There are several ways to wear your camera strap, you can wear it on your neck in what I’d love to call “The Lunchbox Carry”; you can wear it on your shoulder in a “Lazyman Hang” or you can wear it across your body, like soldiers are wearing their weapons in a “Weapon Cross”. Which one is your favorite?

Now, each of these hangs can be rated on three factors:

How fast does it take you to bring the camera into a nice shooting position?
How comfortable is it?
How safe is it to your camera?

The Lunchbox Carry

Lunchbox is by far the fastest way to move from hang to shoot. You just move the camera a few inches up, and you are good to go. It is also pretty safe – the chances of the camera falling from your neck are slim. But…. Try to wear your camera around your neck for a day. Your neck will not thank you.

The Lazyman’s Hang

The Lazyman’s hang is more comfortable and will allow you move the camera close to your eye fast enough (though not as fast as the lunchbox). It is not the most ergonomic and comfortable way to lag a camera, but it is more comfortable than the Lunchbox Carry, but still not the best way to lag a camera around. Now lets discus safety, the Lazyman’s Hang is not safe. Just the constant worry about your gear will wear you out.

The Weapon’s Cross

I called it the weapon’s Cross cuz this is how soldiers carry their weapons – across the chest. This is a very safe way to carry your camera. It is also very comfy. (OK, if you carry a Mark II’s with a 70-200 lens, nothing is comfy, but for all other uses it will work just fine). The thing about this type of carry is that it is not really easy to get the camera close to your eye to take a photo.

Hee Soo Shin sent me a note about a DIY version of the R-Strap – it looks fun and easy to use. It looks comfy, safe and a fast draw. Here is a short video to get you acquainted with the system. If you’ve used one of those, I’d love to hear what you thought if it.

So, the R-Strap looks like a nice solution, but who wants to pay 50 bucks for a camera strap you can make for nearly free!!!

Here is a quick R-Strap recipe by Hee Soo Shin:

1. Take a strap from a messenger bag. You can take one from a bag you no longer use, or buy a new one for close to nothing at goodwill.

2. For this hack, Hee Soo, took one of the quick connects by Bogen tripod, but you can also use a 3/4 bolt with an extension. Or,
you can use an L bracket from the bottom part of a cactus v2s receiver mount.

And if you’ve gone through the trouble of attaching a bolt or a bracket, you might as well use make it a tripod as well.

3. Use a buckle to fasten the two ends of the strap together…

4. For shoulder pad, you can use what ever came with the messenger bag strap, or use a shoulder strap pad from a guitar store(7 bucks))

Voila… DIY R-strap.. it’s super comfortable and the great part is at weddings when you have to have 2 camera’s with flashunit in the hotshoe it’s totally out of your way and you don’t have 2 flash units sticking up at you.

(Anonymous Coward, thanks for all the typo fixes, where would I be without you 🙂

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