O’ahu, Hawai’i
Cameras And Cases And Straps, Oh My!
I have recently become the proud owner of a Micro Four-Thirds, mirrorless digital camera, the Olympus OM-D E-M10 II. Like with any new hobby of mine, I tend to go overboard with searching for and purchasing accessories.
Straight away I had realized that I don’t care for the mediocre neck strap that was included with my camera. I wore it for a day or two while shooting, but I quickly found that I could not continue utilizing the strap.
Minimalism is usually my preference when traveling, and I had intended to do a fair bit of traveling with my camera. At first, I was considering the Op/Tech camera sling. This sling is an exceptional price and offered almost everything I was looking for to carry my camera. However, the more I considered the alternatives, the more I recognized that I wanted a minimal camera pouch.
After some more web and Amazon searching, I stumbled upon the National Geographic vertical camera pouch. What initially drew me to the NatGeo pouch was the uncomplicated design and modest size. Since I prefer to have my camera covered when not in use, I felt that this pouch would be the ideal compromise between a neck sling and a larger camera bag. The pouch’s strap is long enough to be comfortable across the chest of my 6’2” frame with additional adjustment length to spare. The EM-10 II fits quite snug in the pouch with the 14-42 EZ pancake lens attached. If the lens was much longer, the camera wouldn’t fit.
Now that I had found a suitable pouch for carrying my camera, it was time to find a wrist strap. I had never honestly considered buying a wrist strap; the idea never crossed my mind. I would rather make a strap of my own, so I did. Below is what I have created.
I used approximately 10 feet of blue 550 paracord that I had leftover from previous projects. For the bracelet, I utilized a snake knot weave, and a cobra knot to attach the strap to a small Nite Ize s-biner that I had around the house. I am quite satisfied with the way my wrist strap turned out, and in the future, I plan to explore other color options and clip hardware.