[WMBP]

Love the grip for the K10D. However, with the neck strap that came with the K10D attached, using the grip with the camera turned sideways (portrait orientation) is awkward. Either the strap hangs on the back of the camera where it gets in the way of my right eye (and sometimes slops over and gets between my left eye and the viewfinder) or I have to grab the strap with my right thumb, which makes using the grip controls more difficult, or I have to throw the strap around to the FRONT of the camera, which pulls the camera much more tightly to my face (because there's less play now in the strap) and also tends to get in the way of my left hand on the lens. Finally, even if I sometimes feel like I can get the neck strap out of the way comfortably, still, having to fuss with the strap makes it a little less easy for me to change the orientation of the camera quickly while shooting -- and that's something I often want to do, while shooting sports especially.

In short, I'm thinking about removing the neck strap completely. However, I have always felt that having the camera tied around my neck is a good security measure. I'm not abnormally clumsy or prone to dropping things, so perhaps this is a foolish thing to worry about.

I've looked at alternatives to the neck strap, like hand straps. These have been discussed here a couple of times. The hand strap looks like it would be great while I'm holding the camera in normal orientation -- but it looks WORSE than the neck strap if I turn the camera sideways to shoot, as all of the hand straps I've seen attach on the bottom to the tripod screw hole, and that pretty obviously means that I'd have to take my hand OUT of the hand strap to shoot with the camera turned sideways (and I'm worried that the strap might be even more in the way of the grip's buttons than the neck strap).

Am I the only one who has this problem? What do you do? Does anybody here use the K10D + grip without a strap?

Will

[unkbar]

I rarely use the neck strap around my neck. I prefer to wrap it around my wrist a few times until it's comfortable. That feel less constraining to me, and still gives me some safety should I drop it. It works equally well with or without the grip.

[AVANT]

I don't have a battery grip, but I too make loops with the neck strap around my arm. This shortens the strap to keep the camera from hitting the ground if the camera was to ever slip out of my hands. As a result, I am always holding my camera with atleast my right hand, even when walking around, but I find it much more accessible for times when I need to take pictures again.

[Peter Zack]

Here's what I've done to get rid of the strap issue and also be able to use both the strap or hand grip strap any time I want. The idea came from my old LX (damn I miss that viewfinder!!). That camera had 4 mounting lugs (3 for the strap mounts). So you could mount the strap on one side of the camera and have a grip mounted on the other side at the same time. Or you could mount the strap in the conventional way.

So I added a strong split ring to one side and mounted the strap to one side. Works perfectly and as you can see from the pictures it's detachable if you want to add a lens pouch or whatever to the strap. You'll notice this is not the typical red strap. I took the strap off my PZ-1p which had the small viewfinder/flash cover pockets. They fit an SD card nicely as well. That has come in really handy more than once when the primary SD card was left in the computer. The backup card is always there. It's possible to get these straps used in a few places if you wanna give it a try.

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Last edited by Peter Zack; 12-16-2007 at 08:46 AM.

[WMBP]

I rarely use the neck strap around my neck. I prefer to wrap it around my wrist a few times until it's comfortable. That feel less constraining to me, and still gives me some safety should I drop it. It works equally well with or without the grip.

I've tried that, but I can't make it work for me. As long as the neck strap is connected both to the left and right sides of the camera, it's got to slop around either on the back, or the front or the top of the camera -- so it gets in the way of the shutter button, or the viewfinder, or the lens tube, or something.

Will

[WMBP]

So I added a strong split ring to one side and mounted the strap to one side. Works perfectly and as you can see from the pictures it's detachable if you want to add a lens pouch or whatever to the strap.

We have a winner! This is brilliant, Peter. I don't have a caribeener handy, so for the moment I've simply used a silver circular key-chain thingy to go through the mounting lug on the left side of the K10D, and I've tied both ends of the Pentax neck strap to that silver key-ring. The first key-ring I tried was small enough to be squeezed into the lug, but not small enough to move very freely, so I changed to a slightly thinner ring. Took it into my bedroom just now where I have a big fluffy down coverlet on my bed, so I could test "dropping" it. Wanted to make sure that everything holds firmly. Seems to be fine, indeed, seems to be quite a solid arrangement.

I do like being able to remove the strap completely and will do that later. But you have solved my problem perfectly. Thanks a bunch -- especially for taking the time to provide the photos, which allowed me to see at a glance what a great idea this is.

You'll notice this is not the typical red strap. I took the strap off my PZ-1p which had the small viewfinder/flash cover pockets. They fit an SD card nicely as well. That has come in really handy more than once when the primary SD card was left in the computer. The backup card is always there. It's possible to get these straps used in a few places if you wanna give it a try.

Great strap -- have to look for one. Would be nice to have more places to store cards, as I typically now have three or four cards, minimum, with me at a shoot.

Thanks again.

Will

[mcleoud151]

I use the strap as a shoulder strap, generally keeping my right hand in firing position when I'm walking around the tracks or pits (of motocross races). I can bring the camera up with one hand to perfect shooting position, either in portrait or landscape position. It also puts a bit of tension on the camera which helps me keep steady when I'm using the big lenses.

[WMBP]

For the sake of clarity, let me repeat what I said in my original post: the problem I was encountering with the neck strap occurred ONLY (1) WHEN I SHOOT WITH THE BATTERY GRIP ATTACHED and (2) WHEN I TURN THE CAMERA SIDEWAYS. The neck strap worked fine when I was holding the camera in normal "landscape" orientation, because the strap is attached to the camera in a way that is designed for that orientation.

Anyway, now I have the strap attached to the left side of the camera only and everything is great.

Will

[George Lama]

Although I do the wrist wrap thing as well, I agree that sometimes the strap just loves getting in the way.

I think the idea of having the strap on one side of the camera or the other, easily removable as Peter Zack figured out, is brilliant! However, I would not use a metal ring.

My old Canon AE-1P came from the factory with triangular split "rings" made of metal as strap supports. Eventually they ended up gouging divets into the camera body. I can see the same thing would happen here.

I might look into getting into an alternative way of accomplishing the same thing Peter came up with, perhaps with leather or nylon.

[meremonkey]

Fantastic!! I've been meaning to try something like this.

[MRRiley]

This problem is exactly why Pentax needs to resurrect the lug system from the old LX bodies. Either that or add a strap lug to the battery grip. Great idea though Peter.

[Peter Zack]

Thanks guys hope it helped a few of you. I had the same thing and missed a few shots because of it. That's what you get when it rains hard on your day off and the camera is just sitting there wanting to be played with...

Yeah funny company Pentax can be but I guess they all are sometimes. The LX lugs were a great idea and the strap from the Z series was another. Both are gone and there's no logical reason why. Maybe someday they will send out a 'likes and dislikes' questioniare and take some of those old and new ideas for the next round of products.

As for scratches I've had this set up this way for a few months of very constant use with no marks on the body. I think the round ring is smoother than the triangular 'rings' of the past. I just trust the metal ring more. You could slide a piece of shrink tubing over the ring and heat it up to wrap it. That would cure that issue.

[George Lama]

You could slide a piece of shrink tubing over the ring and heat it up to wrap it. That would cure that issue.

Again, another simple, yet brilliant solution!

[dmdctusa]

Another option I have used is to take an old movie camera hand strap...the kind screws into the camera's (or grips) tripod mount...remove the hand strap then run the regular camera strap from the body's left mount to the ring in the hand strap. If you need to use a tripod just unscrew the hand strap screw.

If you want the best quick release for a strap go to Lutz Konermann's site:

www.leicagoodies.com

The Hook is the best quick release I have found. I use a strap rigged as shown on his home page both on my rangefinder and my K10D using the hand strap screw described above. The camera hangs upside down but this is no problem if you are a fast cross draw expert.

Regards,

[FLASH]

The fact that you are using both a SLR and a rangefinder interests me; Which rangefinder camera do you use, and why? And why use a rangefinder camera at all, given the capability of the SLR? I keep looking at a particular rangefinder camera, the LUMIX and wondering if it would make a good companion to the Pentax, but it's just wondering at this point.....

Thanks,

FLASH