Peak Design Slide Camera Strap Review
Check out this Peak Design Slide Review to see why it's one of the most popular cameras straps of the year. In depth, real world and brutally honest!
The combination between a camera and a strap is a very important one, as it tends to be the only saving grace between having a happy camera in one piece, and a sad camera in multiple pieces strewn across the pavement…
That’s where Peak Design come swooping in with their full size Slide strap, developed from top end durable and comfortable materials and thick enough to be nicely paired with a mid to full size DSLR camera.
Versatile, comfortable, and far more ingenious than your average camera strap.
The Peak Design Slide has been around for quite some time and has gone through a few variations since its initial announcement in 2014.
I’ve been using the smaller Slide ‘Lite’ on my Sony a7 III for the last year and it’s been a fantastic strap, so I thought why not treat my trusty Canon to the full sized version and see how it goes!
Take a look at my Peak Design Slide Review to see if it’s the best camera strap for you.
Peak Design Slide Review Summary
A versatile, rugged, good-looking and highly-functional cross-body, neck or shoulder camera strap. Unique Anchor Link connectors provide ultra-strong quick-release functionality and attachment to other products in the Peak Design eco-system. Upgraded silicone grip and ultra-smooth nylon webbing offers superior ease of use.
Peak Design Slide Specs
- The Ash colour looks fantastic, especially alongside the Charcoal and Ash Backpacks.
- The materials and size disperse the weight on your shoulders very well.
- The quick pull adjusters are a fantastic feature.
- It is very bulky when packed up or when using it around your wrist.
- It feels a bit weighty, but that’s understandable given the size of it.
- Bottom anchor mount takes up the tripod mount hole.
Min Length: 990 mm (39 in)
Strap Width: 45 mm (1.8 in)
Weight: 148 g (5.2 oz)
Anchor Links head diameter: 17 mm (.67 in)
Anchor Links loop length: 43 mm (1.7 in)
Length: 30 mm (1.2 in)
Width: 20 mm (.79 in)
Protrusion from camera: 5 mm (.20in)
Attachment: Contains a 1/4-20 UNC thread (same as on tripods)
Connectors: Glass-reinforced nylon Links with stainless steel springs, 2-layer anti-abrasion woven thermoplastic Anchor cord, thermoplastic Anchor overmolding.
- 1x Slide camera strap
- 1x 4mm hex wrench
- 4x Anchor connectors
- 1x Anchor Mount
- 1x microfiber pouch
Build & Appearance
The Peak Design Slide looks great paired with an Ash Everyday Backpack Zip
The Peak Design Slide is a durable and yet very comfortable camera strap that is available in two colour options (black and ash) which tie in quite nicely alongside Peak Design’s bag range.
By having the Anchors attached to the body will allow you to easily swap between any of Peak Design’s camera straps for extra carrying options.
Equipped with ultra stylish aluminium finished quick pull adjusters allow you to conveniently and quickly adjust the length of the Slide on the go.
The Slide’s adjuster is entertaining for those of us who were part of the ridiculous fidget spinner craze, or just those who love to just fiddle with anything that makes a satisfying clicking noise!
The Slide itself is constructed from an ultra smooth and tough tightly woven nylon webbing that not only looks great but is nice and soft against your skin.
It features a discrete internal padding along the middle of the length and has rounded tapered edges that don’t fray and scratch the back of your neck.
The Ash variation of the Slide features nice brown accents while the Black variation is a black on black design with tidy red markings.
Beautiful grey and silver textures with brown leather accents adorn the Peak Design Slide
Subtly dotted along one side of the Peak Design Slide are little grips that spring in to action when the strap is thrown over your shoulder helping it to stay steady and in place and not slip off when you least expect it to.
They work really well and don’t leave marks or add any discomfort while wearing the strap on your shoulder.
You’ll find that the strap supports the weight of the camera very well, and the wideness coupled with the soft nature of the materials helps it to not dig in to your shoulder or neck while lugging a large camera around.
The Peak Design Slide hobby kit includes 4 Anchors and a soft pouch for storage.
It is a rather large strap, which works wonders for weight distribution and comfort while using it, but that also does mean that it is rather bulky when packing it up in to your bag.
If you’re like me and you wear your heart on your sleeve and the camera strap on your wrist you’ll also find that it can bunch up quite a bit there too.
Given that it is a rather soft material though it does take kindly to being squished and jammed in to whatever empty space there is around the camera.
The material does look and feel great, though – Peak Design uses it elsewhere on its products, including on their Mobile case range.
Ease of Use
The Peak Design Slide allows for easy adjustments and multiple ways of wearing and using it.
Just how hard could it be to use a camera strap? Doesn’t it just simply sit around my neck and hold on to my camera?
Well, in most cases that just may be true. But when it comes to the Peak Design range of camera straps, I have to respond by saying that isn’t quite the case, especially with the Peak Design Slide.
Ok sure, in its simplest and most generic form that statement would be correct but there’s a little bit more to the Slide than what one may normally expect.
A strap in general is pretty straight forward and easy to use. You can throw it over your shoulder, around your neck, wrapped around your wrist, or even walk your dog with it if you so please.
But when it comes to adjusting the length or re-configuring how it is attached to your camera, that’s where this unique camera strap really comes in to its own!
The Peak Design Slide can be worn in different ways by simply attaching the Anchors to different spots on your camera. It allows you to easily adjust how the camera sits against your body, or even use multiple strap and carry solutions on the one camera body.
The Anchor Mount easy attaches to the base of the camera via the 1/4-20 UNC thread, and by placing two separate Anchors to either side of the camera body you can easily pair the strap up with a Peak Design Cuff or Peak Design Clutch.
For those of you who own the Peak Design Capture Clip and prefer to leave the associated base plate attached to their camera, you can freely attach Anchors to that as well and still benefit from the choice of multiple strap options.
That is THREE brilliantly secure carrying solutions on the one camera body!
Related: Peak Design Clutch Review | Peak Design Cuff Review | Peak Design Capture Clip Review]
By adjusting the placements of the Anchors you can equip a Peak Design Clutch along with the Slide.
Be mindful that the bottom Anchor Mount does take up the tripod hole and also requires the included hex wrench to attach and remove, so if you forget to bring that with you, you may be stuck unable to use your tripod when you need it.
A handy tip for you is to attach the hex wrench to your tripod somewhere, or leave it in your standard camera kit.
The Anchors also allow you to detach the Slide very easily, which is helpful in situations such as long exposure photography and windy weather (camera straps are known to catch wind and wobble cameras atop of tripods), or if you prefer ,to use different accessories in different situations.
The 4 Anchors included in the package are the same Anchors which are compatible with any of Peak Designs products in different ways.
The Anchors are safely rated to a huge 90kg, so if you find that you tend to over equip your camera gear, as long as it’s below 90kg then you should be ok. I
wouldn’t recommend using the Peak Design Slide as a safety device for yourself though, please leave that job to certified climbing gear instead…
If you attach Anchors to anything else, such as the Peak Design Field Pouch, you can turn that in to a small and convenient sling bag.
If you attach the Anchor Mounts to another camera strap you can swap between the Slide and that strap at will.
Convenient for those who have different straps and equipment for different purposes, the Anchors and Anchor Mounts allow you to swap between multiple pieces as you please.
If you can connect an Anchor to something, you can use the Peak Design Slide with it – seen here with the Field Pouch.
The stylish quick -pull aluminium adjusters built in to the strap itself just require a quick flick and the strap will smoothly glide through it.
This allows you to easily adjust the length of the strap to your needs on the fly.
Flicking the adjusters closed will hold the adjusted length steadily in place with no concerns of it slipping through or extending on its own due to an increase in weight (such as from a heavier lens) which some camera straps (and even backpack shoulder straps) are prone to doing.
The stylish aluminium quick pull adjusters are handy for easy swift length adjustments and for fiddling with.
Value for Money + Discount Code
The Peak Design Slide looks great even just packed up in to a camera bag! It looks even better when you’re wearing it, though.
There are a lot of extremely cheap strap options out there, not to mention that every camera brand will provide you with a strap with a large bold logo advertising them upon purchase. So why would you replace that?
Well, I am one who tends to believe that the included strap is there out of necessity. You’ve just bought a camera, you require a strap to attach it, so they’ll give you one that is more likely going to get you by.
They’re usually made from ‘cost-effective’ materials that tend to fray, and I have found that they can get rather uncomfortable over time.
However, I like to put my money behind brand reputation, quality, and reliability.
With Peak Design providing a lifetime warranty on the Slide, as well as the over engineered 90kg rating on the Anchors, it’s more than enough to evoke confidence from a product that is designed to protect your expensive camera gear.
As long as you have a firm grip on the strap and you don’t actually drop it, the strap will never let your camera hit the ground without you intending to do so.
I find great value in the Peak Design Slide, having been purposefully designed and constructed to maximise security and comfort. Those are qualities that I can put my money behind, and now both of my cameras are now going to be forever equipped with a Peak Design strap.
The Slide isn’t purely just a camera strap either, it can also be a shoulder strap for other products such as the Field Pouch, or it can be used across multiple cameras at any one time if you have the Anchors attached to them.
Feeling like it’s a Nikon day instead of a Canon one? Quickly detach it and connect it to that.
Need to walk the dog? Attach an Anchor to his collar and take him out to sniff some flowers or to bark at your neighbours.
Whatever you require the Slide should be able to accommodate with the appropriate Anchors attached.
Peak Design Slide Review | Conclusion
The Peak Design Slide is a fantastic camera strap paired with any camera. My preference is with my Canon DSLR.
Equipping my Canon 5D MK III with the Peak Design Slide was an easy decision to make after having the Peak Design Slide Lite prove itself to me time and time again over the past year of using it on my Sony a7 III.
It looks great and is still quite comfortable, even more so given it’s wider so the weight is spread out a bit more.
It is soft enough to squish up and packs up decently, although it does still take up quite a bit of room… but that is a compromise that I’m willing to make.
Plus, having the convenience of the Anchors is a value add too since I can use the Slide on other things when my Canon is packed up and I’m out with the Sony!
Versatile, comfortable, and far more ingenious than your average camera strap.
Tommy Williams is a travel photographer from Sydney, Australia. He is pretty chill, and admits he really needs to get around to updating his website more often.
