This triple lens holder hangs from your waist so that you “Never miss a shot”
Apr 22, 2017
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
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You do see some strange things popping up on Kickstarter. This one doesn’t launch for another 17 days or so, but I think it definitely qualifies as a little strange. It’s the TriLens Holder from a company called Frii. On first glance, it might seem quite useful. A neat new idea that could be a valuable time saver if you’re shooting something like a wedding or other event.
You’re not going to be using the same lens all day, and you want to have your other go-to lenses close at hand. It is actually a pretty neat idea, although not a new one. It’s a lot like the Lens Flipper, except it holds three lenses instead of two. And it also attaches to your belt instead of using a strap or attaching to a backpack. But that’s a lot of weight tugging on your pants all day.
So you’ve got one lens on your camera, and three more on the TriLens. Let’s think about the common lenses many wedding shooters use. Say, a 24-70mm f/2.8, 70-200mm f/2.8, 100-ish mm f/2.8 macro, and, let’s throw in a 35mm f/1.4.
- Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8E FL ED VR – 1,430g
- Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8E ED VR – 1,070g
- Nikon 105mm f/2.8G VR Micro-Nikkor – 720g
- Nikon 35mm f/1.4G – 601g
That means you’ve got between 2,391g (5.3lbs) and 3,220g (7lbs) hanging from your waist all day long. Canon fares a little better on the weight score, with their equivalent lenses coming in at between 2,190g (4.8lbs) and 3,055g (6.7lbs), but it’s still pretty close.
Like I said, it is a neat concept, but I just can’t see it being all that practical over just carrying two bodies with your two most used lenses. Then switch out for the others in a small bag as needed. And what about the people who don’t wear belts? Not all photographers are men, and even dresses that do have belts typically don’t support this kind of weight.
Still, if you like the idea and want one of your own, the product launches on Kickstarter in 17 days. You can find out more about it and sign up for an alert when it goes live on the Frii website. There’s no word on price, yet, though.
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
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30 responses to “This triple lens holder hangs from your waist so that you “Never miss a shot””
Anyone who ever has had any kind of heavy attachment to belt will say this: “this sucks!”.
It looks good at glance, but it is uncomfortable, because it will make your pants sag to one side, unless you tighten the belt to uncomfortable tightness, or wear pants that are above hips(that people doesn’t wear since 90’s)
Under certain circumstances it would be great.
This is called wishful thinking. Something government officials been doing for centuries. Nice thought but this is not of any value. Gvido below me explains why. Keep at it guys. You might figure out a better way to balance the weight.
You obviously are apart of the group that made this. Yall need to put more work into this concept. Balance the weight evenly along a persons body.
I use a waist bag, more protection and I don’t have to detach a lens from it when in need. Interesting idea though.
Hate this idea. No interest.
I like the idea. The only changes I’d make would be to give it a strap for shoulder support, and surround the lenses in some sort of protective cloth.
I just use a SpiderHolster belt with some old milspec pouches, works out cheaper and just as practical. Plus I can swap it over to a full milspec harness if I really wanted to consider it to distribute the load weight better but I rarely I have more than 5-8kg on the belt.
Looks like a good way to get your lenses banged up.
Can already get ones with two on a shoulder strap on Amazon I think it’s a decent idea for hiking or walking around a large venue I thing a strap would allow for it to swing around to much and hit stuff
Them Texas guys might like it. Those chaps love heavy metal hanging on their hip!
Never miss a shot ??? When u change lens , then miss a shot or much shot
Just imagine hanging a supertelephoto from that.
Umm….no.
I love my spider holster, this would be a good addition
Never mis a shot, except for when you’re switching lenses
carry two bodies. nuff said.
Neither Henry Cartier-Bresson, nor Ansel Adams used this and they were and will always stay greatest photographers of all time.
…ahh, accessories for the moron who’d wished they saved up for that backup body!
As an idea it seems interesting. But what about when you walk around (searching for nice street photography shots) and some unfriendly people’s eyes do stick to your triplet of hanging off your waist and exposed lenses (plus the one attached to your camera)? A bit risky, isn’t it?
Stupid idea ever. Lenses will get hit no one wants to carry lenses in their weist enough back pain from getting the right composition. Any reapectful photographer will hire an assistant. Such a fan boy toy this is, not for events
Definitely not. Surely would screw your mount and contacts
Lol… Why just 3? why not 4?
Have you ever heard about KISS (keep it simple and stupid )
This is just stupid. Sometimes it happens when inventors know nothing at all about photography. Why would someone change the two bodies solution with the 24-70 and the 70-200 for this…. thing????
It’s “Keep it simple, stupid!”. There’s no “and”. Why would you want to keep it stupid? :)
Keeping something “stupid” simply means that it’s so easy to use even a “stupid user” can do it. We use the term “user stupid” in IT/Software to mean exactly this. It’s so easy it’s beyond “user friendly”; “even a caveman could do it”.
Peak Design
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uypx0kTRVEo
They hooked me up with one. Works great for primes.
Unless you’re planning to carry mostly prime lenses, it’s going to be a light of weight on one side
As we say in Australia, “Yeah.. naaahhh…”
Not for me. Looks a bit silly and bulky. I can only imagine it’s not entirely safe for the lenses and could possibly wreck mounts on particularly large lenses as well. I’ll keep to my pockets and sling bag. A professional needing that many lenses would probably have as assistant or six at the ready with such stuff anyway.