Accessory Reviews

Review of the The Complete Guide to Sony’s Alpha 7 & 7r by Gary Friedman

08/08/2014 By Heather

When I sit down to read a camera manual, my expectations usually aren’t very high. In the best case scenario, it is simply a tedious read. In the worst, the sections are unorganised, critical information is often missing, and the technical language is too complex for the average amateur.

Fortuitously, this is not the case with The Complete Guide to Sony’s Alpha 7 and 7r by Gary Friedman. In 612 image and information-rich pages, Gary covers every aspect of Sony’s first full-frame interchangeable lens cameras, from the basic functions to less-obvious tips, tricks and shortcuts that even the Sony manual doesn’t touch upon.

Re-thinking the concept of camera straps: Review of the Peak Design Slide, Clutch & Leash

28/07/2014 By Mathieu

Camera straps are among the first additional accessories photographers consider for their camera, especially if it is a mirrorless camera. They may want to add some extra vintage flavour to the camera’s design with a nice handmade leather strap, or maybe they’re simply after something more robust. Unfortunately, neck straps that come with your camera are usually very simple. Some even have the brand name of the company splattered in bold lettering at least twice along the belt, which isn’t great for those who want to be more discreet.

What’s more, we as photographers tend to use different straps depending on how we want to carry our camera for a specific shoot. For long travels, you may want a comfortable strap, while for quick street sessions a nice wrist strap will do the job. The limit here is that every time you want to switch the type of strap, you have to go through the uncomfortable process of attaching/detaching them from the traditional lugs (without breaking your nails in the process).

The Gordy Strap: A high-quality leather wrist strap for your mirrorless camera

09/07/2014 By Heather

“If the leather is good enough to hold up your pants, it’s good enough to hold up your camera!”

This is how Gordon Coale of Gordy strap fame introduces his product on the homepage of his website. We had long read about the supreme quality and comfort of these leather wrist and neck straps from our fellow photographers in the mirrorless community, so we knew we had no option but to contact Gordon to ask for a demo of the lug-mount wrist strap to test. Not only did he graciously oblige, but he actually sent us two: a regular-sized one for me, and a long one for Mathieu. Now, having used them for two weeks on our Panasonic GH4 and Fujifilm X-T1, we can join the masses in saying that the Gordy wrist strap really is one of the best options around for mirrorless cameras.

Looking Lovely in Leather: Review of the Figosa neck and wrist straps

19/06/2014 By Heather

It is hard not to feel a certain degree of affection for a company that has its origins in a city only a few dozen kilometres from your doorstep.

Meet Figosa, an Italian camera strap manufacturer from Genova. It was founded by Andrea and Laura who handcraft every one of their straps from genuine high-quality leather. They chose the name Figosa because in Italian, it means ‘something cool’, and indeed, the simple addition of one of their straps can transform your mirrorless camera into something of a fashion accessory that you’ll always be proud to wear out on the streets.

Mirrorless cameras belong to Cosyspeed camera bags

21/04/2014 By Mathieu

Update: check out the new Cosyspeed Streetomatic bag in our review here!

“The world belongs to mirrorless heroes” is one of the slogans by Cosyspeed, an emerging German company specialised in accessories for mirrorless cameras. After using the bags intensively for the past month, I can easily adapt that slogan and say that mirrorless cameras belong to Cosyspeed bags. Why? Because Cosyspeed takes the main philosophy behind mirrorless cameras, which is smaller and lighter gear, and adapts it to bags. The results are the Camslinger 105 and Camslinger 160, two belt bags that allow you to bring your camera anywhere more easily than with any other bag.