TC - Tiny Car
New member
Starting a thread for all the little accessories and bits of gear that make working with cameras in the outdoors easier:
One of the things that has always bothered me about taking my camera out into the wild on hikes is that it's either packed away in my bag, our bouncing around semi-loose on a shoulder strap. It's even worse if our dog is with us and I have to pass the leash off to someone to get a good shot.
For the Wildflower trip I tried out a new piece of gear that conveniently mounts the camera to a backpack strap or belt.
Here's the amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09FZ3HLHH
This was a game changer. I was able to feel confident that the camera wasn't going to swing off my neck and into a rock, I didn't get that weird rhythmic bouncing feeling as I walked along, and the camera was always right there to hand. It can mount in four different directions, lens up or down, lens left or right. Down seemed to make the most sense and kept it feeling compact, but I found that about halfway through the hike, mounting it lens left changed up the weight and felt nicer on my shoulder/chest area for a while.
It did take a while of hiking with it and adjusting the mounting point up or down to find the best spot for it between my pecs and my shoulder blade.
The construction felt super solid, the mount has a raised bar that prevents it from ever sliding down, and a lock switch that keeps the release button from being pressed unintentionally. We climbed rocks and jumped across streams for 5 miles and I never felt like it was unsecure.
It does require an allen wrench to mount the plate to the camera, which also means you can crank it a little tighter than the standard camera 1/4-20 bolt that tightens with a screwdriver (or a coin).
The picture of me above has my Sony a6600 mirrorless camera that also has an aftermarket cage mounted on the body. The cage is for video use for mounting mics, lights and other mechanical bits. The backpack mount is not a part of that, and can work with any camera with a standard 1/4-20 tripod mount.
I would love to see other folks' setups. What gear are you using to make shooting photos in the wild easier?
One of the things that has always bothered me about taking my camera out into the wild on hikes is that it's either packed away in my bag, our bouncing around semi-loose on a shoulder strap. It's even worse if our dog is with us and I have to pass the leash off to someone to get a good shot.
For the Wildflower trip I tried out a new piece of gear that conveniently mounts the camera to a backpack strap or belt.
Here's the amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09FZ3HLHH
This was a game changer. I was able to feel confident that the camera wasn't going to swing off my neck and into a rock, I didn't get that weird rhythmic bouncing feeling as I walked along, and the camera was always right there to hand. It can mount in four different directions, lens up or down, lens left or right. Down seemed to make the most sense and kept it feeling compact, but I found that about halfway through the hike, mounting it lens left changed up the weight and felt nicer on my shoulder/chest area for a while.
It did take a while of hiking with it and adjusting the mounting point up or down to find the best spot for it between my pecs and my shoulder blade.
The construction felt super solid, the mount has a raised bar that prevents it from ever sliding down, and a lock switch that keeps the release button from being pressed unintentionally. We climbed rocks and jumped across streams for 5 miles and I never felt like it was unsecure.
It does require an allen wrench to mount the plate to the camera, which also means you can crank it a little tighter than the standard camera 1/4-20 bolt that tightens with a screwdriver (or a coin).
The picture of me above has my Sony a6600 mirrorless camera that also has an aftermarket cage mounted on the body. The cage is for video use for mounting mics, lights and other mechanical bits. The backpack mount is not a part of that, and can work with any camera with a standard 1/4-20 tripod mount.
I would love to see other folks' setups. What gear are you using to make shooting photos in the wild easier?
