CAN WE HOOK UP? (repeated)

[Note:  this is another in a series of postings that were originally hosted by Apple but went away when Apple cancelled mobileme.com.]

   Our old friend “hook and loop”, better known as Velcro®, is probably familiar to most of you.  You usually buy it in matching “male-female” strips with an adhesive backing for attaching pieces of the Velcro® to various items we want to keep together.  And you may have seen the commercially-available two-sided straps for lashing coils of cables together.

   I personally use a lot of Velcro®.  For years my choice of type was only the original two-strips of sticky-back that is great for holding two objects together.  Here are some of my applications for this type.

   I use the sticky-back kind to attach thing to my tripods or to the camera itself.   Shown at the right is a patch that I put on all three leg hinges of the tripod.  I use these as attach points for stuff I may need quick access during shooting like the camera’s IR remote as shown at right below.  I also use one of these Velcro patches to hold my checklists described in an earlier posting to the tripod.  If I need the camera's remote for a shoot, I attach it to the tripod to with Velcro also, as shown at right.

   The next two pictures on the left show how I mount microphone receivers on my Sony EX1R camera.  For most of my shoots I use dual radio frequency transmitter-receivers for my microphones.  I have a custom plate that attaches to the camera onto which I’ve applied the patches of sticky-back Velcro® as seen at the right.  With the opposite-gender Velcro patches applied to the back of the microphone receivers I can quickly attach them to the camera as shown.  Makes for a quick setup and takedown.

   At least two brands of camera bags - Petrol and Kata - have linings that will “couple” with the male form (the “hooks) of Velcro® so that you can attach a patch of it to items you’d like to attach to the lining of the bag so that it won’t rattle around in the bag and can be found easily.  The picture at the bottom right show a pen and memory card case being held in place by such an arrangement.

   Finally, a few years ago I discovered a wonderful product at Markertek.  They sold a roll of 2-inch wide Velcro® that is hermaphroditic, that is one side is of one gender and the other side the other gender.  This means you can make your own loops or straps that can attach to themselves.  A roll of this material with a small strap cut from it is shown in the picture at the top of the page.  This made it possible to not only custom make straps of virtually any size and strength, it made them readily available when needed.

  I keep a couple of lengths stuck to the inside of the camera bag in case I need to hold something in place in the bag.

  The picture on the bottom left shows how a small strip can can be used to wrap around cables and such to keep them together.

   I can’t seem find that two-sided Velcro® roll at Markertek now but I’ve found the motherlode of hook and loop - HookandLoop.com.  The sell the rolls in widths ranging from 1/2” to 2”.  Very convenient!  This website even has a page on how Velcro® was invented.  Interesting!

  The "bottom line" is that Velcro can be used in a variety of useful ways.  I always keep a supply of both the stick-on and "hermaphroditic" type close at hand.

  Amazon and B&H also carry the hermaphroditic rolls.