Review: Luma Labs Loop 3 Camera Sling Strap

Overview : We've combined our trademark shoulder leather pad and our quick adjust sliders from the Cinch with an all new offset camera mount. The result is the most stable carry a sling can provide.

Features :

• Trademark shoulder leather pad
• Quick adjust sliders from the Cinch
• All new offset camera mount
• Precision machined from 7075-T6 aluminum
• Quick adjustability
• 100% USA made

Review: Luma Labs Cinch 2 Camera Strap

Overview : Unlike stock camera straps, Cinch is quickly adjustable. Cinch it down and you can walk around the park, climb a ridge, ride a bike, whatever. Then, when the moment is right, you can easily loosen it to take the shot.

Luma Labs Cinch sliders are made out of a unique carbon-ceramic polymer called Lumidium. They feature a super smooth adjusting action that lets you quickly change the length of your strap, yet they hold tight and secure when under tension. With one slider on each side, you easily and quickly modify the length to suit your current need, whether that’s carrying your camera around your neck, off one shoulder, or across your body. Move seamlessly from one style of carry to the next without missing a beat.

Features :

• Made out of a unique carbon-ceramic polymer called Lumidium
• Constructed from neoprene and elastic webbing assembled with a unique center zig-zag stich
• The Cinch with Plate works with any Arca-compatable quick-release tripod clamp
• Cinch adjusts from a minimum of 34.5in (57.5cm) to 57.5in (146cm)
• Plate is made of the same carbon-ceramic Lumidium that the Cinch sliders are made of and its dovetail is sized to the unofficial standard for Acra-compatible plates. Its overall dimensions are 2.39in (6.07cm) by 1.54in (3.91cm) and it is 0.39in (1cm) thick.

Luma Labs is Back with a New Shoulder Sling Strap - Cinch

Back in November, we posted that Luma Labs posted an open letter on their website that they were halting all sales of their Loop and LoopIt straps due to a company having the rights to a "camera sling strap".

But Luma Labs wasn't down and out. They had been working on a new camera strap concept the past 6 months at the time and with the patent issue, this was perfect timing. Their newest strap to hit the market is the Cinch. Here is what is stated on their site:

The Big Idea

Every camera strap and sling on the market comes with tradeoffs. Regular neck straps are convenient and secure, but aren’t comfortable all day. Slings are comfortable and fast, but sacrifice stability which can result in your camera bouncing about. As we watched photographers use straps and slings—including our own—we wondered if we could reset the balance of stability and comfort by introducing flexibility and versatility into the equation.

We went to the drawing board with one goal: Make a camera strap that lets you easily change how you carry your camera on-the-fly. Make one that allows you to snug your camera against your back so that you can move actively without it bouncing about, then easily transition to letting it comfortably rest at your side, ready to slide up to your eye in an instant. A strap that you can hang around your neck for a couple of minutes while you change lenses and which can hug your camera to your chest while sitting down. And to do all that while using proven connections that are compatible with tripod quick release plates.

The result is Cinch. It’s like no other strap out there.

Comfort
Cinch features is a soft, stretchy and strong neoprene shoulder pad. Our unique CZZ (Center ZigZag) construction allows Cinch to conform to any curve and distribute weight. Other shoulder pads attain comfort by being curved around a specific portion of your body; Cinch’s pad is comfortable at any position and with no need to center it on your neck or shoulder. It’s rolled edges make it comfortable against your neck. It’s comfortable on bare skin. You’ve got to feel it to be believe it.

Stability

Cinch carries your camera in a different way than traditional straps or slings. It attaches to a top bracket—left or right, Cinch is ambidextrous—and the tripod socket. The result is that your camera in a “down and in” position that hugs your body and keeps your camera stable. It uses the same proven and reliable 10mm webbing connections you’re used to using from other straps and the low-profile CinchMount socket adapter (one is included with every Cinch) fastens securely and won’t twist loose. No fiddly carabiners or fussy connectors.

Have a tripod quick-release plate? Many have strap mount points that Cinch can connect to directly. If you have a plate that doesn’t have a strap mount point, such as Manfrotto plates, we’ll have you covered with a solution in a few weeks.

Flexibility and Versatility

The breakthrough in Cinch’s design is its friction-based pull-tab adjuster on the front. It’s so important we laser engrave our name on it. You can grab the tab and instantly tighten and loosen Cinch on-the-fly. Want your camera close while you walk through a crowd? Grab the tab and tighten it a bit. Need to be ready for a quick shot? Loosen Cinch and it's as quick as a sling. Going out for a hike? Pull the tab and rotate the camera to your back where it will stay glued to you while scrambling over rocks. Want to tighten Cinch down to provide stability for long shots? You can do that too, as we found out from watching our testers.

Easy Sizing and Fit

We know that photographers come in all shapes and sizes. So we make Cinch in three sizes. If you wear an adult M, L, or XL shirt, you should get our regular Cinch. If you’re on the petite side, you should get a Small Cinch. If you wear XL or larger shirts, then get a Big Cinch. But don’t stress out too much about your choice. Thanks to its flexible nature and the fact that we’ve given the sizes a considerable amount of overlap in adjustment, you’ll certainly make the right choice right off the bat.

Once you have it in hand, fitting Cinch is easy. Just put your Cinch over your shoulder, loosen the pull tab adjuster and the use the rear metal adjuster until your camera is positioned just right. If needed, you can also tighten or loosen the 10mm webbing that connects to your camera to adjust things to perfection. Once set up, the front pull tab adjuster gives you just the right amount of on-the-fly adjustments to keep up with any day of photography.

Quality

Cinch is like no other camera strap available today and we've never built any of our products like anyone else. 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. For the geeks out there, it’s 6061-T6 that’s been Type II anodized. CinchMount is black-oxide finished ordinance steel.

We don’t skimp on anything. It’s simply not in our nature. Even the smallest of details has been lovingly designed for maximum utility and enjoyment.

One more thing we should mention: Each and every Cinch is crafted in our hometown of Portland, Oregon USA.

If you're interested in more information or want to purchase the Cinch, visit Luma Labs website. Do note that although they are accepting orders, they won't ship until late January 2012.

Luma Labs — An open letter to our customers, past and future

Although I have not reviewed or tried Luma products, it's sad to see the fate of a product be killed off by a patent. It seems a competitor applied for a camera sling patent in 2007 and the United States Patent and Trademark Office has approved of it on November 1, 2011. Now that this competitor has the rights to this concept, they can go after companies that sell products that have the same concept. No one knows what the patent holder will do with this newly acquired patent. For all we know, they could be using it to product their time and investment.

Since Luma Labs is a small company, they have decided to immediately stop sales of their Loop and LoopIt to avoid any future legal issues. They just felt that the amount of money to defend themselves from any legal actions would be too costly to the business. However, that doesn't mean Luma Labs is closing shop. They mentioned that they have been working on a new camera strap concept for the past 6 months. It will be available in December and will be their primary product.

Own a Loop or LoopIt? Don't worry. Luma Labs will continue to support current customers with any problems they may have. I'm glad to see that Luma Labs isn't closing its doors. Their products looks great and I can't wait to see what new products they have up their sleeve.

Below is what they have posted on their site at Luma Labs:

You’ve no doubt heard about patent battles in the world of software. Companies such as Nokia, Apple, and Microsoft use their incredibly large patent portfolios against each other in a multitude of ways. Often defensively, sometimes offensively. While there are many patents for truly inventive things, there are also a great number that are for things that already exist. Patents are a good idea that have been appropriated over the decades as a corporate tool for establishing limits to competition, no matter if the ideas described by those patents are truly inventive. Furthermore, this kind of use of patents isn’t just limited to the world of computing.

We’ve been aware for quite some time that one of our competitors applied for a patent relating to camera slings in 2007. Their patent application contained dozens of claims that centered around two primary concepts. One of these concepts—that of using a sliding connection to connect a camera to a sling—applied to our product line. We did our research, consulted our lawyers, and found more than enough prior art related to this concept.

That prior art starts with the US 1885 Carbine Sling, which clearly features an attachment that slides along a leather strap and connects to the rifle with a hook. It goes onto Leica’s 1938 TROOV wrist strap which connects to a tripod-based connection with a hook assembly that would slide freely if not for the way that the strap was constructed. Many other makers—especially in the specialty Leica marketplace—developed these variants further, culminating in exact implementations of the concept. For example, thanks to the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, we know that leicagoodies.com was selling their version of this concept in 2005. One look at the photo on that page of a product made of a keyring, hook, and webbing tells the story.

In short, the idea of a sliding camera sling isn’t an amazing new invention. It’s just a really good idea that’s been around for a while and which has been iteratively developed. Neither we nor our lawyers believed that the USPTO would grant a patent for the claims related to this concept. It was a surprise, then, when our competitor was granted a patent covering the concept on November 1st, 2011. To say that we’re disappointed that the USPTO couldn’t find the prior art around the idea is an understatement.

Our disappointment doesn’t matter much in the scheme of things, however. Our competitor now has a legal tool and we’re pretty sure that they desire to use it. This is, as they say, a problem. We and our counsel are more than confident that we can defend ourselves, and will do so vigorously if necessary. On the other hand, we’re a very small company that sells our products in limited volumes and mounting such a defense would consume the majority of our resources. After all, it took three years to rescind a patent about a method of using a swing. In other words, we have a Hobson’s choice on our hands. We could very well lose everything even if we won.

Therefore, we’re acting unilaterally and conceding the market by immediately discontinuing the Loop and LoopIt. Full stop. We apologize for the sudden nature of this decision and our implementation of it, but we feel like our options on this matter are limited.

This isn’t the end of Luma Labs LLC, however.

We’ve been working on an interesting new camera strap concept for the last six months. It’s nearing completion and we were planning on introducing it soon as a companion to our existing product line. Now, it will be our primary product. We’re planning to bring it to market in December, the month we’ve traditionally introduced new products. Furthermore, we’ll continue to support our existing customers. Our accessories, including the PodMount, will become available for sale again soon as we take this opportunity to retool and reinvent ourselves. And, we will continue to implement all of our current service and support policies.

It’s a bet the company moment. It’s not without risks. Big risks. But looking at all the alternatives, we’ll take it.

—Duncan and Greg