Depending on your needs, and your tolerance for dorky belt-mounted accessories, the Spider Holster is either the handiest camera-carrier we’ve yet seen, or a sure-fire way to scare the girls away.

As I have found out from riding a bike with a lock holster around my waist, hip-mounting heavy gear is a comfortable and fatigue-beating way to carry it. It also keeps things close at hand. The Spider Holster consists a belt, a hook for that belt and a plate for the base of the camera. The baseplate (which screws into the tripod mount) has a small ball-like nodule sticking out, and the belt-mounted section has a slot into which the ball can slide. Think of a hip-mounted trailer-hitch and you’ll get the idea.

With this setup, your camera hangs at your side, ready to use, and when you need it you just grab it. No straps to get in the way, and no dead, crushed shoulders at the end of the shoot. On set, it looks fantastic.

Out in the street, however, it may not be such a good idea. The ease of access extends to the pickpockets around you, and wearing a camera like this is, as we have mentioned, a lady-magnet. If, of course, those magnets are placed in their repellent pole to pole positions.

The security aspect is mitigated by the second and lower of two camera positions which engages a catch, but this is more to stop things falling as you clamber around the set than to discourage light fingers.

The stainless steel and aluminum Spider Holster is set to debut on November 1st, with the price yet to be revealed.

Product page [Spider Holster via Photography Bay]