Best handstrap for DSLR with Luma Cinch strap?

[motion]

What's the best hand strap to be used together with a Luma Cinch sling strap? It's for a canon 50D with a battery grip (later to be upgraded to a Canon 5D II or III).

Having read other threads I see the Herringbone gets rave reviews although a lot of people use the E1 or E2 from Canon as well. I haven't bought the Luma Cinch slingstrap yet, but have more or less decided on it after having read reviews, understanding that it surpasses Black Rapid, Sun sniper, Carry Speed etc.

I want the hand strap for easier and more convenient handling and one-handed use and the sling strap for the convenience of carrying around.

 

[mosswings]

I don't have any recommendations for a hand/wrist strap; I've tried them and found them to be more effective with tall-gripped cameras than with smaller bodied cameras because to be effective they tend to hold your hand in one position. On the smaller bodied cameras accessing the various buttons involves more changing of hand position which works against keeping the hand/wrist strap tight enough. You use a tall grip body, so you're a good candidate for a wrist strap. I don't, I'm not.

If you haven't bought the Cinch yet, you can try out its essential behaviors with your existing neck strap if you have a tripod plate with a strap lug. Just move the right attachment point of the strap to the tripod plate and mount it to the tripod mount on your camera. I've found that this carry position is a lot better than the standard around-the-neck configuration and that having the camera grip totally unencumbered by straps is very freeing. Adding a wrist strap to this configuration would just increase the fiddle factor; in general wrist straps work better when you're keeping camera in hand for a a long time. The Cinch is more designed for a grab-and-shoot type of carry style. Wrist straps just get in the way.

One of the interesting effects of this strap style is that I've switched carry sides from left to right. Normally I keep the camera bag on my left and reach cross-body to grab the camera. With a neck strap this keeps the strap better in check by keeping the left side of the strap taught as it is brought to the eye. With the Cinch design the camera is naturally carried on the right, and there is no strap interference. However, the camera bag is now better carried on the right to avoid strap hangup when extracting the camera or changing lenses.

Note that although the Cinch is a very high quality product, its hardware is polished metal which can sometimes mar your equipment. Some owners have found this out the hard way. Finally, there is nothing miraculous about the operation of the Cinch...A strap with a good shoulder pad and a ladder-lock adjustment buckle from a sporting goods store can passibly emulate its operation.

 

[motion]

Unfortunately there's no strap lug in my Manfrotto RC-4 quick release (which is why the membrane connector from Luma would be nice), but I have tried attaching the regular Canon strap to the right top lug on the camera and the right sided lug underneath the battery grip. It felt good!

My experience is that having the regular strap attached as standard just gets in the way, covering the viewfinder etc. so I've started using the camera without a strap at all. Feels even better, but very tiring with a portrait session when holding the camera all the time. A hand strap would allow me to loosen the grip when not shooting and still not drop the camera. For carrying the camera around a strap which allows easy and quick access to the camera would be good -hence a sling strap of some sort. Does anyone else have the same needs and have experience with such a setup?

I'm concerned about the metal hardware of the Luma Cinch scratching my camera as well. They should really cover those parts in rubber. One option might be be for me to dip the metal parts into liquid rubber. Anyone tried that?

 

[motion]

Note that although the Cinch is a very high quality product, its hardware is polished metal which can sometimes mar your equipment. Some owners have found this out the hard way.

Do you recommend other sling straps which don't have this problem?

The strap should have the option to attach to one of the camera's strap lugs and to the bottom of the battery grip and not just the tripod connector (this is because I'm trying to find a solution for using it with my Manfrotto quick release plate).

 

[mosswings]

Note that although the Cinch is a very high quality product, its hardware is polished metal which can sometimes mar your equipment. Some owners have found this out the hard way.

Do you recommend other sling straps which don't have this problem?

The strap should have the option to attach to one of the camera's strap lugs and to the bottom of the battery grip and not just the tripod connector (this is because I'm trying to find a solution for using it with my Manfrotto quick release plate).

If you want the cinching behavior and heavy-duty construction of the Cinch, no. But as I said, its operating principle is really quite simple and involves a readily available plastic friction lock. Most of the marring that users have complained about is when they store the camera in a bag; there the metal pieces are more likely to come into contact with the camera. You can, of course, use a liquid rubber coating or clear stretchy tape on the offending pieces.

Have you checked out the Membrane connector on Luma Labs website (under Accessories)? This is a $15 thin kevlar fitting that fits over the tripod fitting between your camera and plate, or between your camera and battery grip. The d-ring comes out on the left side of the body as it should. Regardless of whether you get the Cinch or not, this fitting should solve your strap connection woes.

 

[Quintin Lake]

motion wrote:

What's the best hand strap to be used together with a Luma Cinch sling strap? It's for a canon 50D with a battery grip (later to be upgraded to a Canon 5D II or III).

Having read other threads I see the Herringbone gets rave reviews although a lot of people use the E1 or E2 from Canon as well. I haven't bought the Luma Cinch slingstrap yet, but have more or less decided on it after having read reviews, understanding that it surpasses Black Rapid, Sun sniper, Carry Speed etc.

I want the hand strap for easier and more convenient handling and one-handed use and the sling strap for the convenience of carrying around.

Canon Hand Strap E1 attached to a RRS plate works well with Luma Labs now discontinued sling (i use with 5DII) - i imagine this would work well the cinch