I'm actually in the process of having a pair of straps custom made right now. They are designed so that I can easily swap between neck and hand strap.
I especially found much use for the hand strap this winter, as the Leica fit in my pocket, unlike last winter when I aws carrying a huge Canon DSLR.
Not really a hand strap but... I don't like neck straps and for many years now I have used a small leather zipper bag with a wrist loop. It allows me to carry an M6 with 50 Summilux in a safe, discreet fashion. My first one was made by Benser but the one I now use was a copy, made locally, after the Benser bag got old. I am a one camera one lens sort of person and it works for me. It also has just enough room inside for an extra roll of film. Joe
I hate neck straps. My camera is either in my bag or in my hand so a neck strap is pointless and just gets in my way. If you don't want leather the choices are plentiful. You can just go to the thrift/charity shop and probably find any number of crappy plastic cameras or other handheld electronics devices with a string loop style wrist strap and attach it to your camera instead. If you have a Wii, the wrist straps from the remote controls also work really well in a pinch. My favorite strap (though leather) is my Gordy's. I have a string ended one and I simply move it from camera to camera depending on what I want to take out shooting at the time. The string is more then strong enough to hold a TLR so there's really not much to worry about with it. At least not anything different then you would with any other strap.
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I really like the Artisan & Artist silk neck strap as a wrist strap - wrap it a couple of times to make a very secure wrist strap.
I wish they made one longer that I could use to carry the camera bandoleer style and wrap around my wrist for shooting.
The Black Label Bag company (which is former employees of A&A, or related somehow-not sure exactly) makes a Cloth strap that is identical in appearance to the rest of the line however a little bit longer which allows one to wear it bandoleer style.
I'm actually in the process of having a pair of straps custom made right now. They are designed so that I can easily swap between neck and hand strap.
I especially found much use for the hand strap this winter, as the Leica fit in my pocket, unlike last winter when I aws carrying a huge Canon DSLR.
Gordy is the man for sure. I like to work out of a small bag, slung across my chest so it's not going to fall off my shoulder. I've been equipping my Leica M6, Leica V-Lux 3, Minolta CLE and others with Gordy's straps and they are great - beautifully made and supremely practical.
A Gordy-strap (the one for tripod mount) works well for me when using a M-Leica with small lens. For 90mm Summicron / Noctilux the Domke neck-strap is the better (more safe) solution for me ...
All of you hand strap users: How do you change lenses? Because I do change lenses a lot, and that is the only reason I prefer neck straps. I find hand straps more convenient in street shooting really, but the lens change always gets me...
I would use a hand strap on an M with stainless steel lugs, but not older ones with chrome plated brass lugs. Hand straps and straps like a Slingshot encourage some extra tugging on the lug if the camera is dangled by the strap, and a single brass lug isn't strong enough on its own when that of force is applied. Think in terms of a Champagne cork in a bottle, it is easy to pull it out by pushing/pulling along the longitudinal axis (the camera dangling for a wrist strap), but difficult/impossible trying to get it out by pushing or pulling sideways on the transverse axis (the camera hanging by a neck strap).
All of you hand strap users: How do you change lenses? Because I do change lenses a lot, and that is the only reason I prefer neck straps. I find hand straps more convenient in street shooting really, but the lens change always gets me...
I use a lowe pro bag on my belt.
Think Tank has lens changer pouches too.
I remove the lens, with my left hand, drop it in the soft pouch, mount the new one, done. Maybe I even put caps on the removed lens and put it back in the camera bag if I have the time.
Will do!
I've been wanting a matching set with quick release for quite a while, but the only I could find is Leicatime, and that's a bit to expensive for my taste..
All of you hand strap users: How do you change lenses? Because I do change lenses a lot, and that is the only reason I prefer neck straps. I find hand straps more convenient in street shooting really, but the lens change always gets me...
Well, generally I go out with one SLR with one lens that I know will work for the situations I'll be in and a few point and shoots for the odd thing that lens won't deal with, but when I do decide to carry an additional lens (as I often do for my Pen FT since they're so small) is either set the camera down, or if I absolutely have to, let the camera dangle from my wrist after I've removed the lens. Then the lens gets caps and goes in the bag and the other lens comes out and goes on the camera. To be fair, it is a bit more fiddly then if you had a neck strap, but the benefits of not having the camera dangling around my neck all the time or the strap getting in my way constantly, outweigh the negatives. It really just depends on your shooting style though. I take 3-4 cameras with me everywhere I go as my camera bag doubles as my personal bag so I always have a place to keep or place my stuff.
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Sometimes I post my photos on flickr.
Sometimes I update my tumblr.
I'm fond of handstraps because the camera is at my side and is less visible to the general public, but already in my hand for faster shooting than if wearing the camera around my neck, but I also like having a neck strap as it provides a place to secure my camera if eating or going to the bathroom.
Here are my two different solutions: I use a standard Leica strap, but I have it adjusted so that the surplus in length forms a perfect wrist strap. The neck portion kinda hangs out of the way in use, but its there when I need to have both hands free. Heard too many stories of Leicas being lost or stolen to not have it attacted to part of my body.
My second solution was intergrating a double loop made of a nylon belt that I secured into a TA Rapidgrip. One loop is for my hand and the other for my neck.
Both my Leicas feature TA Rapidwinders and TA Rapidgrips BTW because I also shoot Nikon F3's with motordrives and AH-4 handstraps.
All of you hand strap users: How do you change lenses? Because I do change lenses a lot, and that is the only reason I prefer neck straps. I find hand straps more convenient in street shooting really, but the lens change always gets me...
I do not change lenses, but I often carry two cameras. This is another reason why I have both a neck strap and a hand strap so I can carry two cameras in a practical manner.
Occasionally I sell the following hand maid braided wrist straps, in the RFF classifieds. Not intended as a plug, just to show a different type/style of wrist straps.
Gordies straps are great, I have a few of them. Leather is not the same as leather. It depends on the animal, the part it was taken from, the kind of treatment it had, how it was cut, etc.
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