Basically with if the camera's out I wear it round my neck with a hand
on it.  If its in it's top loader case I have the strap around the
body (courier style) not over the shoulder and in a few really dodgy
places I've had a second waist strap on the bag as well.

I would think carrying the tripod with an strap attached to it and
over the body would do.  I carry my birding tripod that way - for
comfort not security tho'.

I didn't feel at all threatened in Poland last year.

Brian
(for email change closed to open)

We've done a week in Prague and a week in Buda (staying in Buda, which
beats staying in Pest which can be a bit scary in terms of streetlife).
Carrying not one but two to four cameras, photo backpack, bags, lenses
etc between us and using nothing but public transport bus and metro, and
walking in both places.

Felt entirely secure, even in remote or off-mainstreet areas, evening,
day, night, parks, zoos, fairgrounds, castles, churches, museums,
woodlands and countryside, suburbs. Certainly no more threat than you
would feel in Edinburgh or Newcastle and probably less than you would
feel in London.

Altogether a better experience in both places than our last visit to
Paris, which is the world's least attractive and romantic city by
comparison and yielded an instant £30-for-£7 ticket scam when someone
'helped us' get the right metro pass on arrival (still don't know how
they did it, appeared to press all the right buttons for a 7-day pass,
showed the right money - presumably palmed single journey tickets in
place of the 7-dayers as the machine spat the real ones out).

In Prague our hotel involved walking a few hundred metres through pine
woods with cycle paths at night. In Buda, we made the decision to walk 2
kilometres to the main metro station to buy our one-week pass rather
than get a taxi or as yet un-sussed bus. We also walked the entire
circuit of Margaret Island which was well populated with dossers. Ended
up sheltering from a sudden downpour with two robust-looking rough
sleepers complete with bottles in hand. We acknowledged their existence,
they didn't bother us.

Here's a URL for what we filed with Alamy from Budapest - may not seem a
lot for a short week, but we're not machine-gun shooters and only put
shots with sales potential on Alamy, and this excludes our RF material
under a different pseudonym:

http://www.alamy.com/stock-photography-search-results.asp?qt=budapest+kilpatrick

Both visits were made in Spring/Summer; we booked Budapest for a January
trip, but a week before it was due, looked at the weather for
photography and the answer was awful - so we switched the booking for
May and the conditions were fine. Usual Easyjet flexibility.

David

More often than not my camera is kept securely round my neck. In the
event of someone trying to remove it from the tripod, I have several
feet of blunt instrument in my hand with which to see off any potential
thief.

I have never had any issues with this, however. (Fingers crossed: I'm
taking the kit to West Africa tomorrow.)

Luke

These are not 'high risk' places, but of course opportunists do exist
everywhere.  One thing I've always done is have a carabiner and short length
of climbing sling in a pocket of my bag.  The sling can go through a loop on
the bag and any time I feel I want a little extra 'grab protection' the
'biner gets clipped to my belt.

The bag is usually over my shoulder diagonally, and may have a waist belt
too (for comfort more than security) so it is pretty secure anyway, but I
still find the extra security useful on ocassion.  With it between bag and
body it is hidden, so even if someone slashes the bag strap and makes a run,
they'll suddenly find the bag is still attached to you after all.  It is
also useful when you sit down for lunch: the bag goes on a vacant chair at
the table and is clipped to the table leg or chair back.  This is no use if
the bag is out of your sight, but in this situation where it is in your view
all the time, the extra security means no one can grab it and make a run for
it: they have to stop and undo something first.

As ever though, vigilance is the real defence, and relying on any physical
clip, strap, lock or cord is actually a problem rather than a help if you
let it reduce your vigilance level.

Peter