September, 2011

Before starting this review I first need to address the issue of whether or not these are authentic Nikon straps. Based on what I know I'll say they are not official Nikon products, hence the quotation marks around the word Nikon in the title. But I've been wrong before. They may be Nikon Korea products as the packaging suggests. I believe they are not authentic Nikon products for several reasons. The only place I've seen these straps sold is on eBay from Korean sellers. They don't appear in any of Nikon's catalogs, including the Nikon Korean website. The packaging seems a little off in it's look. The packaging only has English lettering on it and the instructions are in Korean only. Every Nikon product I've ever purchased includes materials in several different languages. The AH-4 hand strap, an official Nikon product, has a list price of $79.95 US. These straps can be bought for around $20-$25 including shipping. And finally, when I did a search for the UPC codes on the packages I came up with no results. The one thing I can't explain though is why Nikon allows them to be sold if they are indeed counterfeits. Nikon can easily have eBay pull the listings. (You can see an example of the packaging for the Nikon AH-4 here).

The Nikon hand straps II and III are very similar. Both appear to be made from leather and are well constructed. They both use the same connection plate which attaches to the tripod mount of your camera. They also both have a strap "ring" which you can use to attach an additional neck strap to if you don't want to remove the hand strap from the camera eyelet. The main difference between the two is that strap II is wider and has an additional wrist strap clip which secures the entire strap around your wrist.

The instructions for the straps are in Korean. They include diagrams which at first seem a little difficult to follow (especially strap II), but they are easy enough to figure out. If you get confused some of the ebay listings include English instructions. To keep things simple, both straps work well and do the job they are supposed to do. I much prefer strap II though because of the extra wrist strap clip. When using strap III if you let go of your camera the strap can slip off your wrist. The wrist strap clip prevents this from happening with strap II.