Kamil Tamiola shooting pro climber Lumi Toma atop Mont Blanc. Tamiola is using Slide to hold a PhaseOne medium format camera.
Our Anchors are built to withstand over 200 lbs (90 kg) of absolute force. That means they are strong enough to handle a safe working load of any professional camera rig. That's any sized camera, lens, grip, and/or other accessory, including large telephoto lenses, medium format cameras, and more.
They're also designed to hold up to rigorous use in extreme environments. Many thousands of professional photographers trust Peak Design Anchors to hold their priceless gear on a daily basis.
We've also been working to continuously improve the performance of our Anchors since their inception, and ensure that all Peak Design products are designed to seamlessly integrate with our Anchor Link system.
Lastly, we support our Anchor Link system with a lifetime warranty, meaning that if your Anchors ever begin to show signs of wear we will replace them for free.
ANCHOR WEAR & FRAYING
Over the past few years we've been making our Anchor cords out of a special anti-abrasion multilayer woven thermoplastic that is exceptionally fray resistant. Older generations of Anchors were made with braided Kevlar or Vectran. These older Anchors were a bit more susceptible to fraying in certain conditions. If you’re experiencing fraying with your Anchors, please do the following:
- Inspect the cord closely. Is the fray occurring just in the outer strands of the cord? Or is it penetrating deep and affecting a large portion of the cross sectional area? Superficial fray (fuzziness) on the outside of cords is ok. Deep fray means your Anchor should be replaced immediately.
- Inspect the connection point closely. This may be a Peak Design quick-release plate or a strap lug on your camera. Is the surface smooth? Or do you see rough/sharp edges or burrs? Many Peak Design plates have been hand worked, and a few may contain aberrations on the inside corners that slipped through our older QC procedures. If there is roughness on your Peak Design plate, you can get a warranty replacement.
- Try rotating your Anchors and quick-release plate. Like rotating tires on a car, this can ensure your Anchors wear evenly and last longer.
If your Anchors or quick-release plate need replacement, those are both under warranty. Follow the directions on our warranty replacement page.
A NOTE ON ANCHOR CORD ENGINEERING
Behind the scenes, we’ve been improving the performance of Anchors since their inception. The two areas we’ve been focusing on are failure strength, and cord longevity. The failure strength has to do with how the cords are embedded into the thermoplastic resin that surrounds them. We spent years honing this bond, and have our breakage strength consistently close to 250 lb (113 kg). For reference, the very first Anchor prototypes experienced failure at about 75 pounds. It’s also worth noting that we’ve never heard of an Anchor failing from the cord pulling out of the thermoplastic resin.
Fraying has been the bigger challenge we’ve faced over time, and we continue to make improvements to get better performance. In an abrasive environment (such as an Anchor connected to our plates), all cords will fray over time. As such, Anchors should be rotated and changed, similar to the tires on your car.
Our most recent Anchor design update happened in 2018 when we released our V4 Anchors. The image below shows how our Anchors evolved.
V4 Anchors feature a thermoplastic cord and an angled body with a PD logo on one side. If you have older Anchors, we recommend upgrading to the latest. We offer a free Anchor Update program...read this article for more info.
With our first generation of Anchors we saw some inconsistent fraying over time, and have worked hard on addressing that issue. These older Anchors had Kevlar or Vectran cords. The new Anchors have multilayered woven thermoplastic cords. This material is stronger and far more resistant to fraying than Kevlar or Vectran. Instead of fraying when abraded, it does something called “cold setting”. It hardens around the area of maximum stress, essentially developing a protective “skin.”
The new Anchors also feature a built-in warning system. The inner layer of woven thermoplastic is bright red. If you see bright red on your Anchor cord, you should replace it immediately.