I bought this support system recently and used it a little for the first time today. A quick look at their website:
http://www.cottoncarrier.com/will enlighten anyone who isn't aware how it works better than I can describe it. But I can share my own initial impressions - and I'm not selling it.
It's well made and comfortable in itself, although without adjusting the velcro rear fittings for the shoulder straps (which would effectively shorten the velcro contact patches; not a great idea I would have thought) they wouldn't shorten sufficiently for me - I'm smallish, about 5'9" with about a 38" chest measurement. This leads to a problem which I'll describe. I didn't try the "shoulder holster" for a second body at this stage as I was just out for a casual stroll in the woods and didn't want to carry to much. The bulk of my gear - typically 3 Nikon 2.8 zoom lenses, minus the one fitted to my D700 - goes in a venerable Lowepro Mini-Trekker.
As I best recall the CC demo video shows the inventor using a Canon pro body (inc grip) fitted with a 70-200 lens, minus hood, which is about about the same size as my own 70-200 2.8 VR1. I initially fitted this to my D700 - without the MBD10 - for my walk, even though it's not a lens I use that much in this context. I invariably fit the lenshood, not least for protection, particularly when not using a filter. Initially I set the CC quick release device (button?) on the camera body rather than the lens foot. This didn't work at all as the length of the rig, mounted on the chest plate, resulted in the lens hood continually bouncing in a location where bouncing objects are, er, objectionable. The amount of leverage caused by the overall weight, with the locating point at one extremity makes this inevitable. It might have been better with the shoulder straps shorter, because as it was the weight levered the top edge of the chest plate out by about an inch, angling the rig inward.
I then tried the mount on the foot, starting with it on the rear thread. More or less the same result, although the contact point with the lenshood moved up to a marginally less irritating location. Attaching it to the far thread created a different problem in that it cured the lenshood from bashing against me whilst walking as the pivot point was now more central,
almost , however the weight of the body now unbalanced the camera causing it to rotate about the fitting. I was also using a strap, so I wasn't too worried about the camera escaping (it needs to be lifted up to detach it from the chest plate anyway) but without this it would have ended up lens-upward. Not a good idea. The problem, as I see it is mostly that the mounting system is able to rotate freely. Clearly it has to in order to fit and release the camera, however whilst mounted on the chest plate it can rotate very freely indeed - and with this lens at least the feeling of it swivelling about is very very disconcerting and a constant distraction.
With a smaller lens (I tried my 14-24 and 24-70, neither of which is exactly lightweight) there's much less of a problem. Of necessity I used the mount on the camera body but didn't try the battery grip which I normally only use with bigger, longer lenses anyway. Given that it would effectively move the COG even further out from the chest plate it might make the whole "tilting inward" problem I initially described even worse.
That said the CC is definitely better than having the whole lot hanging off a regular strap (I've been using the same OpTechs for 10 years). Ideally there shoud be (IMVHO) a locking lever or catch which keeps the camera motionless whilst in the vertical, lens-down position and prevents rotation until such time as you release it to remove the camera. Of course this would get in the way of the Quick Draw and Rapid-Fire mode shown in the inventor's video. I'd trade this for stability any day as I quite like using the viewfinder...
The other thing that occurred to me is that if you omitted the lenshood and a protective filter, this rotation of the whole rig would be very likely to bring the front element into contact with, for example, zips on a fleece or jacket. I noticed this immediately. On reflection I'm glad I'm in the paranoid habit of keeping the lens cap on the 14-24 most of the time...
Anyway, on this brief and incomplete test I'd say the CC scores about 7/10. I use a Sigma 150-500 for casual wildlife photography quite a bit. It will be interesting to see if the Cotton Carrier is much of a benefit for this unwieldy beast (plus MB D10 of course...). I'm not optimistic. However with smaller lenses it's definitely a comfortable way to carry at least one camera. I just wish they wouldn't keep swinging about. And I wouldn't feel entirely happy omitting a strap round my neck either - but maybe that's just a confidence thing.
This is a well made and (reservations excepted) useful product. I hope my comments may be useful to anyone thinking of buying the system but the manufacturer's website/video is the primary source for evaluating it.
Roy
