I don’t really remember why I started to carry my SLRs like this
but I’ve carried them like this since I was 14-15 years old. The main reason being that it’s really quick and easy to lift up the camera and take a picture, the second reason is that I really hate having a heavy camera around my neck. In fact I get real neck problems after 30 minutes or so because of the weight.
But there are of course some serious drawbacks in carrying it your hand, for example if you’re walking in the forest you can’t really use your left hand in case you stumble (which can really hurt, my camera was OK … me less so), you can’t carry anything, etc. In short your left hand is occupied 100% of the time. But for me it’s till better than having it hanging around my neck.
I’ve of course seen photographers having their cameras diagonally across their chest and I have tried but it was really awkward for me, it was uncomfortable and trying to actually use the camera was an “interesting” experience.
A few months back I noticed that Duncan Davidson was twittering about a new camera strap, the Luma Loop. After having watched the video and thinking that it can’t be all bad since he is a photographer himself, I decided that I should buy one and try.
Luckily enough I had a trip to the US planned so I only needed to arrange for the delivery to my hotel. I’ve got it a few days ago and I’ve been using it while attending a conference and playing a tourist in Milwaukee and New York.
I’m impressed of how well it works. First of all it’s really comfortable to carry a camera using the Loop, in fact I hardly notice the weight of the camera – a huge difference compared to carrying it around your neck. Secondly, it’s really quick and easy to reach for the camera, lift it up and take a picture. It took a few adjustments of the length of the strap but now I only need to drop my right arm, grab hold of the camera and lift it up – it takes one or two seconds. Third, people doesn’t notice that you have a camera since they can’t really see it.
During the conference I was able to walk around without any kind of troubles at all and when it was time to sit down and listen it takes just a second to release the camera from the strap and put it on a table – very nice.
During my trip back to Sweden I got an unexpected 24h in New York so I decided to take a trip to the Empire State Building since I’ve never visited New York before. And here I discovered a possible drawback using the Luma Loop, if you wear a jacket over the strap it becomes impossible to lift the camera – the solution if of course really simple, either you carry the strap over your jacket or open up the jacket when you need to use the camera, but it’s a bit more cumbersome than having the camera around your neck. But it’s just a very minor problem.
Tomorrow I’ll be testing the Luma Loop during a sporting event and it will be really interesting to see how it works when I have a large flash attached to the camera …
After having used the Loop for 1.5 week I can only recommend it to anyone who hates having a camera around their neck. The Luma Loop is well worth the money.
