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Peak Design Pro Pad, Capture: Another Way to Carry
11 January 2022
We've had a Peak Design Pro Pad and Capture around for a long time collecting dust on a credenza in the bunker. It's how we test whether a product corrodes in salt air.
It's also what we do when we don't really feel comfortable using the thing.
HOW TO & WHY NOT
The way you use these two products is to attach the Capture, which is a buckle with a quick release, to the Pro Pad, which is just a couple of stiff boards covered in fabric and hinged together. You slide the Capture up the narrower of the two board and tighten its two screws until it grabs on securely.
There's a belt hook on the back of the wider board but you can also just slip the wider board into your front pants pocket had have a sort of cowboy holster for your camera.
That intrigued us from the start but when we tried it out, we didn't like how our heavy dSLRs pulled our pants down. We didn't like it and the public didn't like it, even though low pants were the fashion around here at the time.
So on the shelf it went for corrosion testing.
NECESSITY STRIKES
The other day, though, we had put on our jacket and didn't want to slip out of it just to put a camera strap over our chest. We don't wear a strap over our jacket to avoid tempting a theft. Always under. And we didn't want to throw a holster on either (which at least hides the merchandise, also discouraging theft).
So we thought we'd give the Pro Pad a shot with our lighter Micro Four Thirds Camera.
Turns out, it didn't pull our pants down. Nope, we stepped out of the bunker, looked left, looked right and with our arms spread about six inches away from our sides, we Wyatt Earped our way up the hill looking for hombres to shoot.
When you find an hombre, you push in the black quick release button and lift the camera out of the Capture. When you're done, you just slide the quick release on the camera back into the Capture until it clicks.
NO HANDS
It's actually really nice if you have a light camera. No strap, no holster, no hands. No fooling around.
You can even leave the narrow board out of your pocket so it flips up out of the way when you want to get whatever's in your pocket. Lucky charms, say.
We didn't use the belt loop. We just slid the wide board behind our belt and into our jeans front pocket. Done.
OBSTRUCTIONISM
When we got home with a half dozen gorgeous shots, we thought we might have a small problem. The card door on the camera is on the bottom and the quick release naturally mounts via the tripod socket.
Would we have to take the quick release off to open the battery/card compartment door?
It turns out the Peak Design quick release has a slotted screw hole so you can shift the release to one side if you need to. And we needed to. When we did, it just barely cleared the compartment door so we can just leave it on. Which is a good thing because it takes a hex key (supplied, of course) to wrangle the thing on and off.
BYE NOW
Sadly the combination we have just been smitten with is not inexpensive. The Capture with quick release is $69.95 and the Pro Pad is $19.95. Enterprising souls could certainly concoct their own Pro Pad (and maybe call it the Amateur Attempt) with two boards and some duct tape. But the Capture itself is industrial gear.
And does not corrode in salt air.