DIY Spider Holster alternative for the Canon XA-10 camcorder

Found this at Home Depot the other day and thought it might work for my small video camera, the Canon XA-10. It's similar to the Spider Holster system that I use for my still cameras, except that it uses ball bungies instead of a screw-in plate.

The short ball bungie fits around the handle of the XA-10 and can be tightened by pushing down on a plastic collar.

The holster clips onto your belt.  The backing is rubberized so it won't easily slip off your belt.

Drop the ball end of the cord into the holster and you're good to go. Unlike the Spider Holster system,  there is no locking mechanism (what do you expect for less than $10?).  As long as you aren't jumping up and down or anything, you should be fine.

Makes it easy for you to quickly get your hands free when you need to. I've been using this on both my Canon XA10 and XF100 camcorders for this wedding season and it's been working out great. 

Retrofitting the Think Tank Retrospective 30

Since I am both a photographer and a videographer, I use different camera bag setups depending on the occasion and the gear that I need to bring. 

The Think Tank Retrospective 30 which I've reviewed before on this blog, is one of my favorite camera bags. While I mainly use this bag for photography, I recently came across a way to make it more suitable to carry a loadout for a small video camera, particularly a Canon XA10.

By itself, the The Retrospective 30 is a very soft and malleable bag.  Even the dividers that come with it are thin and flexible. While that works for carrying camera lenses, the XA10 with its attached handle and shotgun microphone needs a little more padding and protection.

Like many photographers, I have several camera bags and cases that I've collected over the years. One of the advantages of this (or disadvantages, if you ask my wife), is that they come with lots of extra dividers that wind up sitting in your closet. 

Among my other camera cases is a Think Tank Airport Security 2.0 roller bag. When I bought this case, it came with an extra set of semi-rigid dividers.

I came across them this evening when my wife ordered me to clean up the mess while reorganizing the workroom, and it dawned on me that I might be able to use these semi rigid dividers to retrofit the Retrospective 30 into a video camera bag.

First I took out all the soft dividers from the bag. I attached a few of them to the bottom of the bag to make a more padded base.

I then took several long and short semi-rigid dividers from the roller bag and lined the interiors of the Retrospective 30 with them.  I doubled up on some of them to make the space more form-fitting to the XA10.

This added just a bit of sturdiness to the sides of the bag and made a space that perfectly fit the XA10 with the handle, shotgun microphone, and wide angle lens attached.

Wireless microphones and other accessories fit easily in the outer pockets.

I was also able to do the same with another bag I hadn't used in a while - the Think Tank Urban Disguise 50.  The Urban Disguise series is nice because the main compartment can be completely zipped up in a dusty environment.

It's a little more padded than the Retrospective 30 so I chose to just use 2 shorter dividers on both ends of the bag to reinforce the interior.

While these bags won't offer the same amount of protection as say, a Pelican 1510 case, they are much lighter and make for pretty nice and inconspicuous video camera bags.

DIY Black Rapid camera sling

In my search for a better camera strap, I came across this system - the Black Rapid RS-7.

While it looked promising, I also found a lot of people who were making DIY versions of this. I decided to try making one myself. 

After digging around my closet for a couple of minutes I found the materials needed to do it. All I needed were two things:

a 3-point military sling from my airsoft MP5 submachine gun

and a Bogen 3157N Quick Release Plate









 


Assembly was simple:

 attach the quick release plate to the bottom of my camera

connect the D-ring on the bottom of the plate to the sliding clip on the sling.  That's pretty much it.

I've used this on a recent wedding shoot and it seems to perform pretty well.
There are a few minor issues with this DIY version - there's no adjustable brake, it's a little difficult to adjust the size of the loop, the clip does not lock like the Black Rapid mini carabiner, and I'm not sure how strong the D-ring on the Bogen plate actually is.  I'm pretty sure Bogen never intended for their camera plate to be used in this manner:



While my DIY strap not as fancy as this Black Rapid is, it does do about 90% of what the actual product does. I figure it will hold me over until I can check out the actual Black Rapid product in person the next time I hit the camera stores in Tokyo.