ramesesthe2nd wrote:
I got my order yesterday and I am so sorry for even posting this here. It is the most garbage grip/strap I have ever owned. I am returning both.
PD is a real mixed bag.
Since they have a retail store that I can visit frequently, I’ve had a chance to see and play with a lot of their gear over the years.
Sometimes their concepts are great. Products of theirs that I own and rely on daily include their lighter wrist strap, their strap attachment system, one of their extra lightweight shoulder straps, several of their sling bags in different sizes.
I use and rely on those products essentially daily, and have done so for years. I carry one of the sling bags literally daily, and it has been super reliable.
On the other hand, sometimes I think they get a bit ahead of themselves and over-design things. Their “Roller Pro” “carry-on” bag is an example. It got a lot of publicity last year, including on FM, as a great option for carryon travel. But the thing’s capacity is diminished by its over-design and it weighs 8.6 pounds before you put any of those snazzy padded camera inserts into it. International carry-on weight limits are often around 22 pounds (10kg), which leaves you hardly any room for much gear.
You can see the same thing with their fascinating “45L travel backpack.” It is full of ingenious little features — a gazillion zippers, all kinds of customizability, the ability to accept those camera inserts. We travel in the US and internationally, usually relying on carryon luggage, and we’ve used luggage packs from another manufacturer for years. A year or two ago it was time to replace our old reliable packs, so we surveyed the market, looking at a number of options in person. We visited a PD store and spent time with this bag. It is impressively engineered (and priced to match), but the more we looked at it the more we realized that it is just (at least for us) overdone — the concept of carry-on travel is fundamentally about simplicity and keeping things light, and this bag (again, at least for us) lost that concept.
To add one more relevant point: Sometimes the first iteration of a new product turns out to have a few minuses, but the next version improves on that initial version. The take-away may be that if you have doubts it could be a good idea to wait until you see reviews (and not just the affiliate-income-capturing and eyeball-loving youtube reviews) come out a few months later, or even wait to see when v.2 of the product arrives. For example, the early Sling bags (which I owned) had some issues. They redesigned the bags for the next generation, improving the design and fixing some of the issues.
My point? It isn’t as simple as “PD bad” or “PD great.” They are a design-forward company, and sometimes they really hit the mark for me… and sometimes they miss it wildly.
As to this particular product? I have not used it, though I’ve seen it in person. I’d rather use a more traditional wrist strap design (like some of their other products), and one that doesn’t rely on attaching a base plate sort of thing.
ramesesthe2nd wrote:
I got my order yesterday and I am so sorry for even posting this here. It is the most garbage grip/strap I have ever owned. I am returning both.
PD is a real mixed bag.
Since they have a retail store that I can visit frequently, I’ve had a chance to see and play with a lot of their gear over the years.
Sometimes their concepts are great. Products of theirs that I own and rely on daily include their lighter wrist strap, their strap attachment system, one of their extra lightweight shoulder straps, several of their sling bags in different sizes.
I use and rely on those products essentially daily, and have done so for years. I carry one of the sling bags literally daily, and it has been super reliable.
On the other hand, sometimes I think they get a bit ahead of themselves and over-design things. Their “Roller Pro” “carry-on” bag is an example. It got a lot of publicity last year, including on FM, as a great option for carryon travel. But the thing’s capacity is diminished by its over-design and it weighs 8.6 pounds before you put any of those snazzy padded camera inserts into it. International carry-on weight limits are often around 22 pounds (10kg), which leaves you hardly any room for much gear.
You can see the same thing with their fascinating “45L travel backpack.” It is full of ingenious little features — a gazillion zippers, all kinds of customizability, the ability to accept those camera inserts. We travel in the US and internationally, usually relying on carryon luggage, and we’ve used luggage packs from another manufacturer for years. A year or two ago it was time to replace our old reliable packs, so we surveyed the market, looking at a number of options in person. We visited a PD store and spent time with this bag. It is impressively engineered (and priced to match), but the more we looked at it the more we realized that it is just (at least for us) overdone — the concept of carry-on travel is fundamentally about simplicity and keeping things light, and this bag (again, at least for us) lost that concept.
My point? It isn’t as simple as “PD bad” or “PD great.” They are a design-forward company, and sometimes they really hit the mark for me… and sometimes they miss it wildly.
As to this particular product? I have not used it, though I’ve seen it in person. I’d rather use a more traditional wrist strap design (like some of their other products), and one that doesn’t rely on attaching a base plate sort of thing.
YMMV.
Aug 20, 2026 at 09:24 AM
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