I've been using PD straps for years, but the reviews of this strap intrigued me.
Then I got a gift certificate to BH for my birthday, so I took a risk and sprang for this camera strap:
I must say, I'm very impressed with it!
I took it on a 5 mile hike with my very energetic husky, attached to an OM-3 and a 75-300mm lens, and it passed with flying colors. I did the same thing with a PD strap, and at one point my camera flipped by the dog leash and snapped the eyepiece off onto the grass.
The great thing about this strap is, when you decide where you want the camera to sit, it just stays there.
The strap has a sort of pulley system built in. If you flip the release, the camera then slides within that system.
So there are 2 extra steps to using the strap. To take a photo, you flip the release, then lift the camera to your eye.
Then you put the camera where you want it - for me, that's either at my side or behind me, and once it's there, flip the release back, and voila! It just stays put. This happens because the shoulder strap is wide with lots of friction, so that stays put. Then the camera is always against you with the friction at the bottom of the camera where it attaches.
The built-in arca swiss plate also works fine - I tried it on a couple tripods including the PD one.
If anyone actually reads this and is interested, I can post photos of all this, or you can of course search Youtube to see it.
Thank you for this review! I've been wanting something like this for a long time! It's a hybrid of the tripod mount point with the original side attachment points on the camera! An ingenious design! Would love to see some pics.
Do you feel it's sturdy enough? Both from the tripod mount point as well as the quick release mount point? Also, did the bottom plate add enough bulk to effect the handling of the camera?
It's very sturdy, no doubt. My most used strap has been the PD leash, and the Lemur is WAY more sturdy than that. I've never really understood the whole "sturdy" thing... the PD leash is tiny and I could easily put my a7rv with the Sony 200-600 on it and I would have no fear of anything breaking. Of course I wouldn't actually do that because it would cut into my shoulder, but that's the limiting factor, not fear of the leash breaking.
The lemur strap is NOT a hybrid of the tripod mount with original side attachment points. It is SOLELY attached at the tripod mount. You attach the arca swiss plate to the camera, and the base snaps onto the plate. The other attachment points are not used at all.
I will post some photos soon, but in the meantime, I recommend watching this: I totally agree with everything this guy says.
With my a7rv and the PD leash, I put one anchor on the supplied attachment point at the top of the camera near the grip, and the other anchor on the PD tripod plate. This way, the camera lies flat against me with the grip facing up, and this makes it easy to grab. This doesn't work on the OM-3. For some reason the only way I could comfortably attach a strap to the OM-3 was the conventional way where you then hang the camera around your neck, and I just don't like that. The lemur strap fixes this beautifully. I haven't tried the lemur strap on my a7rv yet, but I will in the next couple days and report how that goes.
