Hi this is Jay P. Morgan. Today we have a couple of great products from Spider Holster to review, here on The Slanted Lens. The first one is a new hand strap called the SpiderLight. It’s a fabulous hand strap for mirrorless cameras. We’ll also take a look at the Black Widow backpack adapter.
The problem you have with mirrorless cameras is that they’re so small. A lot of the straps on the market for these smaller cameras pinch your hand in the wrong spot. But the SpiderLight hand strap has a great ‘S’ shape. It helps keep your hand back and down, which allows you to hold the camera correctly.
It’s also completely adjustable on the bottom so you can move the strap of the SpiderLight in and out. It’s got the post for the Black Widow backpack kit on it, but you can also just put a regular arca-swiss plate on the bottom which will hold this into place. It allows you to go on and off the tripod which makes it very easy.
The SpiderLight comes with a series of adapters which enable you to attach the hand strap to any of the mirrorless cameras on the market. For the a7R II, which I have, it goes in the holes a little low. It’s interesting because there is a piece of plastic that makes it hard to get to the record button, and at first that bothered me. But then I realized that I love the fact that my thumb rests against it. The reality is if I’ve got a hand strap on here I’m not doing video anyway.
So for stills it’s ideal. It’s great. I can use it and get to all of my controls very easily. The strap curves over to the side, it bends out of place very easily so I can jump in there and get to my battery, replace the battery without any problem. I’ve been using Spider Holster’s hand straps for a long time and they just feel great on your hand. This is a fabulous upgrade to be able to use on a mirrorless camera. And it just came out and I love it. I used it in New York at PhotoPlus and really enjoyed it. It’s got a memory foam inside which cushions the inside of your hand. It feels fabulous on your hand.
Now what I’ve got on it is the pin for my Black Widow backpacking kit. Very nice, especially with these smaller cameras, to have something this close. To be able to be walking around and pull it out to shoot. Easy to jump in, grab it, pull it out, be able to shoot.
The backpack kit has a great pad right here. Generally speaking, when you attach your camera to a backpack in this manner, your lens is going to hit against that area of your body. With the addition of that pad you get a nice cushion to help guard against that. It also comes with a strap you can wrap around the camera, which helps keep it snug against that pad there as you’re walking around. Then if it does bounce a little bit it’s hitting that pad, it’s not gonna hit against your body.
If you’re traveling or you’re hiking and you want to be able to have a camera that’s close at hand, this combination is great for travel photography. I was just in New York City walking around shooting. It’s nice to have a simple, quick way to get your camera on and off and be able to get it out when you want to shoot something.
When you put your camera in your backpack and you want to shoot something you have to pull the backpack around, unzip it, pull it all out. It’s not a quick or smooth process. Using the SpiderLight hand strap and Black Widow backpack adaptor allows you to simply unstrap, focus and shoot. It’s just a nice setup. Goes in and out very quickly.
I love the SpiderLight hand strap and Black Widow backpack adaptor from Spider Holster. Go check them out!
Keep those cameras rollin’ and keep on clickin’.