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| Pardon the wear and tear on the phone and strap - it gets used a lot |
Thing Sling
Last August Occupy The Roads came to the Occupy Michigan gathering and they showed me this very cool product. Along the way in their travels they found Thing Sling and have been introducing it to people who are streaming video through their cell phones. I happen to be one of those persons in that hops on to stream a lot of activities.How it works
There is an adhesive backing that attaches to the back of your cell phone. An elastic strap from end to end on the backing forms a loop across the back of the phone now. This allows you to slide your finger in the strap to hold the phone rather than grasp it with your fingers.
What I've found even more useful is using a stick, monopod, or even an inverted crutch inside the elastic strap. You might be wondering about using a crutch - there are rules in City Council sessions that make it tough to carry anything that looks like a baton. Monopods unfortunately have that baton look to them and security isn't so fond of allowing something that looks like a weapon through checkpoint. However a crutch, walking stick, or cane is often allowed when a person has difficulty getting around. I found myself blessed traveling with Sandra Hines when she would bring her crutch to council sessions. I'd ask her to use the crutch while she was seated - I turned it upside down and extended the length as far as possible. That then gave me a make-shift monopod for the Thing Sling strap to go around.
If you are out at a demonstration and have the Thing Sling on your phone. Get it started up, strap it to a walking stick and hold it high over the crowd - you might want to build a forward tilt by passing a cloth strap around the stick above the cameraphone. If using a crutch the rubber floor guard serves that purpose.
Eventually the strap gets much looser than when you originally installed it. You can see from the photo that snug fit to the phone has been lost. It still stretches, but has been stretched out over time.
