Patent Application
20210330063
The invention relates to a carrying belt for carrying a video camera or still camera, having the features of a shoulder pad, a belt coupled to the shoulder pad which can be run transversely across the upper body of a user, and at least one connecting piece for fastening the belt to the video camera or still camera to be carried.
Carrying belts have been known for a long time in the prior art. Thus, camera carrying belts for carrying still cameras or video cameras exist, which typically are delivered in a simple design as accessory of such cameras. By means of these carrying belts which have been known for a long time, still cameras or video cameras are worn in front of the chest of the user, wherein the carrying belt is passed around the neck and hung there (thus forming a “neck strap”).
As an alternative to the classical carrying belts to be passed around the neck, carrying belts designed for still cameras or video cameras have also recently become known in which the belts are worn transversely over the upper body of the user, starting from a shoulder down to approximately hip level, where the carried still camera or video camera to which the carrying belt is connected is hung and positioned laterally on the body. In such carrying belts, the connecting piece is guided slidably on the belt, so that the still camera or video camera can be guided upward from a carried position laterally on the hip of the user until it is in front of the face in a shooting position, wherein the connecting piece slides along the belt during this movement.
Such a carrying belt to be placed transversely over the upper body is disclosed in WO 2008/131135 A1, for example. The carrying belt disclosed therein presents different possibilities of connection of the connecting piece to the still camera or video camera. The multiple connection possibilities here use a tripod threaded bush on the bottom of the camera, into which an adapter screw is screwed, which is connected or will be connected with the connecting piece guided slidingly on the belt. This type of fastening is also conventional for currently commercially available carrying belts of this kind. In WO 2008/131135 A1 (see
In principle—especially in the case of heavy cameras such as, for example, single-lens reflex cameras, in particular those with lenses of higher focal length—the carrying belts to be worn transversely over the upper body are highly esteemed by the users, since, on the one hand, in this type of carrying, the weight loading the carrying belt rests on a shoulder and is thus carried more conveniently than when it weighs on the neck. On the other hand, the position of the camera carried laterally with respect to the hip is commonly also perceived to be less interfering than the carrying position of a camera carried on the “classical” camera carrying belt in front of the chest.
Although many users know and appreciate the above-described advantages of the carrying belt of known type which is worn transversely over the upper body, the complaint is commonly made that the camera has to be fastened to the carrying belt via a screw connection with the tripod threaded bush. Many users do not trust such a screw connection, in particular since the tripod threaded bush is precisely not designed by the camera manufacturers for a strong tensile load which it is exposed to in the connection with the known carrying belt, but is instead designed for loads on a screwed-in tripod, at most for transverse loads, when the camera is mounted swiveled on the tripod by 90°. In addition, some users also have concerns with regard to the safety of the screw connection between an adapter screw, present on the known carrying belt to be worn transversely over the upper body, and the tripod threaded bush. Here, some interested parties fear that the screw connection could possibly come undone and that the valuable camera fastened to the carrying belt could fall to the ground and be damaged.
The aim of the present invention is to further develop a known carrying belt to be worn over the upper body, as disclosed in particular in WO 2008/131135 A1, to the effect that said carrying belt enables attachment of a still camera or a video camera to be fastened thereto on at least one of the devices of such a camera, which are provided for attaching a classical neck belt, while at the same time enabling a simple and unhindered handling and operation of the camera to be attached to the carrying belt.
This aim is achieved according to the invention with a carrying belt having a shoulder pad, a belt coupled to the shoulder pad, which can be run transversely across the upper body of a user, and at least one connecting piece for fastening the belt to the video camera or still camera to be carried and characterized by a slide via which the belt is coupled to the shoulder pad in such a way that the belt can be moved in the direction of a longitudinal extension of the belt relative to the shoulder pad and is simultaneously secured to the shoulder pad transversely to the longitudinal extension. Advantageous developments of such a carrying belt according to the invention are that the carrying belt has two longitudinal ends, on each of which a connecting piece for attachment to the video camera or still camera to be carried is arranged. One of the connecting pieces is a tripod screw for screwing into a tripod threaded bush provided on the video camera or still camera. The shoulder pad has a cushioning. The carrying belt includes a securing belt which is connected to the shoulder pad and which, when in use, can be run under a shoulder on which the shoulder pad rests and can be closed to form a closed loop. The carrying belt includes a slide in the form of at least two retaining loops attached to the shoulder pad, through which loops the belt is threaded. The carrying belt may include a slide in the form of at least one sliding casing formed on the shoulder pad, through which the belt is fed. The carrying belt includes multiple pairs of claw-like elements opposite one another transversely to the longitudinal direction, which are arranged one after the other in the longitudinal direction of the shoulder pad along a longitudinal direction of the belt and arranged in a guided manner in the slide, and which retain the belt arranged in the slide, wherein, between the claw-like elements of each pair in each case a gap is left for the insertion of the belt into the slide. The claw-like elements are arranged firmly on the shoulder pad and connected to the latter, wherein the claw-like elements consist of a material which has less flexibility than the material of the rest of the shoulder pad. The slide has a longitudinal groove introduced into the shoulder pad, in which the belt is arranged in a guided manner and over which the claw-like elements extend. The carrying belt includes at least one securing element placed over the belt and attached to the shoulder pad. The securing element is detachably attached to the shoulder pad. The carrying belt includes protection against severing provided on the belt in the form of a reinforcement led in the longitudinal direction of the belt, in particular in the form of a metal wire or metal rope or a strand made of poly(p-phenylene terephthalamide) (PPTA), an ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMW-PE) or another cut-resistant material.
According to the invention, a carrying belt for carrying a video camera or still camera to begin with has the following three elements: a shoulder pad, a belt coupled to the shoulder pad, which can be passed transversely over an upper body of a user, and at least one connecting piece for fastening the belt to the camera to be carried. The novelty and essential feature for the invention here then consists in that the carrying belt comprises a slide via which the belt is coupled to the shoulder pad in such a manner that the belt can be moved in a direction of a longitudinal extension of the belt relative to the shoulder pad and is simultaneously secured the shoulder pad transversely to the longitudinal extension.
By means of this novel and inventive design, it can be achieved that a connecting piece for attaching the belt to a photo camera (still camera) or a video camera to be carried can be connected firmly to the belt, that is to say it is not designed as an adapter which slides over the belt. Indeed, during the raising from the carrying position, which in the inventive carrying belt as in the prior art will be lateral approximately at hip level of the user, into a position of use of the camera in front of the face of the user, the connecting piece then no longer has to be moved relative to the belt, but instead the entire belt is shifted relative to the shoulder pad which remains stationary. This is made possible by the slide equipped according to the invention via which the belt is coupled to the shoulder pad. Due to this design, for example, for a connection of the carrying belt to the connecting structures of the still camera or video camera to be carried, which are routinely provided by the manufacturer for attaching a neck belt, it is no longer necessary, as in in WO 2008/131135 A1, to provide a short supplemental belt which is attached to the adapter piece sliding on the carrying belt and which, in the position of use, as described above, hangs down in an interfering manner behind or in front of the camera. Instead, the belt can be attached directly to the camera using at least one of the connecting structures, so that, in the position of use of the camera, the belt, which then has a longer total length as also in the case conventional neck belts, hangs down to the side of said camera, without preventing the use of a still camera or a video camera carried in this manner. Here, the inventive carrying belt is at the same time easy to produce and also easily and conveniently handled by a user. It combines the advantages of the carrying comfort of the previously known carrying belts passed over the upper body with the possibility of a safe fastening of the video camera or still camera to be carried to at least one of the structures provided by the manufacturer for fastening neck belts, in combination with an interference-free use of the camera as in the case of a neck belt.
Even though other fastening possibilities in connection with the inventive carrying belt are possible in principle, it is preferable for the belt to comprise two longitudinal ends on which in each case a connecting piece for the attachment to the camera to be carried is arranged. To that extent, the belt can in principle be provided with two connecting pieces for attachment to the belt connections provided on the camera for attaching a standard neck belt and thus can be designed like a typical neck belt which is provided in the same way with such connecting pieces wherein the belt of the inventive carrying belt is naturally longer than a typical neck belt since it needs to reach transversely over the upper body of a user. Here, such a connecting piece should be understood quite generally. It can in particular be a connecting ring like a snap ring or key ring, a karabiner or else simply a structure whereby the belt end can be led through an eyelet and the belt end can be folded down and attached to itself, for example, with a connecting site in the manner of a belt buckle or the like. Here, the belt can be connected relatively firmly to the camera in a classical attachment of the neck belts delivered as camera accessory.
A variant of the invention here provides that only one of the connecting pieces is formed on the belt for the connection with one of the belt connections of the camera and that the other connecting piece has the form of a tripod screw. In such a variant, the belt is connected by a first end with one of the typical belt connections of the camera, is screwed by a second end into a tripod threaded bush arranged on the camera, typically on a housing bottom, by means of the connecting piece designed in the form of a tripod screw, and is thus connected to the camera. In particular in cameras with long and heavy lenses, this variant results in a particularly good carrying comfort, since the camera fastened in this manner and worn over the head hangs on the side of the body on the carrying belt and in the process can cling to the body of the user. In this position, the camera carried in this manner also has a clearly reduced tendency to undergo a pendulum movement when the user is walking.
Instead of a firm connection as described above in the variants shown, the connecting pieces can also be designed so that the belt can be simply detached from the camera, for example, by hooking or plugging into one or two adapter pieces. In such a design, the belt and thus the carrying belt can be separated quickly from the camera if necessary. For this purpose, for example, a conventional plug-in system can be used. However, a plug-in system designed in particular for this purpose can also be used, which also has additional safety features, for example, a doubly secured plug-in system. The use of an adapter system, whether this be for plugging or another type of connection, moreover has the advantage that, in such an adapter, shock absorbing elements (so-called “shock absorbers”) can be integrated, by which, for example, in the case of heavy cameras attached to the carrying belt, for example cameras with long focal length lenses, the acceleration and deceleration forces during walking and running can be absorbed or at least reduced.
For the implementation of shock absorption, the belt itself can here be designed to be resilient in general. A shock absorbing element, designed as an accessory or a component of the belt, can achieve its action with the following means and action principles: a permanently elastic band such as a rubber band for example, a porous elastic material such as a foam for example, air or oil dampers or spring elements. Furthermore, the repelling or attracting effect of two or more magnets can be used for the implementation of shock absorption.
In order to increase the carrying comfort of the carrying belt according to the invention, the shoulder pad can advantageously comprise a cushioning.
For the comfort of use of the inventive carrying belt, it is essential that the shoulder pad does not slide during use but instead rests on the shoulder, even when the belt is shifted through the slide. In order to further secure the position of the shoulder pad, the carrying belt according to the invention can advantageously comprise a securing belt which is connected to the shoulder pad and which during use can be led through under the shoulder on which the shoulder pad rests and closed to form a closed loop. Such a securing belt can be formed, for example, by two belt ends firmly connected for example, sewn or riveted, to the shoulder pad, which in each case can be connected to one another, for example, via snap-in or clip connections as used, for example, for chin straps of bicycle helmets or the like. In particular, the length of the securing belt can be adjustable here, so that it can be adapted individually to the user and his/her anatomy.
The slide can consist, for example, of at least two retaining straps which are attached to the shoulder pad and through which the belt is threaded. Alternatively, the slide can also be in the form of a sliding casing formed on the shoulder pad through which the belt is fed.
In an additional design variant, the slide can comprise pairs of claw-like elements opposite one another transversely to the longitudinal direction, which are arranged one after the other along a longitudinal direction of the belt arranged in a guided manner in the slide, which retain the belt arranged in the slide in the slide, wherein, between the claw-like elements of each pair in each case a gap is left for the insertion of the belt into the slide. Such a variant of the shoulder pad of an inventive carrying belt enables, on the one hand, a simple production of the shoulder pad and, on the other hand, an easy mounting of the belt in the shoulder pad. In particular, when, as can be provided according to a variant of this embodiment, the claw-like elements are arranged firmly on the shoulder pad and connected to the latter, and the claw-like elements here consist of a material which has less flexibility than the material of the rest of the shoulder pad, it is possible, for the mounting of the belt on the shoulder pad, to bend down the shoulder pad along a line oriented in the direction of the slide, so that the claw-like elements are spread apart, and the gaps formed between the respective pairs of the mutually facing claw-like elements open up. In such a state, the belt can be simply inserted from above into the slide. After the shoulder pad is bent back or reshaped, the gaps close again due to the elasticity of the material, and the claw-like elements retain the belt securely in the slide and prevent a raising of the belt from the shoulder pad.
When, as provided in an additional design variant of this embodiment, a longitudinal groove is introduced into the shoulder pad, in which the belt is arranged in a guided manner, wherein this longitudinal groove is part of the slide and the claw-like elements extend over the longitudinal groove, a further improved arrangement and guiding of the movement exclusively in the longitudinal direction of the belt is achieved for the belt in the slide.
As a possible securing against unwanted detachment of the belt from the shoulder pad by unintended spreading of the claw-like elements, it can be provided that at least one securing element and optionally multiple securing elements are provided, which are placed over the belt and attached on the shoulder pad. This/These securing element(s) stretch(es) over the belt in such a manner that even in the case of a deformation of the shoulder pad, the belt cannot come out of the area of the securing element or of the securing elements. Naturally, the securing elements must not interfere with the movement of the belt in longitudinal direction in the slide. The securing element(s) here can here be attached, in particular detachably, to the shoulder pad, in order to make it possible for the belt to be detached from the shoulder pad, for example, for exchanging a shoulder pad or a belt in an inventive carrying belt.
Independently of the form of the slide, on the one hand, the belt, and, on the other hand, the slide itself, in particular with its surfaces in contact with the belt, will typically be designed in such a manner that the existing friction is so low that a reliable relative movement of the belt with respect to the slide is made possible for transferring the carried still camera or video camera from the carrying position into the position of use. However, enough friction should still exist here so that, in the carrying position, dangling movements of the carried camera caused during walking or running do not result in unwanted slippage of the belt relative to the slide, which would lead to a more extensive dangling or swiveling movements of the carried camera and thus to a reduction of the carrying comfort.
For an improvement of theft prevention, it can be provided that, on the belt, a protection against severing in the form of a reinforcement guided in longitudinal direction of the belt is provided. This reinforcement can in particular consist of a metal rope placed on the belt or embedded in the belt, or a metal wire of this kind or a strand of another cut-resistant material such as, for example, poly(p-phenylene terephthalamide) (PPTA)—a material sold under the name of “Kevlar”—, an ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMW-PE) such as, for example, a material of the brand Dyneema® from the Royal DSM N.V., Netherlands, which makes it impossible for the belt to be simply severed and for the valuable camera attached to it to be stolen. Alternatively, the entire belt (or only a section of the belt which is at particularly high risk of being attacked by cutting) can also be made of a cut-resistant material. A sheath made of a cut-resistant material, which is to be placed around the belt, can also be placed around the belt as a protection against severing.
Additional advantages and features of the invention result from the following description of possible embodiment examples in reference to the appended figures. In the figures:
In the figures, in highly diagrammatic representations, possible embodiments of an inventive carrying belt are shown. Here, it must be emphasized that the figures are neither true to scale nor technically correct in terms of details. Instead, they are used to illustrate the invention in possible design variants, wherein the figures also do not show, for example comprehensively, all the conceivable possible embodiments of the invention.
In
The inventive carrying belt 1 comprises a shoulder pad 2 which rests on a shoulder S, here the left shoulder, of the person P. The carrying belt 1 moreover has a belt 3 which is led through a slide 4 on the shoulder pad 2 and which comprises at two free ends in each case a connecting piece 5 for the connection with a belt connection R of the camera K. In the embodiment example shown, the connecting pieces 5 are formed in the form of rings like key rings. However, the shape of the connecting pieces 5 is not limited here to this form, for example. In particular, on the camera K, on the belt connections R, adapter pieces can be mounted, to which the free ends of the belt 3 are attached. Such adapter pieces can then contain, for example, shock absorbing elements or also receiving pockets for small objects to be carried along, such as, for example, data cards, filter inserts or cellphones or lipsticks. By means of the slide 4, the belt 3 is coupled to the shoulder pad 2, but cannot be detached from it during use. However, the slide 4 enables a relative movement of the belt 3 relative to the shoulder pad 2 in the longitudinal direction of the belt 3. Thereby, when the person P takes the camera K resting in the carrying position approximately at the level of the hip H of the person P and moves it into a position of use in front of the face, the belt 3, which is guided transversely over the upper body O relative to the shoulder pad 2 in the carrying position as shown in
In order to ensure that the shoulder pad 2 securely maintains its position on the shoulder S of the person P during the use of the carrying belt 1, in the design variant of an inventive carrying belt 1 shown in
In
In
Compared to the above-described embodiments, the particular and distinguishing feature of the embodiment variant shown in
The above-described design of the shoulder pad 2 with claw-like elements 9, which are a substantial component of the slide 4 formed in this embodiment example, enables a simple insertion of the belt 3 into the slide 4. In particular, the circumstance that the shoulder cushion of the shoulder pad 2 comprises a relatively flexible material and the claw-like elements 9 are formed in a clearly more rigid manner in comparison thereto enables a spreading apart of the claw-like elements 9 by an opening buckling movement of the shoulder pad 2 along the longitudinal groove 11 which thus provides a kind of folding line here. Thereby, the claw-like elements 9 spread apart, as indicated in
In order to ensure that the belt 3 does not become accidentally detached from the shoulder pad 2 during use due to a deformation of the shoulder pad 2 and an associated spreading apart of the claw-like elements 9, in the embodiment example shown here, securing elements 10 are provided, which can be inserted and firmly clipped into latching recesses 12 in the shoulder pad 2 and which completely cover the belt 3 and thus secure the shoulder pad 2 from becoming detached transversely to the longitudinal direction of the belt 3. In the embodiment example shown, corresponding securing elements 10 are provided on the two longitudinal ends of the shoulder pad 2. In
In
In this variant, as can be seen in
Besides the differently detached fastening to the camera K with the correspondingly modified means, the connecting piece 5 and the tripod screw 15 on the ends of the belt 3, the carrying belt 1 shown in
In all the embodiment variants shown, the shoulder pad 2 can be provided with a cushioning in order to increase the carrying comfort. Here, the belt 3 can also be provided with a protection against severing, for example, in the form of a reinforcement with, for example, a metal wire or metal rope extending in longitudinal direction of the belt or with a strand made of poly(p-phenylene terephthalamide) (PPTA), for example a material available under the commercial name “Kevlar,” an ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMW-PE), for example a material of the brand Dyneema® from the Royal DSM N.V. or a similar cut-resistant material. Other measures besides those described above for including a protection against severing can also be used here.
The above-mentioned description of the embodiment example further clarifies the essential features and the advantageous properties of the inventive carrying belt 1.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20 2017 100 051.6 | Jan 2017 | DE | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/EP2018/050230 | 1/5/2018 | WO | 00 |
