Shouldering the Burden Of Sony With Peak Design

I am going to risk it. I know the ice is thin, and the nerves even thinner, but here goes: another review of a Sony product. Or rather, a product that can be used with a Sony camera…

I have reported on Peak Design equipment before, and from the original mention some years back until now, my opinion of the brand has improved. I think it is because their design department have had better ideas and their manufacturing division has been able to translate these into good products.

The Original peak Design product we saw in Camera Electronic was a belt holder for cameras - a quick release clamp that enabled you to put a camera on your shoulder strap or belt and then secure it with a click of a button. The CE staff at the time all got samples to go away and try - I demurred  - the idea seemed uncomfortable. Whenever I tried it I envisaged disaster if I was not careful how I mounted the camera. Remember I’m the man who dropped a Leica M3 with a Summicron lens on it into a Melbourne drain. They have stopped letting me defuse torpedoes…

This is different - it is a lens holder designed to accept Sony - mount lenses on both sides of itself and then to lock onto a shoulder strap. Whether that shoulder strap is dedicated to a messenger bag or a backpack is immaterial - the clamp has a positive two-screw lock that cannot depart from it with out deliberate disassembly. You can also put the clamp onto a waist belt and depend a Sony lens from that.

It would be a blessing to a wedding or event shooter who needed constant access to a spare pair of lenses while a third lens was on the camera and who did not want to have to fossick around inside a bag while working the crowd.

Peak Design have been reviewed here before - their new bags are both elegant and practical. This accessory seems to be exactly in the same good line.

Mount is also available for Canon and Nikon applications.

The Messenger Bag - Part Two - Parisian Style

Well I promised you the up-market Peak Design messenger bag and here it is: the Everyday Messenger 13. There is enough style in this one to satisfy any boutique bag buyer.

The choice of fabric from which it is constructed might be thought modest enough - a medium-brown denim - but then you need to look into some of the more up-market clothing shops to see what they do with ( and charge for ) denim. This is not a pair of jeans.

The basic messenger form with top flap is simple enough to think of but there are a number of design quirks in it. With the top flap down and locked, you still get a weatherproof zipper on top to allow access to the gear compartment. These used to be referred to as "stealth" opening by some makers, but anything that has a big zipper is not all that stealthy.

The sides of the case are open to small compartments - one of which has a Peak Design strap peeking from it. I've no idea what they expect you to suspend from it, but perhaps it is keys.

The top flap has an inside pocket that contains a Peak Design rubber ring that turns out to be a leg band for small tripods  when you carry them horizontally.

The flap itself has a very ingenious attachment - the ladder segments on the side of the bag are made of metal and there is a powerful magnet and hook arrangement that locks them positively in a number of positions. You can gain quick access to the bag by lifting the metal handle with no fumbling for buckles or pop studs.

The interior space is massive, and they have made it decorative as well. The two movable partitions create what is essentially two quick-access buckets as soon as the top comes up - like holders for dragoon pistols on a European cavalry saddle.

The strap is very smooth woven nylon and the attachment points again feature a swivel but no resorting to plastic parts. There is a waist cinch hidden in a back compartment plus a re-enforced base to allow you to set it down without damaging the denim.

The whole thing costs $ 100 more than the Everyday Sling  - not a great deal more to go up Collins Street to the fancy shops...just don't ask the price of the shoes in the window...

Don't Shoot The Messenger - Part One - Dockyard End

I do love a daily advertising column - where else would I ever get to use a heading like that in legitimate literature? It goes with the " Hack Writer " sign that I keep on my desk.

 

Well, on to the hack - this week we are going to look at the messenger bag. It is either the humblest of camera containers...or the most prestigious - depending upon whether you are making it for the Dockyard end or the Paris end of Collins Street. I use Victorian imagery there because if I named Perth suburbs my readers would be up themselves and down on me. You can do your own geography - but be aware that there are different markets.

The  - ahem - less exotic user can be accommodated with the Peak Design Everyday Sling. It is a little grey workhorse of a bag with good protection for the smaller camera outfit.

Oh, you could slot a DSLR and a couple of lenses in there too. A mirror-less system camera could run three lenses easily and you might be able to leave a battery grip attached. The top pocket is lined and has card and battery holders built into the walls. There's a full-sized tablet compartment with a lock tab as well - this could easily be the foundation of a travelling blogoffice.

The external pocket is configured so that it is expandable - and the expansion is controlled by nylon webbing a metal buckles. You can stack heavy gear into it without fear. That is if you're silly enough to put heavy gear on your shoulder and trudge around with it all day...

The suspension of the strap - nylon webbing - is attached with a metal swivel - indeed all the fittings are anodised metal so you can bang through the tourist places with this one for literally years without having it disintegrate. Laugh not, I have had a bag made by one of the other major makers decide to plotz in the middle of an English railway station and it was not a fun experience.

Peak Design are a coming firm. Their straps and suspension systems are quirky but well thought-out and these new bag designs show that they wish to be considered a premium maker.

Tomorrow we see their Paris end...

The Mirror-less Strap According To Peak

Mirror-less cameras are becoming a way of art for a lot of us. Some choose them because they want a lighter package to carry - some choose them for the quick handling - some for their unobtrusiveness. I love mine for the vibrant jpeg images that shoot straight onto the web page.

Every manufacturer of a camera gives the buyer a camera strap in the package. But many buyers shy away from these and look for aftermarket ones with special features - thus the Peak Design" Leash ".

Is this a good one for you to take your mirror-less camera for a walk? Well look at the details:

The snap-on camera connector that can be detached from the main strap for packing or studio use. Those Kevlar cords are internally coded so that if you ever do wear the tough little things out they give you a yellow and then a red signal for replacement.

The strap is slick premium-quality webbing with an adjustable buckle in the middle.

The camera can be attached by its integral lugs as per the regular maker's strap or you can opt for the Peak quick release plate on the bottom surface of the body. This in turn can mate with Peak belt docks or Manfrotto tripod quick release shoes. If you need to carry the camera body at an odd angle this strap will mate to it.

And it is narrower than the full-size DSLR strap.

In store & available on our online shop now with the other fine Peak products in our bag and strap section.

Go Well - Go Shell

And all older Australians will have had a brief flash of nostalgia there...

The Shell referred to in this posting is a new camera housing made by the Peak Design people. It is intended to shelter your camera while it is attached to some of the other Peak Design holsters or docking stations - in their turn on backpacks or belts.

The literature on the packet says that it is available in small, medium and large to suit mirror-less, regular DSLR and flagship DSLR cameras. The example you see in the images is the small version holding a Fujifilm X-E2 and a Fujinon 18-135mm lens.

It is a good fit - the neoprene material stretches at any binding point and the length of the lens portion is perfect for this Fujinon. It is a little deceiving as this particular camera body is encased in a metal cradle - a bare camera would slip in more easily. There are peculiar little attachments that I never quite figured out to make it cling to camera straps but the bottom opening is free to allow the signature Peak Design dock to work.

For an out-of-the-packet item it is one of the best fits I have seen.

Perhaps not needed in Perth in the summertime, but remember that winter will eventually come and you will want to go where rain and snow are common. Be prepared.

Peak Design product range available online.

Park It With Peak - Pick It Up Later

Sounds like a valet service at a fancy restaurant, doesn't it? Well, you have to do the hard work with this one, but it will be worth it.

Carrying a heavy camera on a neck strap is fine, if you look like He-Man or The Incredible Hulk. They have the necks for DSLRs with battery packs and long zoom lenses. In fact carrying these all day is what turns the Hulk green...

For the rest of us, we try to spread the weight somewhere else - in my case I keep a small servant called Igor to haul the heavy stuff. If you are not so lucky you may choose to try a shoulder sling - and they work to some extent - but will experience the same sort of weight swing that the neck strap does - when you move one way the camera and lens may move another.

Peak Design came up with an answer - park the camera on a belt or on the strap of a backpack. You can keep your hands free for rock climbing, fighting off bears, or getting a really full plate and a beer at the buffet. It is not the only docking system on the market but it is one of the smallest and most convenient if your photo work also involves a tripod.

Okay - it works like this - you slide the dock onto the belt or strap and use the two black side wheels to lock the mechanism in place. It'll fit over a hefty leather belt and is made of strong metal -we're talking large DSLR and a big 70-200 lens here easily. The plate that screws onto the baseplate of your tripod has an Arca Swiss-sized foot on it and you can go clamp it into an Arca head instantly. When you need to dock the camera onto the belt you can point it sideways, down, or backwards just as you please. There's a quick release lock and a positive screw lock in case you are going to be hanging upside down from the cliff face.

Imagine life WITHOUT any neck or shoulder strap at all. Woooo...

Addendum:

Woooo again - looks like you can also configure that camera plate to fit on Manfrotto RC2 quick release holders - so we get a lot more players in the game.

Hitting Your Straps And Saving Your Neck With Peak Design

In another of my weblog columns* I vowed to go out to every camera shop in Australia to look for a better strap than the one I got with my camera. I have sawed my neck half off with a heavy zoom lens and need something soothing while the glue dries on the vertebrae.

This may be a candidate. The Peak Design people started out a few years ago with innovative camera holders that let you park you equipment on a belt instead of a strap - though you could sometimes combine the two ideas by latching the things onto backpack straps. They still make these sorts of camera docks but have also branched out into more conventional straps. Or are they all that conventional...?

The Slide is the one we're testing out today. It is advertised as being able to be configured as a sling, neck or shoulder strap.

Basic structure is nylon webbing. Slick and smooth-edged - good so far. It runs from 95cm to 132cm so if I gain weight dramatically I can still fit in it.

The atttachment points are teflon cord, which is easy to slip into camera lugs. In addition, there is a plate mount so that you can put one cord on a lug and one on the underside of the camera where the tripod screw goes in. Makes for two more options in slinging the camera, and as the plate has the edge measurements of Arca Swiss plates, you can clamp it on Arca heads straight away.

The strap has a quick-adjustment lever that lets you slide it up and down with ease - while wearing it if you wish.

And the bit I love - the strap has a unique quick-disconnect lug set at each end of it to let you click it all off if you are using the camera in a studio on a tripod. No more dangling strap interfering with ball head or three-way head controls or falling over the eye sensor and shutting the darned LCD screen off! This alone would improve the language in the Little Studio by about 150%...

I still will look at every strap in Australia but this is a good contender.

* frontierandcolonial.wordpress.com

Peak Design - Innovative Ways To Sling Cameras

Manufacturers are always coming up with new and unusual ways to sling, attach, and deploy our camera equipment. Here in the shop we have at least 4 different independent firms who produce straps and clips, as well as those provided by the camera makers themselves.

Is there a point to it all?

Well, after buying one of darn near everything over the years...a hazard of working in a camera shop...I can report that it does have several points - though the makers may not like what I am going to write.

The camera manufacturers all do provide some form of strap for their cameras - designed for either your neck or your wrist. They are nearly always of good construction and can be relied upon to keep the camera up off the ground. The cameras themselves have different suspension points depending upon their design*, but in their turn these are nearly always well anchored. Very few cameras have ever dropped off their own suspension lugs.

Maker's straps can be leather or woven fabric. If they are thick or have sharp edges they can dig into the neck. They also have the operational disadvantage that they are always on - standard camera straps have no disconnect to allow the camera to sit on a tripod undisturbed - you are always fighting your way through the strap to get to the controls, and if your camera has one of the circuits that allows it to turn off the LCD when you eye approaches the viewfinder...well the strap is always cutting off your picture.

Enter the Peak Design "leash". It is smooth webbing, with unique disconnects that cannot allow the camera to undo and fall. The strap is easily disconnected when the camera is on a tripod, and there is provision to accept a further accessory to allow the camera to be suspended from the tripod screw on the bottom.

Other unique configurations are a belt leash - you use it in conjunction with a camera dock on your waist belt - and a wrist strap.

Note: My experiences with a wrist strap are still under analysis - it lets you keep the camera under control but means that your tea-drinking hand is rather shackled.

* Let us now praise the Leica M5 which had the best lug position of any camera ever. Most of the rest of it was disturbing but the lugs were wonderful.