Nikon vs Canon: The Strap

Camera straps are not exciting. We rarely give much thought to them, especially if they're adequate. Perhaps surprisingly, the experience with the standard Canon and Nikon straps are quite different: simply, the Canon strap is much better.

The Canon strap is wider (2 inches; the Nikon is 1-1/2 inches wide) and, more importantly, the grippy rubber texture covers the full length and width of the strap. On the Nikon, the grippy texture is only 7-3/4 by 1-3/16. It's amazing how much easier it is to carry the camera for a long time with the extra 1/2-inch of displacement provided by the Canon strap. More importantly--especially if you sling the camera over a shoulder rather than around your neck, as I do--the Nikon strap is inadequate because there's not enough grippy texture to hold it in place.

Third-party camera straps are an option. When I used Nikon film cameras I was a fan of the Op/Tech neoprene strap. I never bothered to put one of these straps on the Canon DSLR, and was satisfied with Canon's strap. Again back to Nikon, and I feel I need to use a better strap.