Anyone ever use a 'photography' belt?

[smoke665]

In any event, everything has been ordered. Total was $65, so not a ridiculous price to give it a shot. If I hate it I'll find other uses for them. The lens pouches will always have a use even if it's only storage.

If you find it uncomfortable on it's own, you can always add suspenders. Come back after you try it out, would be interesting to hear about your experiences.

 

[DigiFilm]

If you find it uncomfortable on it's own, you can always add suspenders. Come back after you try it out, would be interesting to hear about your experiences.

Oh yeah, I'll let you know. I'll do a first impressions thing and then after a good use. I'm most concerned about the weight of the water bottle

Interesting side note on the belt: The blue strap is actually a sling of sorts, designed to cradle the camera. You set it large enough to allow the lens to pass through and suspend it by the body. This isn't to be trusted alone, but if you're using a strap (I use a shoulder strap) you can take the weight off and let the belt carry the weight. Might be useful when walking a longer distance, I usually keep my hand on the camera to stabilize it when at full gait.

 

[DigiFilm]

Unforeseen update:

Everything came and is as anticipated, except the large lens won't fit the lens case with the hood on it, even in the stored position. Not acceptable to me so the pouches will be relegated to storage duties for other lenses.

After a bit more research I ran across this very cool piece of gear by Lowepro. It's called an S&F Series Lens Exchange Case. The idea is that you can carry your spare lens and can swap it out one handed with a safe place to hold both lenses during the exchange. When opened, there's a separate slot for the lens coming off your camera. Since I only need two lenses on these shoots this is perfect, and is better than carrying two pouches. There's also a pocket on each side to store the front lens cap. They aren't cheap by lens bag standards, I think they run around $70 new. I found this one on eBay in excellent condition for $25, shipped. This reduces the number of pouches that will be on the belt.

 

[DigiFilm]

First impressions:

Lens case came today. First off, this is a quality piece of gear. I am using it with two fairly large diameter zooms and it works very well. There's just enough room in the bottom when fully expanded to fit both lenses with their hoods. If either of the lenses were larger diameter, the second one would need to be smaller.

I put the lens exchange case, little gear pouch, and water bottle holder on the belt. With a lens in the case and a full water bottle (24oz., insulated stainless steel) the setup weighs in at just under 6 lbs.

Had a couple of false starts in positioning the gear. With the water bottle on my right hip it wanted to pull my pants down, moving the water bottle to the front right (in front of the camera sling) resolved it. The lens pouch sets just forward of my left hip and is easy to access with my left hand. Holding the camera with my right hand and using the left to swap the lenses is fast and easy. The little gear pouch sets between the lens pouch and buckle.

With my regular camera strap still attached, the elastic camera sling is really nice to keep the camera snug against your body when walking so it doesn't bounce around. The strap has a quick-release buckle, it's really fast to release and bring the camera up with one hand. I could see using this belt on hikes for that feature alone, never mind the rest of the gear.

Nothing is in the way of anything, and everything is accessible. The camera can be in the sling or just on the shoulder strap, either way is fine. With the camera in the sling the belt doesn't try to fall down, at least not yet. However, most of the camera's weight is still on the strap, it's just a coincidence that I have my strap adjusted to exactly that length. Serendipity! Next test will be in actual use, not for another few weeks yet.

There are more belt loops and several Caribiner points around the rear, but I don't think I'd want to add anything more to the belt, and really not sure what I'd need to add anyway.

 

[DigiFilm]

I lied! I did think of something else I needed on the belt.

During the day I typically use CPs on both lenses but, if there's enough cloud cover or it gets later I take them off in favor of gaining a stop. I need a safe place to put them, and my current filter pouch is one of those that holds six and folds over itself. Never been a problem with the backpack, but was ungainly with this setup. I found this little pouch at B&H that holds two filters up to 77mm. It's small and will fit in one of the side pockets on the lens pouch. I also picked up a battery pouch that attaches to the belt rather than let them bang around in the accessory pouch.

There's an event tomorrow that I normally wouldn't bother to attend, but with two larger events just 1 and 2 weeks away respectively, I'm going to take this setup out to field test and get familiar.

 

[smoke665]

@DigiFilm with all that gear rattling around on your belt, you won't be sneaking up on anyone. LOL let us know how the field test goes.

 

[DigiFilm]

@DigiFilm with all that gear rattling around on your belt, you won't be sneaking up on anyone. LOL let us know how the field test goes.

 

[DigiFilm]

Had the opportunity to give it a try yesterday for about 3 hours.

Pros:
Was not de-pantsed.
It's not heavy at all, even with a full water bottle.

Cons:
Not as easy to get the lenses in the bag as expected. This may be due to the size of the lenses.
Water bottle moved around too much.

A little time and practice with the lenses should solve that problem. Yesterday wasn't a hot sweaty day, it was overcast and pretty comfortable. Now that the maiden voyage is out of the way, I'm interested to see how it does on a long hot day. I did have to hike it up once, but it was at the end of the 3 hours on my way back to the truck, so acceptable.

 

[Overread]

My issue with lots of weight on a belt is that to have it not "depants" you, it has to be tight. That is fine if you're standing upright all the time, but for photography where you might be crouching down a lot it hits the problem of being a real strain on you. Basically never being comfortable.

That's where suspenders on the belt or a backpack or vest come in; because they put the weight on your shoulders which means your belt region doesn't have to be super tight. Any belt there is just there for adding stability and security for your carry setup, rather than being the weight bearing part.

 

[DigiFilm]

No crouching, at least not much.

The key to the belt not falling is making sure your belly isn't wider than your hips!

Seriously, keeping it above your hip bones and snug does the trick. There will be no suspenders, guaranteed. I'll stop using it first.

 

[DigiFilm]

Final report: Works great, no complaints. I realized I don't actually have to wear it all the time, I take it off during breaks and a few times when I just need the camera and nothing else. The longest I had it on was about 4 hours.

Very handy, changing lenses is easy.