Hand strap for camera

My first camera used for taking wildlife photo was the size of a deck of cards. It could slip in and out of my pocket easily and it was light enough for me not to worry about dropping it. My second camera was the size of my fist holding the first camera. As such it was not so easy to slip it in and out of my pocket even if the pocket could fit the camera. I purchased a special pouch for it so that I could attach to my belt. It also came with a wrist strap.

My current camera with a neck strap and a camera bag. Let me give you an important piece of advice. If you have a camera that weighs more than 1 KG, a neck strap is going to hurt your neck. You could cheat by slinging the neck strap across a shoulder but this will result in the camera settling on the side of your body which will hamper your movement. The camera bag also had a tendency to bounce on my hip resulting in the camera bag hitting into things.

I then purchased a sling camera bag. It suited my purpose except that the wildlife tended to be spooked by the sound of the bag being unzipped. Not zipping the bag left my camera resting in a precarious position. I tried carrying the camera but my hand got tired. This is not an issue except when my hand was tired, I could not keep my hand still when taking photos.

After studying the Internet for a solution, I found that a hand strap could work. It allowed the camera to be strapped to my hand but allow my hand not to expend energy carrying the camera. Now to be fair to the Internet, it did inform me some of the common issues with a handstrap:

• The tightening and loosing of the handstrap is a chore
• The handstrap will hinder access to some of the controls on the camera

Long story short, I purchased a handstrap and I found the following issues:

• Threads sticking out of places

I need to be fair to the vendor. The handstrap was not fraying but it looked as if the person making the product forgot to knot the ends of the stitches on the product. Now I usually do not pay attention to such details except when it is used to secure something important.

I have never patronised any airline if I find that their seat belts are frayed even if they are still perfectly safe. Their seats could be threadbare, their pillows could stink and even their food inedible. I do draw the line at undrinkable beverages (I can live with no name brand alcohol on planes since I do not fly to drink. I can compromise on house brand juices. Storebrand soft drinks??? Coke/Pepsi is universally available!!! If you can't afford it, what other commercial fluids like lubricants and coolants can't you procure?).

My baby is attached to your strap. It is not like you did not know that the handstrap was for expensive cameras since the attachments were rather specific to those cameras.    

• Width of the bottom buckle being bigger than the strap 

This is one of those times when you despair at the designers. Handstraps like seatbelts need to be tight. If there is too much give, it stops being a safety device and starts becoming an accessory. The entire idea of a handstrap is to allow the hand to relax while attaching the camera to the hand. The issue is not the strap is always loose. It is that if the strap changes position slightly, the tension is gone.

I doubt these are the last words on this device and I will update more when I have more experience.