Make your camera strap safe

Is your camera strap safe? I see so many that are threaded so that they could easily come loose. I have heard of cameras falling to the ground because the strap had slipped through the buckle. One of the first thing I teach on my courses is this simple little trick and just spending a few moments rethreading your strap may save you from loosing or breaking your camera.

If your strap has a loose tail flapping about it’s at risk and here’s how to thread it much more securely.

Securing your camera strap

1. Take the strap off the camera. This image shows strap end, the band keeper and the top side of the buckle.

   

2. Thread the strap through the whole from the bottom, recessed side of the buckle, over the bar and back down  through the second hole,
3. Thread the band-keeper onto the strap
4. Make sure there are no twists in the strap. Thread the end through the eye or bracket on the camera and then back through the band keeper.
   
5. Now loosen the strap on the buckle and feed the tail of the strap back through the buckle in the same direction as when first threaded, i.e. towards the camera body.
    
6. The tail of the strap should now be enveloped in the loop and not loose. Make sure there is plenty of tail and then tighten the straps on the buckle. Finally, slide the band-keeper towards the buckle and over the tail. It should be quite hard to do this. The tightly sandwiched the tail should stop the strap from slipping through the buckle.
7. Do check that the strap has not slipped once every few weeks.It was so much easier when we had 35mm SLRs. I had one of these on my old Olympus OM2m camera when I was 18, so my eyes lit up with nostalgia when I bought an OM10 for shutter demonstrations on my courses. I am contemplating swapping it onto my retro-looking Olympus OM-D E-M5 mark ii.

Hopefully, you found this useful. If you did, then please comment below. Do also share the post with your friends either on Facebook, Twitter or other social media. Please let me know that you’ve read it and rethreaded your strap as a result. It will be great to hear from you.