For most of the past two years, I have been using the great, but no longer produced, Luma Loop as my camera strap. The Loop was a wonderful product, but BlackRapid was granted a patent for camera sling…despite the fact that camera slings have been around longer than BlackRapid (gotta love patent law). With Luma Labs being a small company, they decided to cease production of the Loop, and design a completely new camera strap. They came up with the Luma Cinch.
The Luma Cinch was on my Christmas list, as I had never gotten around to ordering one when they were released in the spring of 2012. Over the summer, I actually went back to the Canon Pro Neck Strap because I was using my battery grip more often, and the added weight made my camera feel too heavy and awkward to use with the Luma Loop. So when I got my Cinch for Christmas, I was extremely happy, and excited to try it out.
As happy as I was when I received my Luma Loop, I think I am even happier to now own a Luma Cinch. My main issue with with the Luma Loop, and really all camera sling straps, is that the camera is attached at a single point. Because of this, the camera tends to shift and bounce around as you move, instead of feeling securely hugged to your side. This is why I think the Luma Loop (and sling straps in general) work better with a smaller cameras…like the mirrorless Sony NEXs, Canon EOS-M, Micro Four Thirds cameras, or even a larger point & shoot like the Canon PowerShot G1X or Nikon Coolpix P7700 . There is less bulk with those cameras, so they hang at your side better than a somewhat awkward DSLR, and if they do shift around, it’s a whole lot less weight bouncing off your hip. That is just my opinion though, take it for what it’s worth. Anyways, back to the Luma Cinch…
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Overview
There were three things that drew me to the Luma Cinch…
- Quick Adjust: The Cinch’s quick-adjust allows you to keep your camera cinched tight to your side/hip when walking around, then loosen the strap and bring your camera to your eye at a moment’s notice to capture the shot.
- Multiple Attachment Points: The Cinch attaches to a camera at two points, making the camera more stable when hanging at your side, and thus negating my issue with camera slings.
- Design & Quality: A unique, well thought-out design, manufactured with high quality materials.
As with the Loop, Luma’s Cinch looks even better in person that it does in pictures. As I received the Cinch as a Christmas gift, I didn’t have quite the same experience unpacking it as I did my Loop, but I was again struck by the quality of the product.
The materials on the Cinch really are second to none. A soft, stretchy neoprene shoulder pad feels great on your shoulder. Where the shoulder pad and nylon strap come together is finished with a soft full-grain leather. All metal hardware is CNC machined and anodized aerospace-grade aluminum. The nylon strap didn’t jump out at me, but apparently, its the same specification that NASA uses…so that can’t be a bad thing.
According to Luma Lab’s website…
Cinch’s shoulder pad is reenforced with mil-spec mechanical stretch webbing and easily holds over 250lbs. Edges are all finished with die-cut, full grain American leather. The polymer camera connectors and webbing are all the same kind that NASA specifies and flies. Our metal hardware is all CNC machined aerospace grade aluminum.
In other words, the Cinch is built to last, be comfortable to use, and Luma manufactures the Cinch in Portland, Oregon…so it is nice to support a small business making products in America.
Review
When attaching the Luma Cinch, I chose the left bracket (when looking at the back of the camera), and tripod attachment socket via an included CinchMount socket adapter. This allows the grip side of the camera to be free and clear of the strap at all times. But there is no reason you couldn’t attach in other configurations…right bracket and tripod socket, or both left and right brackets for a more traditional attachment. My only complaints here would be the lack of quick-release mechanisms, but I will get to that later.
The signature element of the Luma Cinch’s design is the quick-adjust mechanism, and it is fantastic. This allows the your camera to be cinched securely to your side when not in use, then the strap can be quickly loosened to bring the camera up to your eye to capture a shot. This gives you the best of a traditional camera strap worn over the shoulder and across the body, and a sling strap. This little trick is done via a friction-based pull-tab adjuster, that allows the wearer to quickly tighten or loosen the Cinch with a quick pull up (loosen) or down (tighten). The adjustment action is smooth, fast, and easy, whether you’re tightening or loosening, and can easily be done with one hand, while the other hand grabs the camera. The leather pull-tab looks and feels great with the Luma and Cinch logos etched into it. The aluminum hardware that holds the strap tight are beautifully machined, look great with their anodized finish, and are incredibly lightweight.
Luma ditches the leather-backed neoprene shoulder pad of the Loop, for a neoprene pad with stretch webbing. This seems to absorb and distribute the weight of the camera a little better, and definitely works with the quick-adjust concept of the Cinch better. When cinched down, the camera hugs your side, and the shoulder pad sits perfectly on your shoulder. Loosen the Cinch, and bring the camera up to your eye to capture a shot, the whole strap moves with the camera. The neoprene pad definitely works better, a stiffer, leather-backed neoprene pad would just seem bulky and awkward here.
Honestly, I didn’t really notice anything special about the nylon strap, but it certainly feels solid, and gave me no cause for alarm. After reading that it uses the same spec that NASA uses, it’s good enough for me.
When using the Cinch, it is everything that Luma claims, and it works fantastically…with only a few caveats.
My camera hangs snug and secure against my side, and within easy reach, when the Cinch is cinched down. No more issues with the camera bouncing off my hip or side, and leaving small bruises as I walk around. The camera just stays put.
The shoulder pad does a fantastic job of distributing the weight of the camera, and feels very comfortable. During a photography workshop last weekend, I spent over three-hours trekking through a snowy forest preserve, and at no time did my shoulder get sore. I couldn’t always say that about the Luma Loop (thought I usually could).. The action of the quick-adjust mechanism just works. Even with gloves on my hand, I could tighten and loosen the strap without any issue.
The Luma Cinch does almost everything perfectly, but there are a few things that aren’t quite perfect for me.
The lack of a quick-release mechanism can get a little annoying, especially if you are using the tripod socket with CinchMount socket adapter to attach the strap. In my case, if I decide I want to use my tripod, I need to mount my Manfrotto 200PL-14 QR Plate. This means I need to undo the attachment strap from the CinchMount and unscrew it, then mount the tripod’s quick release plate, attach the strap to the plate, and you are ready to go. Of course, that isn’t a quick process…taking probably 10-mins to complete. If I’m planning ahead, not a huge deal…just mount the strap to the plate before hand.
If I want to use my battery grip, things get a little trickier. I could just unscrew the CinchMount from the tripod socket, attach the battery grip, then screw the CinchMount into the tripod socket on the battery grip. However, after screwing the CinchMount back in, it never seems to line up correctly, which leaves the Cinch twisted along your back. Not the end of the world, but it can get annoying.
Luma’s Membrane Connector should somewhat solve these issues, as it allows the Cinch to be attached to the Membrane Connector, which is then sandwiched between the camera and the tripod plate or the battery grip. In this scenario, either the tripod plate, or the battery grip would need to be attached at all times. Not the end of the world, but definitely not how I usually shoot.
Looking at the Cinch through the eyes of a designer, I think a quick-release mechanism of some sort would work well here. If the female end of a quick-release mechanism was on the strap, you could have a couple male ends pre-attached…one on your CinchMount, one on your tripod mount plate, or other possibly accssories. This would seem to make using those accessories much easier with the Cinch. In fact, I may pick-up a quick-release adapter kit in order to test this out. Or I could just the the Membrane Connector and see how that goes first.
The other issue with the Cinch could be using it with larger lenses. Note that I did not test this, but I could see it being an issue. The Cinch is fine with a 50mm or a 24-70mm lens. But a 70-200mm (or larger) lens could be a problem. In that scenario, you would probably have to mount one end of the strap on the camera, the other end on the lens’ tripod collar mount. That should work fine…until you had to swap out a lens.
Conclusion
The Luma Cinch is an excellent camera strap. It gives the benefits of both a traditional camera strap, and a sling strap, in one package. The high quality materials mean the Cinch should last a long, long time, and help to make the Cinch a very comfortable camera strap to wear.