The new breed of lightweight waterproof cameras have opened up all sorts of new possibilities for capturing things that were hard or expensive to capture before. Whether you’re taking your GoPro to wet places no camera has a right to go, feeding GoPros to Great White sharks, or taking family snapshots at the beach, waterproof cameras are wonderful right up until the point where they slip out of your hands and sink to the depths below. Because, unfortunately, most cameras don’t float.
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If you’re using a GoPro, GoPro themselves have their GoPro Floaty Backdoor. It replaces the back of the waterproof housing. It’s an insurance policy if your camera gets knocked off a surfboard or kayak. A floating handle like the GoPro’s The Handler or the Bobber are also good options for handholding.
The Floatpro tackles the problem quite differently, creating a floating hand strap that is more flexible and can be used on other lightweight cameras. The manufacturers, a small (but growing) British company, says that it will float cameras weighing up to around 8 oz (226g). That covers most of the action cams like GoPros as well as the smaller point and shoot tough digital cameras that are coming out.
The FloatPro is made of neoprene and foam, with a bright orange trim to help with visibility. I like that it’s smoother and slimmer than some of its bulkier competitors that I’ve tried.
It will work well with a GoPro but isn’t limited to GoPros. Because it uses a standard lanyard loop, it will attach to any camera or just about anything else that has its own loop that you need to keep close at hand. And actually, the standard GoPro housings don’t come with loop attachment, so to attach one of these to a GoPro you’ll probably want to put it through the holes in the attachment at the bottom of the housing. That’s not ideal, but it works.
The strap includes a simple tightening toggle and unclips to make it easier to get your hand through. It’s soft and light and adds extra security on boats or anywhere else where a hand strap would come in useful. For under $15, it’s a pretty inexpensive insurance policy for keeping your camera and photos safe next time you head to the water.
The FloatPro is available at Amazon. A similar alternative is the floating strap by Nordic Flash.
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