Broken Capture Clip

During our trip out to Ohio with Lukey and Kenzie back in June, we suffered a few relatively small photography equipment failures.  This is not surprising in the least when traveling with enough equipment for three people and, in the big scheme of things, the failures were quite small.  

I'd say that the worst failure was finding that a 21 minute video of fireworks was out of focus throughout the entire video.  I can blame this on small LCD screens when paired with old eyes!  So that was my fault.  We lost one or two little things too.  The only thing that actually broke was my Peak Design Capture Clip which is a $60 item (well...  that is what I paid...  to replace it with the newer version would cost $80).

I use this Capture Clip to hold my camera on my shoulder strap.  The Capture Clip allows me to quickly remove the camera from the shoulder strap whenever necessary.  This clip also allows me to securely (supposedly) clip my camera to any strap like a backpack strap or a sling bag strap.  Now that I think of it, I can even use it to clip my camera to my pants belt although I have never used it for this yet and, after this latest experience, I probably never will.

During our walk over to Kentucky from Cincinnati, this clip broke.  I ended up taking off my shoulder strap and stowing it in my sling bag.  I kept the camera in my hand with a wrist strap for the rest of that day.  

I was really annoyed that this clip had broken though.  Fortunately, the camera was in my hand when the clip fell apart so it didn't fall to the ground creating a much more expensive and painful failure.  If that camera had fallen to the ground I would have been far more upset.  That camera is my most expensive camera.

My initial thought was to toss the Peak Design Capture Clip in the trash bin and never use a Peak Design product again but a cooler head prevailed and I tucked it into my sling bag for the time being.  I figured I would decide what to do with this piece of junk when we got back home.

So, for two months, this Capture Clip has been sitting on my desk waiting for me to decide what to do with it.  I almost threw it away a few times but, because it cost me $60, I chose to hang onto it to see if maybe some other solution might come to mind.  

One of the thin thumbscrew bolts that holds the whole thing together had broken.  This thumbscrew was a very unique shape so simply replacing this bolt didn't come to mind all that quickly.  Eventually I experimented with some of my own thumbscrews.  I knew these thumbscrews wouldn't work because of their shape but this allowed me to see how other thumbscrews might be able to work.  

This thumbscrew is a relatively thin M5 threaded bolt which really should probably be a thicker bolt with a larger diameter.  M5 is pretty thin for securing expensive cameras.  

I did some searching online and eventually found a thumbscrew with a large head that might work (larger head for easier tightening and loosening).  I figured that, in the worst case scenario, I would simply need to grind down the heads a bit if it was too fat

Here is a photo showing this new thumbscrew as it arrived out of the package on the right.  The thumbscrew on the left is after I grinded 2mm off the height of the thumbscrew head.  Grinding 2mm off worked...

The photo below shows the whole capture clip with the grinded-down thumbscrews installed in the Capture Clip...

And, here is a view from the top.  Now these thumbscrews are easier to use and they are thin enough to allow a camera to clear them.  Now the plate (in center) can easily slide into the Capture Clip.

We also had two "generic" capture clips on our trip that Lukey and Kenzie used and they both survived the trip with no problems.  Although the generic clips aren't as polished-looking at the Peak Design clip, they are solid and only half the price of the Peak Design clip.  Admittedly, there are more potential uses for the Peak Design clip so I do prefer the Peak Design design.  I just wish it was more solid.  

Now I've replaced the part that broke on my device so hopefully I'll have no more problems.

Even though it is fixed, I still had to use relatively thin M5 bolts so I'll never trust this again with my heavier and more expensive cameras.  Realistically, I'll probably never use it again unless I run out of other options.  I'll probably never buy another Peak Design product again because I can no longer trust their products.