Ugly camera strap like my dad's now only $3.52

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Didn’t like 'em in the 70’s, don’t like 'em now.

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This looks way nicer than the ugly, oversized camera straps I remember. They were the black socks with shorts and sandals of camera straps…

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Ah, that black strap looks pretty tasteful to me, relatively speaking. OK, so maybe the new one you posted is a bit more hideous than I first thought, as if someone mugged the stereotype of serape-wearing Mexican and cut up his clothes for camera straps.

This is the hideous, cheap, vintage kind I was thinking of:

The kind camera stores would up sell as part of a deluxe 11 piece accessory kit (or some such), along with a cheap, really cheap, blower brush.

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When I bought my first Canon 35mm, my dad suggested two accessories: a UV filter and an ugly Navajo-looking camera strap. I used both proudly all through college.

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My best camera strap ever, is very much like this. The only difference, besides the pattern, was that the wide portion has a slight crescent curve to it. That makes it lie perfectly flat when its around your neck, or slung over one shoulder.

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Well I think it’s pretty nice, but I don’t have a camera. Do I recall guitar straps being repurposed into camera straps, or did I dream that?

I don’t know for sure but I have seen / been partial owner to at least three guitar straps with similarly painful motifs. I wouldn’t intentionally buy one for my guitars but I am kinda tempted to get one for my camera.

Your pain is my joy.

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This and a silicone skin make my 1800 dollar camera look like a 300 dollar camera. Just sayin.

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Carry an SLR around your neck for a while and you’ll begin to see the advantages of a wide strap.

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The double knits of camera support…hippies! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8lDCXv6Fr4

I used to wear 35mm SLR cameras when I freelanced. (I also had a darkroom, black and white processing/printing only.) I had a lot of cameras including several Nikkormat ELs in varying stages of functionality. Wearing any camera all day is a pain in the neck. Wearing several with different film speeds was even more of a pain.

This was the only thing that made it bearable:

Those solid, plain, simple neoprene straps felt like the cameras weighed half as much by the end of a long work day. Try to get the straps that have as much length of neoprene as possible, in case you have to move the camera you’re wearing to a weird position: you’ll still be covered (in neoprene strap). Unseamed, preferably. After 6 or 8 hours of wearing a neoprene that had stitched edges, I chafed even though I wore a collared shirt. The ones with the nylon strap sewn on the outside face of the strap totally defeat the purpose of the neoprene. Don’t bother with those.

I know of steel-cable (very very thin, sewn in nonobviously) reinforced camera straps meant to thwart thieves known to cut cameras off of tourists on trains, buses and other opportunistic crime areas. I had a camera bag by PacSafe that used the same approach. I can’t find the exact model but it looked kinda like this. In the end I went with waist packs because it was faster to change lenses out of, and my neck needed a lighter load to carry.

Since we’re focusing on ugly straps, here are some loud flashy ones in neoprene:


I always chose black straps because they essentially disappeared from view when paired with a black t-shirt or black workshirt. It was pretty hard to tell I was wearing a camera unless you were standing near me and I only shot using available light. Only drawback was on hot days where I couldn’t find shade, I felt really hot. Even the cameras got hot. I had wee cooler stocked with ice packs to keep film in and it was nice to sit on while I felt like I was melting.

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That’s similar to the one I had back in the 70’s.

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