Camera straps are a very personal thing. We all have our own preferences, straps we like and straps we hate. There’s been a lot of variety come about in the world of camera straps over the last few years. Now, instead of just the standard “neck strap”, we’ve got wrist straps, hand straps, full-on holsters and a whole lot more.
One brand that’s been popping up a lot lately is Dsptch. They make a line of paracord neck & wrist straps, and they’re quite nice, but not exactly cheap. Photographer Evan 5ps has been using one of these on his Fuji X-Pro2 for a while. He needed another for Fuji X100F, but he decided to have a go at making his own, and compare it with the Dsptch original.
Making your own wrist strap vs buying the commercially available one has both advantages and disadvantages. The disadvantage, obviously, is that you have to learn how to wrap paracord. But Paracord is a very useful tool for photographers. You can use it to make tags for your bag, DIY cablecams, or just for temporarily tying branches out of the way shooting on location.
The advantages, though, are that you can make it suit your needs perfectly. Want it longer or shorter? Make a longer or shorter one. Want a different colour? Then make it a different colour, and there are thousands of colours of Paracord. You can even mix it up and have two colours. or you can go with a different look entirely.
While Evan talks about the pros and cons of DIY vs Dsptch, he learned how to make it from this video from Joe Scotto, which goes into more detail about its construction.
As well as watching the above video, Evan also recommends looking at some of the Paracord bracelet tutorials on YouTube. This gives a better idea of how to actually make the weave. The weave used in Evan’s straps is called a Cobra. This video explains how to measure out your cord, and how to start it, weave it, and finish it.
There are so many different ways you can weave paracord to make a strap, though. And there are tens of thousands of videos on YouTube on how to make each of them. There’s also a Facebook group where people are figuring out and posting new designs.
It’s certainly a lot cheaper to make your own, if a little more time intensive.
All of my cameras have Peak Design anchors on them. I might have to see about making my own wrist strap.
