Cord vs Velcro–Why Does HandlePod Use Cord?
Elastic cord holds the HandlePod firmly to a pole for long exposure night photography.
Reviewers and photographers have asked why the HandlePod features an elastic cord for attachment. Why not Velcro? There are several answers but it boils down to this:
- Size—elastic cord is thin, easy to coil and takes up little space.
- Flexibility—the cord stretches to almost 50 inches. It can wrap around large objects. And it is easy to tighten if more pressure is needed to hold the camera. Just slip it out of the slot, pull it tighter and put it back in.
- Strength—the cord is wrapped in a nylon sheath. It will hold many times the weight of a camera and definitely will not break or come loose.
Velcro can make many of these claims but does not have the same level of performance. The small elastic cord will stretch to around four feet. The same length of Velcro would take up many times the space and be difficult to store, carry and use. Velcro has no elastic stretch. It will hold but cannot be tightened to the same pressure that elastic can apply. And since Velcro is a two-part system, it complicates using several feet of it to wrap around both large and small supports.
The thin elastic cord does not look as robust as Velcro and some users have expressed misgivings about its ability to hold. But rest assured that even a single wrap of the elastic cord will easily support an SLR or any camera.