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A few things that I added immediately to my new toy are:
1. Hand strap
I get so frustrated with the normal strap recently, it always got in the way between my eye and the viewfinder, where I have to adjust here and there or push it aside during shooting. I don’t put strap over my shoulder or neck that often nowadays, as I prefer to either carry it on my hand, or put it inside my shoulder bag.
So, I took out a Matin Hand Strap that I used to use on my D700, and lug it back to my new toy D3s.
This is a very high quality hand grip from Matin, made in Korea. Genuine leather, self standing stand, soft and durable. Did I mentioned it smells good too! (yeah when still new, the leather smell)
This is how you hold the camera with the hand grip on.
See, even if you open wide your hand, the camera still secure.
I don’t use the self-standing bottom as in the picture above, as I need an Arcas Swiss plate on my camera body bottom in order to mount my camera on the Photo Clam ballhead that I often use.
PhotoClam has a dedicated plate for Nikon D3, D3s and D3x. A perfect fit specially made based on the bottom contour of the D3 series. Will not move an mm after mounted. You an use it as a protection to your camera bottom also, worry-free of scratching your camera bottom.
The other good thing about the Photo Clam plate is that it comes with a dovetail at both ends of the plate.
With the dovetail, you can put strap over it and in my case, I can get rid of the Matin self-standing bottom and put the hand grip strap directly over the dovetail.
The tripod I use often is the Jusino AX-254C Carbon Fibre Series 4 sections tripod. I like the little RED add-on to the tripod, so I choose the Red colour model.

The ballhead I use is not Jusino, but Photo Clam PC-33NS.
Photo Clam ballhead PC-33NS above can withstand 30kg load. I have a video demoing the performance of the ballhead and tripod holding a Nikon 300mm F/2.8 Lens.
This is how it looks after being setup.
A tip on using hand grip, or should I say my personnel preference. DO NOT TIE THE STRAP TOO TIGHT! Putting the strap too tight will restrict the movement of your fingers and palm, end up uncomfortable and hard to maneuver your fingers to access the buttons on your camera. This was what I did and I end up putting the strap in my drawer than using it.
Let it loose, so that you hand and move freely and easily. The strap is supposed to help you grab your camera firmer, or give you more confident in holding your camera with just one hand.
I thought about a screen protector…or should I said THREE (one on top, one at back main LCD, and one at back lower smaller LCD). I later decided not to, as I don’t like to reduce the clearance of the LCD with something sticking over it. A camera is bought to use, not to keep. I am not going to keep the screens in perfect prestige condition for the next buyer.
Don’t buy a camera with mind thinking that you are going to sell it off later.
Nice camera 🙂
Where i can get the strap?hahaha
Andrew, click on the image in the blog post. You can buy from ShaShinKi online shop.
Question on the hand grip. The original self-standing stand… does it have a tripod mount under it? Or do I need to remove the stand to mount on a tripod. My 2 tripods are Manfrotto & Benro Travel tripods…
Yes, have tripod hole at the bottom.
Hi KhoKing,
I also have the Jusino AX-254C tripod, and was wondering whether the Photo Clam PC-33NS will increase the girth of the tripod when the legs are folded over backwards, since I believe the ballhead base has a larger diameter than the tripod base. I know the PC-30NS is slightly smaller, but I would prefer to have a ballhead with friction control.
Hi,
I have an A77 with a battery grip. Does this ‘self standing’ stand creates anything buy uncomfortable when holding the camera vertically? And does that mean I wouldn’t be able to attach my black rapid shoulder sling on it?