Gear

Glide One Strap System, M-Plate Pro, and ProDot

Innovative Accessories for the Discerning Photographer

Custom SLR makes accessories for photographers, such as straps, camera mounts, and small stuff to make your life easier. The Glide One Strap System, M-Plate Pro, and ProDot are their most innovative products.

The Glide One is a sling that comes with a C-Loop camera mount. The Glide One is very comfortable and fits diagonally across your chest with the camera gliding along the strap, hanging from its tripod mounting thread on the C-Loop. The 3mm thick shoulder pad is a split design that's quite good at relieving shoulder pressure. The camera glides across very smoothly, but if you're planning on running without grabbing hold of your camera, the camera will bounce and rotate around its axis.

Custom SLR's most important invention is probably the C-Loop, their camera strap mount. There are two models: the C-Loop and C-Loop HD. Every C-Loop is made of aluminum and takes the tripod socket as its point of attachment. Hanging from that point, the camera is more natural to grab without the strap getting in your way.

Its design is clever. On the top of the C-Loop, there's a lifting handle that you turn to affix the C-Loop to the tripod mount. It tucks away once affixed. The C-Loop HD comes with an Allen key instead of the handle to affix or remove it. Both come with a thick rubber gasket for a secure, tight lockdown.

Different camera and tripods straps often require different quick release plates, and traditional QR plates stand in the way of a strap interface that connects to your camera's tripod thread. The plate that should fix this problem is the M-Plate Pro. Custom SLR designed it so you can mount the camera on a tripod without removing their C-Loop. It's a universal Arca-Swiss-compatible plate with a large number of predrilled 1/4″ threads to attach other devices, and it's designed to fit almost all tripod heads. Custom SLR's website has a list of compatible and incompatible heads.

The C-Loop attaches to an arm protruding from the plate. This can cause a problem with large lenses, such Sony's Zeiss Vario-Sonnar 24-70mm lens. The lens protrudes into the area where the C-Loop attachment sits, blocking the zoom ring. Attaching the fairly long plate as far to the left as possible doesn't solve this problem, so you should try this out before buying.

The ProDot is Custom SLR's newest product. It's a silicon rubber sticky dot the size of a camera shutter release button. The top of the dot is structured with tiny spikes. You stick the ProDot onto your camera's shutter release button, and then you're in for a surprise. If you're used to pressing hard on the shutter release, the ProDot will make you ease on the throttle, odd as it may seem, making shooting all day more comfortable and less tiresome in the process.

I also noticed the camera with the ProDot always fires. By itself, the shutter release of my Sony Alpha 700 occasionally seems to have second thoughts about a shot. The ProDot may look like a silly idea, but it avoids unwanted motion, vibration, and fatigue. The glue on the ProDot doesn't seem to leave behind any residues and ProDot can be reapplied a couple of times.

Company: Custom SLR, LLC
Price: Glide One: $69.95; M-Plate Pro: $74.95; ProDot: $9.95
Web: www.customslr.com
Rating: Glide One and ProDot: 5; M-Plate Pro: 3.5
Hot:  Glide One: Comfortable; smooth; strong; secure
          M-Plate Pro: One plate fits all; attach other accessories easily; quality
          ProDot: Less force to press shutter release; camera fires always; reusable
Not: M-Plate Pro C-loop arm sits in the way of large lenses

Share: