sniper

It seems that the world has finally discovered that the traditional camera strap is neither comfortable nor practical. The weight of the camera causes neck strain after mere moments, even with a lightweight camera, and when you are walking around it will bounce against your belly.

A new kind of strap is emerging, and the Sun Sniper is the latest in the line of across-the-shoulder designs. Like the LumaLoop and the Black Rapid R-Strap, the bandolier-style strap keeps the camera comfortably at the hip and avoids neck strain. It also has the same kind of free-running loop that lets the suspended camera glide along the main strap and up to your eye without administering friction-burns to your armpit.

I have tried a few home-made shoulder-straps, and they are certainly easier to wear and use than even the fanciest weight-reducing neck-strap. The problem that all of these commercial straps share is that they connect to a mount that screws into the tripod socket. Balance-wise, the positioning is perfect. Safety-wise, it’s a terrible idea — the screw cannot lock, and the spinning and twisting of the camera as it dangles can work things loose in no time.

The ballistic-nylon Sun Sniper adds a shock-absorbing section just below the shoulder, and costs $70, which is sadly in the right range for these straps. My money would go on the LumaLoop, as it can hook up to the strap eyelets of the camera, the parts which are designed to hold the weight safely. As I am a cheapskate, I shall likely stick with my new home-made shoulder/wrist strap combo, fashioned from $2-worth of hardware-store gear just yesterday. If it lasts a week, I’ll tell you how I did it.

Sun Sniper One [Sniper Sniper]

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