i never take my chest harness off

Technically this is a binocular harness, but nevermind that. Think outside the box and embrace a Nikon 6121 Prostaff Bino chest harness for your digital SLR and your neck will thank you.

I really could end the review there, but I'll give you a little more detail than that....

I actually stole my chest harness from my fiancé a couple of years ago. He wasn't using it because he's got a tiny point and shoot camera, and I wanted a comfortable way to bring my Nikon d50 into the field without stashing it in my backpack where accessibility is, frankly, a pain in the arse. This solved that quite nicely.

The pros are that it takes the weight off of your neck, it centers the camera in front of you, and it's stretchy enough to give you flexibility. The only thing you'll find yourself worrying about when you see a shot you want is setting your camera fast enough to capture it. If I want to slip my camera off of the strap, to pop it onto a tripod for example, there are two easy hooks to unclip it and go.

The con, for me, is that after I've (occasionlly) stretched it out to get a shot I don't always remember to tighten it back to start hiking again. I'm small, and a loose harness equates to my camera bouncing uncomfortably until I pause to tighten the straps again. If I'm walking slower this is a non-issue, but sometimes we're really booking it on the trail so it gets annoying.

Still, I never take it off. I love this thing. When I don't wear it properly around my shoulders, I wear it "messenger bag style" over one shoulder (this works quite well too).

Cabela's makes a similar harness and a friend of mine LOVES hers as much as I love mine. There is also another brand if you google around a bit and want something a little cheaper without the Nikon logo.

They're completely unnecessary for a tiny camera, but for a larger format I can't imagine anything else anymore. Yeah, you can lug around a camera bag but when weight is an issue or when you're going for a long day hike where you know you'll want your camera pretty constantly a camera bag is just not going to cut it.