I've never been a fan of just shooting with one camera body and having to switch lenses. I don't really care how fast you can swap lenses, it still takes more time than simply lowering one arm and raising the other. That's also one of the reasons I've never been able to shoot with a flagship body like the Nikon D5. I can pretty much shoot with two prime lenses for most of the wedding day, while carrying a small bag with 2 more lenses to rotate in and out if needed. With that being said, I need a good setup for carrying and shooting dual bodies on a long wedding day.

About 2 years ago, both Sandi and I switched over to shooting the Holdfast Money Maker from the dual Spyder holster. We were both tired of having to walk sideways through tight spaces, as wearing the belt made you about 10-12" wider with a camera on each hip. It's a nice system, but there were a few things we didn't love about them. So, onto the Money Maker.

At first, we loved our Money Makers. Not only were they much better looking than the Spyder system but we preferred the mobility of them as well. We quickly learned though, that the sexy look of the Money Maker had a problem. A very painful problem. Due to the design of the slider, it would pinch the shit out of the skin on our arms as they moved up and down if you were wearing a short-sleeved shirt. It was at this same time that I started to learn a little more about the Holdfast company and the man behind the scenes, Matt Swaggart. A photographer himself, a Leica photographer actually, happened to already be in the process of designing a new slider to help prevent the pinching. I was happy to see that although the product seemed to be kicking ass in the wedding photography circle, he had heard about the pinching and was already hard at work designing possible resolutions. A few weeks later, he sent me out a couple replacement sliders to try and BAM! (In my best Emeril Lagasse voice), no more pinching.

I'm a huge advocate of working with companies that not only create and offer awesome products, but are also run by great people who continue to work hard at improving on them. Holdfast is one of those companies. Matt is always creating new products and working hard to improve on the already successul ones, such as the Money Maker. A few weeks ago, he reached out to me and said he had made two impressive upgrades to the Money Maker that he wanted me to try, the first being new buckle design. A new buckle design? I didn't think there was anything wrong with the current one. Well, that's what makes a great company. Matt had made a pretty impressive upgrade to the buckle system, not because of a problem, but simply because he noticed something that could be improved on. The new buckle completely hides all the excess, which you can see the difference between the two in the photos at the bottom of this article. Well done Matt, well done. 

The 2nd upgrade is the one that I'm really impressed with, and that's the new leather Matt is using with the Chestnut and Tan Money Makers. Again, there really wasn't an issue with the leather that was being used, but Matt spent over a year working on finding something better. I could immediately tell when I opened the package that the leather was a new, it's thicker and the texture looks slightly different. It's a softer leather which makes it more comfortable to wear and it doesn't have as much memory after wearing it for a full wedding day. If you sweat a lot on a hot day like myself, you know how much the original leather absorbs sweat like a sponge. When it dries, the leather would lose its original shape. This new leather doesn't absorb sweat as easily, and after wearing it for 3 long hot weddings it has kept its original form and looks brand new. 

If you already own and love your Money Maker, I would consider an upgrade to the new leather. If you tried one in the past and didn't like it, I recommend giving Holdfast another chance. If you ordered a Chestnut or Tan leather Money Maker in the past 5-6 weeks, you more than likely received one of the new ones. I will be purchasing a new one for Sandi since hers is almost 2 years old now and I know she will find the new leather much more comfortable. The newly designed Money Maker is pretty impressive upgrade to an already popular product that I have no doubt will make photogs love wearing it even more now. 

Below: The new design next to the original