Peak Design | Cuff | v2 | $29.95 | 24g
Unless I’m on an astrophotography trip and using a tripod almost all of my photography is hand-held. Dropping the camera is always a concern but in some situations (such as near water of cliffs) a drop would be catastrophic. Solution: some kind of leash.
The Cuff is a short leash that goes around your wrist and attaches to the camera via an anchor link. The general idea is that if you drop the camera it will pull and cinch up the Cuff on your wrist, preventing a fall. When not in use the Cuff can detach from the camera and curl up into a bracelet; a small magnet underneath the leather (whose position can be adjusted) holds the anchor end in place.
During a trip to Deep Lake I was crossing the log jam at the lake’s southern outflow to get a shot when I slipped off a log and into thigh-deep water. Fortunately I had my camera attached to the Cuff and instinctively shot my camera hand straight up into the air as I fell, saving the day. So, I can personally attest to its effectiveness.
However, it’s not all ponies and rainbows. The little magnet under the leather is a pain in the ass to slide around, although this is a one-time cost unless you plan on gaining weight in your wrists. It’s also not very strong as I often found the anchor end detached while hiking and would have to put it back time after time. The Cuff is also quite thick as far as bracelets go, if you hike in a long sleeve shirt it’ll interfere with the cuff of your shirt. As a person who hates both wearing things on their wrists and fiddling this gets old quickly. Finally, it’s relatively heavy and expensive for what it does.
So, I decided to make my own – you just need a cord that attaches to the camera at one end and has a sliding loop at the other end that you can put your wrist through. Here, I’ve taken roughly 24 inches of LiteOutdoors 1.8mm guy line and tied two rewoven figure 8 knots into it, one around the triangular attachment ring on the camera and one around the line itself to form the wrist loop. That’s $0.57 and 2g of cord, saving $29.38 and 22g for five minutes of effort. Also, it’s one less stupid fiddly thing on your wrist.
The downsides are that now you have a cord permanently attached to the camera and it’s less comfortable if you do drop the camera and it cinches down. However, it’s easy to tuck away and the very very minor discomfort in the rare case where it actually comes in handy is outweighed by the savings you get in all other situations.