Peak Design Slide vs. Slide Lite vs. Leash

There seems to be a bit of confusion in regards to Peak Design’s camera strap offerings. I was part of the confused at one point, purchasing their original Slide, then Slide Light, and finally settling on the Leash, wishing I had done a little more research before going through all the trouble. The Peak Design Leash is the best camera strap on the market for most cameras in my opinion. Now that i’ve used all of the Peak Design camera straps, the Leash is my favorite of them all.

To start, my issue with the original Slide, Peak Design’s first camera strap offering, is that it’s chunky. The strap is huge, the anchor housing is huge, the whole thing is just overkill for a camera strap. If you’re walking around with a medium (or large) format camera with gigantic lenses, then sure, it makes sense to pick up the classic Slide, but it has its downfalls. I found the anchor housing to be intrusive and sometimes got in the way of camera controls. The plastic would also tap against the body of the camera, and when I would put the camera up against my face, having the two anchor housing pieces on each side was annoying, especially with how large they were. I had the same issue with the Slide Lite, but to a lesser degree. I liked the strap width on the Peak Design Slide Lite, but the anchor housing was still too large for me, even though Peak Design made an effort to make it smaller.

I understand this is SUPER nit-picky, but this is a camera strap we’re talking about here, it shouldn’t be getting in the way when I’m trying to use my camera. I understand too that this may be considered a ‘trade-off’ for using Peak Design’s anchor system (which in general, I really like) but there shouldn’t be a compromise.

If we compare the anchor housing side by side of the three straps, the Leash is the smallest of the bunch. The Leash also shares all the same features as the Slide and Slide Lite. It can be used as a sling, neck, or shoulder strap, and there is no compromise in strap length since it’s the same across all three at 57”. The only real difference is that the Leash strap is thin at .75” which I personally like, and that it isn’t meant to carry medium or large format cameras with telefoto lenses. It’s also super packable, and I usually just stuff it into my pocket when not in use.

The Leash in my opinion is the best camera strap that Peak Design offers.