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A very “ special" leather strap.


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I know this won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. But, bear with me, we are all different and we don’t all have to like the same things.

 

So, if you don’t, it’s OK, I probably won’t like the things that you do like, so we are even!  :rolleyes:

 

I bought this when I bought my first X camera, the X-E1, which I immediately accessorized with a tan leather halfcase. I couldn’t stand the strap of the halfcase so I looked for something more comfortable than that.

 

I soon realized that the world of leather halfcases and straps was an expensive one, especially if I had to import any of this from outside the EU because I had to add 21% VAT plus the arbitrary cost of “ handling through customs” ( easily €20 per “ incident”)  which would in some cases add some serious amount of money.

 

I didn’t want to go for the Chinese PU straps because, I don’t like the feel of that material and I thought that at my age I could go for something a bit more comfortable and luxurious that some cord or other flat canvas material. No disrespect intended, as I said, we are all different.

 

I did want leather. That much I knew. 

 

Looking through the local classified ads I found someone who was selling a full grain tan leather strap, Dutch made, and normally only sold on KLM flights. The iErnest ( apparently the product has been discontinued now and so the haters will find themselves vindicated!)

 

It looked rather weird but the large neck portion of the strap promised to be comfortable. The weirdness came especially from some elastics mounted on the segment closer to the camera which were supposed to act as shock absorbers. Never seen any such thing and I don’t mind weirdness. The price was right ( I paid €50, normal price €89) and the tan color harmonized with the one of the halfleather case so I went for it.

 

I soon realized that this was guaranteed to catch attention once it was mounted on the camera (something that isn’t all that easy to do by the way) but I don’t particularly mind that: I am over 6’ tall ( 183cm) and 120Kg.  bald man, I am used to being conspicuous, no amount of disguise will ever make me “ stealth” besides I am not really into street photography so, what do I care about stealth?

 

Mounting this wasn’t easy the rings provided by the camera don’t fit well the strap and the strap ones don’t fit well in the camera. I used some other rings in the end but the problem was inserting them through the double loop of the strap ( safety feature, the leather alone would be too thin) and the camera drilled prongs.

 

But after some help by my wife ( we both have problems with our hands and fingers due to medical conditions) I managed to put this on the X-E1 (and the worse thing was that I had to repeat the process when I gave the X-E1 back to the shop because of some problems with the sensor which I described in another thread) and then I managed to do it again mounting it on the X-T1.

 

I still like the strap after a year or so. Yes, sometimes one has to tun it a couple of times if the neck padded area has managed to turn the other way around in the bag. But other than that it is a very good strap.

 

Maybe, at some stage I would want to change the last portion of the strap ( the one with the shock absorber) for something that can be easily disconnected when I use the camera on a tripod but this is only a minor problem which hasn’t bothered me much.

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  • 2 weeks later...

iErnest strap with camera, lenses, gorilla-like tripod and bag

 

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