An Instagram Reel recently turned my attention to a rather ingenious little hot (or cold) shoe accessory that claims to enable you to swap lenses with just one hand.
We’ve all been there: camera in one hand, new lens in the other, wishing for a third hand to unlatch and hold the old lens while the new one is attached (rear lens caps everywhere).
It’s not always possible to find a clean surface on which to put down your kit and perform this task at your leisure, so you often end up muddling your way through with just two hands…
Which might involve anything from stuffing a $1,000 optic under your armpit, leaving your sensor exposed to the elements for longer than is recommended or balancing your camera on your knee. None of which are recommended.
The big issue is having to remove and reattach rear lens caps, which is where the CapSlinger comes in. This soft TPU accessory sticks onto a rear lens cap using adhesive. On top, it features a hot shoe-compatible mount.
As you can see from the video above, the idea is that you can slide the lens onto your camera’s shoe and twist it to remove the rear lens cap in a single one-handed motion.
Once you’ve detached the mounted lens, you can then attach it to that same rear lens cap that’s still slotted onto the shoe.
Since shoes are universal, this works for virtually all systems – provided you can stick the CapSlinger to the desired lens cap. For this to work most effectively, you’ll want to have your camera attached to a neck strap or harness system so it can hang independently from your body.
It’s also made clear that the CapSlinger is not designed to take the full weight of the lens or camera in question. Your hand must still take the weight; the accessory is purely designed to enable you to twist a rear lens cap on and off.
The CapSlinger appears to be available exclusively from eBay and ships from Germany. According to the eBay listing, it’s handmade in limited batches. The product is 36x26x6mm and weighs just 2g.
It’s available in packs of 2 for €9.99 (around $11.21 / £8.36 / AU$16.25) or packs of 5 for €19.99 ($22.31 / £16.72/ AU$32.51).
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