It being holiday present purchasing season and all, I figured, what better time to write about another piece of gear I love from my fave camera accessory manufacturer: Peak Design. No joke, I love literally all of their stuff. All of it. And I love that it all works together so seamlessly. It all starts with the Capture Clip and builds from there. But the latest piece of tech I tried out was the Peak Design Clutch. I’m not a big fan of camera straps, though as they go, you can’t beat the Slide Lite for convenience and cool factor, but I do occasionally need a little something to help secure my camera to my person when I’m leaning over a cliff for “that shot” or jumping over water to get to a dock. Just ask my summer employers. They’ll tell you this would have been a wise investment before I dropped their camera in the lake. Live and learn. In any case, here’s what we think of the Peak Design Clutch.
First of all, it looks super awesome. For real. Just look at it!
See? Super awesome. Second, it fits all manner of hand sizes and DSLR’s. And since it uses PD’s Anchor Link Quick Connect system on one side, you don’t even have to remove the quick release plate when you attach the Clutch. You can swap right from a strap to the clutch to nothing at all. Cause it quickly connects. Get it? In fact, that might be my favorite thing about PD: All their products work together, often interchangeably. Which is awesome because as much as I loved my designed-for-women Black Rapid strap, if I wanted to use my PD Capture Clip or a tripod or anything else that screwed into the bottom of my camera, no dice. It was one or the other. Peak Design created a screw-in plate that works with ARCA-type tripods and has strategically-placed holes in it for their Anchor Links so I can oh so easily switch from using a tripod to my Capture Clip to my SlideLite strap to my Peak Design Clutch or to nothing at all. Brilliant. It’s like they planned it or something.
But I often prefer the Clutch as opposed to a strap because I don’t always want a camera hanging across my body. But even if I’m hand-carrying or lugging my camera around in a bag, I really can’t be trusted not to drop expensive equipment. Ask anybody. The Peak Design Clutch is the perfect solution. Attached to my Canon 6D, it takes up very little space if I’m carrying it in a camera bag and doesn’t look ridiculous dangling two feet below my camera like a strap would if I have it on my Capture Clip attached to a belt or backpack. Best of both worlds.
On the bottom, Clutch hooks up to the included quick-release plate via PD’s Anchor attachment. Two of these little guys are included. And if you’re worried they look too thin and frail to hold your DSLR and largest lenses and accessories, fear not: the tiny cords are designed to indicate when they need to be replaced by turning yellow, then red as they wear out. Up top, it loops through the D-rings built into the DSLR and connects quickly and easily with a self-locking carabiner-type clip. It’s actually the world’s first camera hand strap that is quick-connecting and quick-adjusting. It’s both secure and easily removable if you want to swap it for another accessory. Then all that’s left is to easily tighten or loosen that stylish adjuster for the perfect fit for any size hand. Including mine. Which is quite small. And it’s comfortable. Yay!
My only disappointment is that it doesn’t work on my little mirrorless Fuji X-T20. I’ve been using that more and more as we travel, but the camera is just too small and the Clutch isn’t designed for something of that specific design (something small and rectangular with the shutter release on top and no D-rings). Fortunately, they have other products like their Leash that fill that void. That’s the problem with having such a diverse gear arsenal, I guess: It requires lots of different accessories. But it’s good to know that even if I do have to dedicate more space to that sort of thing in my camera bag, everything works together seamlessly, designed in a singularly intuitive way that I’ve only seen Peak Design master.
Wander on!
*Affiliate links are included in this post.
Alisha is a freelance outdoor journalist and photographer based in Ogden, UT. She loves backpacking, hiking, mountain biking, kayaking and snowboarding (even though she’s terrible at it). She’s also pretty sure she’s addicted to coffee. alishamcdarris.com