Capture and Leash
The Capture and Leash & Cuff are products of Peak Design, a company I discovered originally through Kickstarter. These products are really quite awesome frankly, let me tell you why I recommend both the Capture and Leash as essential accessories for any dSLR owner.
Capture camera clip system
As anyone who has used a dSLR camera will have experienced the standard around the neck strap is fine for brief periods of use. Until you start walking around more than a few paces and it continually bounces on your sternum or upper abdomen that is. It also means the camera gets in your way, or swings out like a pendulum weight when you lean unless you keep a hand on the camera. The Capture camera clip makes life so much easier.
Using either the backplates (Manfrotto RC2 or Arca-Swiss compatible) you can slip the camera to a simple and lightweight clip which attaches to your belt, bag strap or another convenient strap on your gear. The aim is allowing you to quickly holster and then unholster your camera to allow you to have both hands free when needed, but catch that shot with your camera with minimum of fuss. Most of the time I have mine on my belt on my right hip, that way I can walk around and without anything blocking my legs or getting in the way in front of me. There is also the added benefit that it puts the camera at exactly the place you want to grab it from and closer to your centre of gravity.
When is this useful? An example would be if you are out walking and need to climb over obstacles such as fences, walls or perhaps you are climbing up a tree / steep hill to get to that vantage point. With a regular strap the camera will hang every time you lean, potentially smacking off whatever you are trying to avoid, but with a Capture clip it is fixed to your body and so much easier to protect. Got to your vantage point and need to grab your camera quickly? No problem with the capture, it is right where you clipped it and not swinging on a strap around your neck.
Also when people have a pair of cameras (such as one body with an 18-55mm lens, another with 55-200 lens) the Capture allows you to clip one to your belt while you use the other, then switch if you need the different form factor. Saves you fiddling with lens swapping or having to pull a camera in and out of a hip bag. Obviously though this doesn’t apply to amateur users very often as they tend to have just one camera body.
For more info, pictures and details visit the Capture product page over at Peak Design.
Leash and Cuff
There are however occasions when a strap is a useful thing to have. Perhaps you are at a party and you want to have both hands free but don’t need to have two cameras with you, or just a little strap to save you should the camera be knocked out of your grip. Maybe you aren’t going to be walking around much and just want to be able to stick your hands in your pockets from time to time. This is where the Leash and Cuff come in for me.
I found that the standard strap for my Canon was a bit fiddly to attach and detach, especially when switching to and from tripod set up where a strap just gets in the way a little. When I saw the Leash and Cuff though I knew I needed to get them. The Leash is a long strap which can be customised quickly whilst the Cuff is a short strap designed to give you that security attachment to your camera. Both use a very quick and easy attachment system, anchors are attached to the camera and then the ends of the Leash or Cuff just clip in place. It is only a matter of seconds to add or remove them, rather than a couple of minutes, and in fact I reckon you could do it entirely single handed if you wanted to.
The Cuff is a short loop, perfect for parties where you might be bumped into when not paying attention. Compact camera users will be familiar with the idea, only this is designed with dSLR cameras in mind. Its bigger brother the Leash is more versatile allowing you to hang the camera at your hip, or shorter like a conventional strap and even as a safety strap or video stabiliser.
Again for more info just head on over to read about the Leash and Cuff on Peak Design’s website.
Capture and Leash a photographer’s friend
There are a lot of accessories you can buy for your dSLR and I would put both the Capture and Leash on my must buy list (there’s an idea for a future blog post).
