There are basic camera straps and secure camera-carrying systems. The Lemur Strap is in the second group. It is designed to keep a camera in place effectively when needed, while also allowing for quick release with just a flick of your fingers. This strap aims to be smart without being overly technical, functional without feeling like a machine, and comfortable without appearing bulky. It’s one of the most innovative new straps I’ve seen in a long time that is trying to be different from every other strap available for photographers today
The Big Picture: Lemur Strap Review Conclusions
The Lemur Strap is ideal for photographers who are on the go and want their trusted and expensive camera gear to be secure at all times. It works well for street shooters, travel photographers, and event photographers as well. The system helps keep the camera steady while walking or even hiking, and allows for quick access to comfortably clicking when the moment arises. It’s great for users of heavier mirrorless cameras, offering better weight distribution without compromising quick shooting.
- Extremely grippy silicone shoulder pad keeps the camera fixed in place while walking
- Clever shoulder buckle allows instant switch between locked and free-sliding modes
- Quick-release base plate lets you move the camera to a tripod easily
- Built-in wrench storage inside the base plate is smart and convenient
- Flat, wide base plate feels integrated with the camera and comes in two colors
- Base plate requires a tool for tightening instead of a simple D-ring for quicker mounting
- Lugs do not rotate, so fixing strap twists requires taking the strap off your neck
A question that’s on your mind for sure now – why the name Lemur Strap? Do lemurs really have paws that grip like this silicone shoulder pad? They absolutely do. Lemurs are known for their strong, textured paws that help them stay stable in their natural arboreal habitats. Remember King Julien from the Madagascar series of animated movies? As he sings “I like to move it move it,” he knows he can steadily hang from branches with that perpetually infectious grin on his face. The Lemur Strap builds on that concept. Grip. Stability. Confidence. A bit of attitude.
Build Quality and Ergonomics
The most distinctive part of the Lemur Strap is the silicone shoulder pad. It is a thick and incredibly grippy rubber rectangle, with lemur paw motifs on the shoulder side. When it sits on your shoulder, it locks in place – absolutely no slipping or sliding. Those tiny paws really help with this. It clings to your shirt or jacket with a level of grip that feels very secure. Plus, it is genuinely comfortable. It doesn’t have hard edges poking into your shoulder. I experienced no chafing after carrying a heavy load for approximately 2 hours while walking with my Nikon Z8 attached to the heavy Viltrox 35mm f/1.2 lens. Threaded through the upper side of the pad is the strap itself. This appears to be the same type of material used in seatbelts inside cars. It’s thin and smooth, yet strong, measuring approximately 1 3/8 inches wide. When you touch it, there’s a sense of familiarity. Adjusting the length is easy, and even at full extension, the Lemur Strap feels very secure. Some design touches seem thoughtful, like the leather end pieces. They add a premium feel, but the tan color looks slightly out of place against the more industrial look of the strap. A few different color options would have been a better choice.
You get a large, flat, and wide base plate that feels like part of the camera rather than an attachment. The one we tested had a bronze finish, which looks great. There is also a black version for those who prefer a subtle look. The base plate does not screw directly to your camera. Instead, you attach the smaller Arca-Swiss plate to the camera, and it clicks securely into the main base plate, which is connected to the strap. There is a quick-release pin on the base plate that allows you to detach the camera instantly, keeping the small plate attached. You can then mount the camera on an Arca-Swiss compatible tripod.
This smaller plate is tightened using the included T25 wrench, which can be cleverly tucked away inside the base plate itself. It remains hidden inside the rubber base of the plate. This is one of my favorite details of the entire system.
Experience
The first time I used the Lemur Strap, I thought something was amiss. As I lifted the camera up to my face to take a photo, the silicone pad stuck so firmly that the strap simply fell off my shoulder. It felt like wearing a regular strap that decided to freeze at the top. I tried again, and something still didn’t feel right. If you’re someone who’s familiar with using a BlackRapid kind of strap, you’d have felt the same way too.
Then I realised what the problem was. A small, sleek buckle on the shoulder pad was designed to fix this exact issue. Flip it, and suddenly the strap slides freely through the pad. The camera glides up to the shooting position smoothly. It feels almost like a magic trick you accidentally performed. One moment the strap is fixed. The next moment, it behaves like a charm. Flip the buckle the opposite direction, and the shoulder pad locks again. Now the camera stays in place as you walk or hike without sliding around. It is a simple mechanism but unexpectedly transformative. It gives you control over how your camera behaves, depending on your level of activity.
Moving the camera quickly from the strap to a tripod is also something that the team at Lemur Strap considered while designing this product. Press the quick-release pin, lift your camera, lock it onto your tripod head, and move on. The tiny included wrench tucked inside the base plate makes tightening the camera plate easy, but I do wish the small plate had an O-ring or D-ring so it could be tightened without tools. The wrench solution is neat, but the ring would be faster.
If I had to highlight concerns, there are two key points. First, the main strap connects to the base plate with two small triangular metal lugs. These appear to be the same type of lugs used with most camera eyelets, but to my eye, the ones on the Lemur strap look thinner, which makes me concerned about their long-term durability. Second, these lugs do not rotate. If you grab the strap out of your camera bag and wear it on your shoulder, only to find it’s twisted, you can’t fix it by rotating the camera. The cumbersome fix would be to remove the entire strap and straighten it manually. A simple swivel design to the baseplate lugs could solve the issue.
Who Is It For
The Lemur Strap is ideal for photographers who frequently move around. Anyone who needs their camera strap to stay firmly on their shoulders while walking, but also wants instant access when the moment appears, can give this strap a go. It’s ideal for those who carry heavier mirrorless or DSLR bodies and want better weight distribution without sacrificing quick shooting ability. It is less suited to minimalists who dislike large base plates or those who prefer slimmer neck straps. I’m not entirely sure this is the right strap for smaller mirrorless and compact cameras. Yeah, you could stick one of those on the end of this, but it would look quite odd to see them on a wide strap like this. Maybe Lemur Strap could make a slimmer version of their strap for smaller cameras.
If you value comfort and don’t mind a slightly more involved setup than a traditional strap would offer, the Lemur Strap delivers. It stands out in an era saturated with camera strap models by offering something genuinely clever. It may have one or two minor quirks, but overall, it feels like a system built with genuine thought and a surprising amount of personality. King Julien would probably approve.
Declaration of Journalistic Intent
The Phoblographer is one of the last standing dedicated photography publications that speaks to both art and tech in our articles. We put declarations up front in our reviews to adhere to journalistic standards that several publications abide by. These help you understand a lot more about what we do:
- At the time of publishing this review, Lemur Strap isn’t running direct-sold advertising with the Phoblographer. This doesn’t affect our reviews anyway, and it never has in our 15 years of publishing our articles. This article is in no way sponsored.
- None of the reviews on the Phoblographer are sponsored. That’s against FTC laws, and we adhere to them just the same way that newspapers, magazines, and corporate publications do.
- Lemur Strap supplied a unit to the Phoblographer for review. There was no money exchange between us or their 3rd party partners and the Phoblographer for this to happen. Manufacturers trust the Phoblographer’s reviews, as they are incredibly blunt.
- Lemur Strap knows that it cannot influence the site’s reviews. If we don’t like something or if we have issues with it, we’ll let our readers know.
- The Phoblographer’s standards for reviewing products have become much stricter. After having the world’s largest database of real-world lens reviews, we choose not to review anything we don’t find innovative or unique, and in many cases, products that lack weather resistance. Unless something is very unique, we probably won’t touch it.
- In recent years, brands have withheld NDA information from us or stopped working with us because they feel they cannot control our coverage. These days, many brands will not give products to the press unless they get favorable coverage. In other situations, we’ve stopped working with several brands for ethical issues. Either way, we report as honestly and rawly as humanity allows.
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