Review - Sun-Sniper Pro Steel Bear camera strap

[Zman]

Back in February 2011, Sun Sniper contacted me and asked me to do an unbiased and objective review of one of their newer straps. Seems like they saw my other review of their older straps. They shipped me the Sun Sniper Pro Steel Bear strap, and I used it for a while. So here is the review. Note that because the straps are pretty similar, many parts of the review (including the text and some images) will be borrowed from the older review.

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Introduction - Problems with conventional straps
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Before I get started on the review proper, I'd like to point you to this link (here) to understand why we might have problems with conventional two-point straps that attach to our cameras' two dedicated strap lugs. Once you've read that and seen the pictures, come back to this review!



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Concept of the Sun Sniper strap
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Putting it together and on

1. You fasten the strap to your camera's tripod thread or lens collar tripod thread with the threaded mount.
2. The strap goes onto your shoulder diagonally, with the brand logo pointed forward
3. You let go of your camera and let it slide to rest at your waist

This is how it looks like when the strap is attached to the camera, and when the strap is attached to a tripod collar of a long lens.

As the camera is upside down, you grab the camera with your hand pointed downwards, and you swing up the camera to your eye. When you're done, simply bring the camera back down to your waist and let go.



© 2011 Ryang Ho Sung
Please ignore hideous school uniform with tie.

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Sun-Sniper Pro Steel Bear
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When you buy the Sun-Sniper strap, you get the strap and the box. The two discs were given to me as part of the review, but you do not get them normally from local distributors.

The long name of the strap just describes everything. "Pro" means for dslrs, with bigger lenses etc. "Steel" means that there is a steel cable running through it for anti-theft reasons. "Bear" refers to their new attachment system that I will talk about more later.

The shoulder strap has four crucial parts: The shoulder pad, the adjustable strap, the suspension system, the attachment.

So here is the strap, unfolded. It is to my belief that the strap does accommodate people of all sizes and heights, and err, chest sizes, if you know what I mean. Yes, these straps do work for women as well.



Here is the steel cable running through the entire strap. Pretty nifty. It gives you the confidence that your gear will not be easily snatched by slash-thieves very common in places such as crowded streets of third world nations and dingy alleys.



Here is the shoulder strap. It is curved to allow for a more comfortable fit, so it molds around your shoulders :






One thing to note is that while you see in the above picture shows the strap to retain an upside down "V" shape, over time the strap does ease into a more flexible form like a "U" - not quite as rigid as a "V", but still able to show a distinction between the top and bottom (or front/back) of the shoulder pad.


The cushion padding is great. Thick, foamy, and gives great breathability.





To hide away the extra straps, Sun Sniper shoulder pads have a removable-via-velcro padding that allows you to open up the pad and fold in the extra length of straps. Very nifty idea. Not something you see the competitors have.

This also allows you to order extra pads just in case you dirty up or develop a cut in the shoulder pad due to misuse.




The attachment is a new thing to me. What Sun Sniper said they did was do away with the quick release system that some found to be quite concerning to use. So because of this, the strap is a "slow release" strap, one that takes time to take on and off.

They attachment is very easy to use, with the entire system being just one unit with the easily rotated strap lug. The bottom of the unit is threaded for 1/4" camera tripod thread holes, and what you do is put the unit and camera thread hole together, and you twist the upper part of the unit until everything is tight as can be.




And then the magic happens. What's different about this is that there is absolutely no dampening or friction at all. There are ball-bearings inside the unit that allow you to rotate the camera connected to the unit very easily. This is important because when you walk with their other straps without the "bear" title, or other competitor's straps, you often hear the clinging of hooks on the metal, and you often get this sort of "twisting" at your waist. Not with this strap - there is absolutely no sound from the strap system as I walk, even on uneven ground.


And then of course we come to the last part that every Sun Sniper strap has: the suspension system. It takes the brunt of the weight away from your body, and is damped just enough so that when you run or walk on uneven ground, the camera unit does not bounce up and down making your shoulders hurt.






Overall, I'm quite impressed by this strap. I personally stopped using shoulder strap and turned to hand straps alone since I started using only a single camera, but if I were to buy a shoulder strap for use with heavier lenses and camera units (think pro camera with 70-200 lens), I'd get this one. It's important to feel comfortable while shooting, because if you're not comfortable, you will get tired quick, and your pictures will suffer.

Pros:
Curved padding design
Thick and compressible padding
Shock absorber suspension system
Great safe connection system
Great "excess strap packing" concept

Cons:
Bulky - not very easy to stow in small shoulder bag
Still no stopper system
Padding design makes an upside down "V" at your shoulder. Alright for thin shoulders, mildly uncomfortable for those with thick ones (after asking for many people's perspectives).
Does not look good with ties!!!