You just forked out big bucks to get your camera, and you want to see what the machine can do! Quickly throw on the camera strap, attach the lens and you’re ready to go, right?
Wrong! Incorrectly fastening your camera strap could end up in a fatal camera mishap, and probably a few (or many) tears. Lauren of Photography Concentrate shows us the right way to attach a camera strap while giving us a few other tips:
Many of us have been feeding the strap backwards into the plastic fasteners. Although this seems secure enough, with a strong enough tug, the strap could slide right out.
The Correct Way to Put on Your Camera Strap
1. The plastic fastener should be right side up. As Lauren points out, it has two plastic strips with the strap fabric in the middle.
2. Feed the strap from the outside-in, through the camera’s tether points.
3. Create some slack by pulling the strap upwards in the middle of the plastic fastener. It should create a large loop.
4. Feed the end of the strap through the retainer piece and up the back of the plastic fastener.
5. Pull both ends tightly to fix down the strap in the fastener.
6. Voila! A secure strap to keep you and your camera happy!
Here’s another tip: most large camera companies provide straps with little folds in the end. These folds mimic the bends they will have when correctly inserted in the camera tether points and plastic fastener.
Be sure to find a strap that is comfortable for you. The standard issue straps work great but are sometimes very stiff. Try using a neoprene strap for heavier cameras, or longer days photographing. It will provide softness and a little extra give. You may also want to consider a hand strap which may help reduce tension. Or, use both for optimal camera holding ability!
And for those of you who had it right all along, give yourself a pat on the back for your extra good logic skills.
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Tom. you should consider the rest of us who don’t want to drop our cameras or have to “waste” the use of a hand to constantly hold it and then have some clueless idiot on their phone or taking selfies slam into us so the Camera drops …..
To those of you you decry neck and shoulder straps – you must all be 100% agile and able to snatch a bullet out of the air. I’m in awe.
It takes me 10 min or no more than 30 min to set a strap up to be comfortable and not in my way, and I have the joy of NOT having to replace my camera time and time again.
Different straps for different chaps.
Thank you so much for your help. I’ve done this before, but slowly and not always successfully.
Very Helpful!! Very secure now!! Thank you.
Thank you. Great video
Useful vid. Thanks for the lesson.
Tom, you have a good point. Three are ‘wrist grips’ , ‘tethers’, ‘lanyards’ or whatever. But they while they are great and don’t get in the way a net-strap does, the problem comes when you need your hand free and there’s nowhere to put the camera down. that’s when the neck strap come in useful.
I’ve survived, sort-of, with a camera-shaped “pouch” clipped on my belt, sort of like the ‘fanny-pack’ cyclists and tourists wear, designed for the purpose. But that too can get in the way.
Clear as mud
The neck strap is an invention that has long passed its usefulness. Nothing is more annoying than strap parts interfering when trying to do photography. I would rather go with NO neck strap. There are other tethers on the market that are not so intrusive and some of these should be offered by the camera manufacturers as alternative to neck straps. But, marketing people fear the non-serious purchasers out there might reject a radical change and play it safe. Want a few old camera straps. I have lots in my junk box.
Here is how I learned, this way there are no ends hanging out.
https://support.nikonusa.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/16826/~/what-is-the-correct-way-to-attach-a-strap-to-my-nikon-camera%3F