Nope. I did have the wonderful experience of having the strap come unbuckled and nearly caused my $3500 camera setup to spill to the ground. Luckily I had my hand on the camera at the time.
Other than being unreliable, it's a great strap (in theory).
I use a RS4 all the time and it's never scratched my camera body. However, I have it screwed into my camera plate. When I want to use the tripod I just unscrew it. Takes about 5 seconds.
MagicNikon wrote:
Nope. I did have the wonderful experience of having the strap come unbuckled and nearly caused my $3500 camera setup to spill to the ground. Luckily I had my hand on the camera at the time.
Other than being unreliable, it's a great strap (in theory).
My d700 + 24-70mm hit the ground this saturday. Scared the HELL out of me, but thankfully it fell only 3 feet onto sand/moss/soil... (on the L-bracket and hood, nothing else).
Worst sound ever.
Somehow I didn't check to see if the clasp was locked (via the twist-lock system used on most carabiner-type clasps), and of course it wasn't. It unhooked and took a spill while my girlfriends sister had the camera. Really ruined her day, and nearly mine!
If you buy one of these bad boys, you can swap it out and you won't have that problem... I've carried rifles that way alot more than any camera with one of these no problem.
MagicNikon wrote:
Nope. I did have the wonderful experience of having the strap come unbuckled and nearly caused my $3500 camera setup to spill to the ground. Luckily I had my hand on the camera at the time.
Other than being unreliable, it's a great strap (in theory).
I gotta ask, how did this happen that was the straps fault and not the users fault? I'm not being sarcastic, I just want to know if its a design problem or not.
visanic wrote:
I'm interested in the BlackRapid RS4, but have read some articles about how the tripod mount and clasp can scratch the camera body.
Has anyone had this experience?
Yes, I have experienced this. A very slight scratch on the bottom of my Canon 20D. It exposed the aluminum, which I covered up using a magic marker.
I found this was caused by the knurled part of he clasp rubbing on the body. I turned the clasp 180 degrees so the other side of the clasp is now closest to the camera body.
Yes, with the BR7. I now have the lower rear edge of my D700 covered with electrician's tape, and I have the connector on the strap also covered with it.
JimboCin wrote:
I found this was caused by the knurled part of he clasp rubbing on the body. I turned the clasp 180 degrees so the other side of the clasp is now closest to the camera body.
I haven't had any problems myself, but I noted on a recent purchase that current R-Straps are no longer knurled, the lock down is smooth.
The screw that connects the metal rectangular strap pass through to the carabineer was the cause of the initial "dropping" issues. For me, I took it apart and reassembled using red loctite on the screw's threads. Have not had one problem.
I've been using my R-3 (I think) for 3-4 years now, and walked many a mile up and down the sidelines of many a sporting event and have never dropped my camera nor has it scracthed the body.
Not sure why folks have had issues but BlackRapid has went over and above IMHO to apise the folks that have had issue's due to whatever reason.
On a side note, if you use your equipment in all honesty its going to get scracthed and nicked from time to time it part of it. Althogh you should try to refrain from intentionally damaging you gear.
Jeff
I have an RS-4 that has the smooth clasp. No issues here regarding clasp scratching anything. Only problem I've had was user error when I almost dropped my rig due to fastener coming unscrewed from the body. Note to self: Tighten all connections. While not perfect, it's the best strap solution I've tried so far. I look forward to BR's refinements of their product line.
My mod elimnates all of the BR style strap problems.
NO hardware to scratch anything
NO problem quickly attaching to a tripod
NO bulky hardware when shooting portrait with a grip
NO chicken crap hardware to fail
