or mark up the bottom rear edge of the base plate damn strap. +1 on the Cotton Carrier. I wore it 9+ hours for each of two days at the Red Bull Air Races at Liberty Park, NJ, last June. Talk about comfort and convenience; the CC has it in spades! What I really, really liked is that I didn't have any problems with my D700 banging up against the metal benches we were sitting on , as I would have had happen with the BR-7, unless of course I had grabbed hold of my camera each time I stood up or sat down. Also, the CC fit perfectly underneath my ThinkTank 360 rotation, giving me another option with respect to how to transport my gear. Moreover, it fits perfectly under my Gregory backpack, so I can hike to my heart's content, carrying all my gear, and not have to worry about my camera's safety or missing a shot because of where the damn camera/lens is flopping about. I've consigned my BR-7 to the 'excess gear bag'. Full disclosure requires me to say that I'm damn pissed off at BR for not having fully disclosed the potential for dinging my D700 in the aforementioned places. Bad on them.
JohnJ80 wrote:
Disconnects from the bottom of the camera and the hook thing. Also numerous whacks into tabletops and other hip high obstacles.
j.
Of course it'll whack into hip high obstacles. It's the nature of the type of strap. That's like saying the cotton carrier will damage your camera if you lay on your stomach while wearing it loaded. After using it for a while, it becomes second nature to keep a hand on it in those situations.
As for the thread unscrewing, you must not have screwed it on hard enough. It's not the strap that failed, it was the installation. Nothing mehcanical broke. Given that it's a threaded connection, it might come loose with vibration and needs to be very tight.
at which highly tightened point, and with suitable duration at that tightened point, removing the fixture has on at least my friend's occasion, on a virtually brand new D700, had the effect of pulling up and off the rubber surface on the base plate. Glad it works for you and others. Has not for me.
anthonysemone wrote:
at which highly tightened point, and with suitable duration at that tightened point, removing the fixture has on at least my friend's occasion, on a virtually brand new D700, had the effect of pulling up and off the rubber surface on the base plate. Glad it works for you and others. Has not for me.
tony
You see, this is a big piece of it. It's a camera strap for heaven's sake and not brain surgery. I ought not to need to have to get a calibrated torque wrench out to make sure I've connected it 'just so' nor lick anything on my camera or gear.
For the record, once it came out because the screw backed itself out after a day of carrying. Bang, the camera landed in the snow (wet, but no damage to the camera fortunately). The other time, I'm not sure what happened, but I had been sitting, stood up and the camera was disconnected from the hook/connector thing and fell on the floor. Don't know how that happened either because I had carefully connected it properly.
That doesn't count the 3X that the original snap hook came undone and the "upgrade" that BR made me pay for instead of just sending to correct their defective design. The freebie fix was a 1/4" long piece of vinyl tubing that you were supposed to put over the hook. Perfect. I use my cameras in cold weather - try and get a cold piece of vinyl tubing to work. A $70 strap and I need to fix it with a piece of vinyl tubing?
Then add up all the whacks of camera into hip high obstacles, or against people in crowds. Sure, I could use a hand to keep that clear but what is the point of the strap then if I have to use a hand to protect it all the time? I need both of my hands for getting where I'm going (often on skis, walking on hills, scrambling etc...). The whole point of a camera strap is to not HAVE to use your hands to hold the camera.
Bending over and having the camera almost frictionlessly swing around to in front of me and probably hit something is just not good. That isn't just a problem with BR, but with all sling straps in general.
In the case of BR, the way I see it, is if I buy a premium product like this, I ought not to have to do their debugging for them. It ought to be a finished and correctly working product when I get it. Especially for something as simple as a damn camera strap.
However, if you are standing around out in the middle of a large open area (like they show in their video), or have a free hand for your camera then a sling might work ok if you are careful around tables and corners. If you want a sling, pick one that isn't a work in progress but is a finished product.
So, I think I pretty much got suckered on this thing. Definitely not ready for prime time. I've had none of these problems with any other strap - Optech, Upstrap, or Wapiti.
Bending over and having the camera almost frictionlessly swing around to in front of me and probably hit something is just not good. That isn't just a problem with BR, but with all sling straps in general.
This would happen with any type of strap sling or neck. So that point is not limited to a sling type strap.
The OP stated it too, he did not wet the rubber ring. It does say that in their video installation to wet the rubber ring. It allows it to tighten down more as it lubes, then it dries and sticks.
I am not trying to talk you into using it again, but I think it is unfair to say it is a defect when more work than I have heard or seen fail. I use the double with with 70-200 D3 to 50mm on the D3 and don't have a problem swinging or hit someone/thing. You just have to exercise caution just like I do carry my 400 2.8 on monopod anything can swing around and wack someone.
That does not happen with a regular strap worn as a sling - even more so with an Upstrap or the Wapiti strap (my other straps). It cannot be made to not happen with a sling strap unless you hold it with one hand. It can with a regular camera strap worn as a sling - very difficult to make it happen in point of fact.
My photography is primarily landscape (not the side of the road by the car stuff) where I have to often scramble in over uneven terrain that requires the use of hands. I also shoot a lot of stuff from places that you need to use a boat to get to - so that means scrambling in and out of boats to dinghies, onto shore/docks and then up into the areas near water. Again, requires hands. Finally, I shoot a lot of alpine skiing (both racing and other). This often means having to ski to the location, standing around on icy hills or scrambling to the shooting location on foot up those same icy hills. Again, I need both hands - a characteristic that I would submit is the primary reason for having a strap of ANY kind. What good is a camera strap if it ties down the use of one of your hands?
Anything I need to lick to make it stick on a camera is just bad design in the first place - a kludge. Besides that, not healthy to lick anything that is at 0F if you want to keep your tongue in working order. I'd also prefer not wetting anything and putting it on my camera.
It is most definitely a defect if the camera falls. If I have to lick anything - that is most definitely a design defect. The early days of the Black Rapid straps were a nightmare of poor customer service and unfinished product design. I do give you that it is better now.
The better solutions for these applications is either the Cotton Carrier or a traditional longer camera strap worn as a sling.
If one just saunters around the zoo casually taking pictures on a sunny warm spring day, then this probably works just fine. Otherwise, not so much. If you look at the picture of the sports shooter earlier, you can see how this thing put your camera at risk if you have to be in a crowd or moving through tight areas. Otherwise there are much better solutions like some of the more slip resistant longer straps and things like the Cotton Carrier.
There have been a very small number of "failures," and as expected, people whose gear hit the ground are not only pissed, but vocal. Not a surprise, and nothing wrong with it.
For my part, I've used their straps since they fist became available. On several cameras, taking them off and putting them back on frequently, with no issues whatsoever. It's never even become loose. I've never read directions, or watched any videos. It's a friggin' strap. I took it out of the package, screwed it in, and have been happily using it ever since. No Loctite, no wetting. Just offering my very positive experience.
There's variation in everything. Out of everyone who's dropped gear, I'd guess a good number are just not very careful, and the rest have legitimately defective attachment hardware. Nothing's perfect. You can drop your gear from any kind of strap, either by being careless, or due to a manufacturing defect. I seriously doubt BR straps have any higher rate of these instances than other designs.
clearly true and yet, if I'm the only guy using a BR strap who has had his camera body dinged by the frigging carabiner, then the question is, what the hell did I do wrong; nothing that I can tell, given that I exactly followed BR's instructions for mounting. Moreover, my friend near pulled the rubber bottom off the baseplate of his D700, having explicitly followed the instruction to "wet" the rubber grommet before attaching the strap. Noticing that the rubber bottom was beginning to move with the rubber grommet, he then had to press down on the baseplate rubber to separate it from the BR grommet to keep it from coming off the baseplate. Bad news for BR I'm afraid, at least from my perspective.
A $65 strap ought to work right out of the box and have a lot less variation than the one that comes with the camera for free.
J.
I don't think we disagree on what $65 should get you. A $65 strap ought to be good. It is good. You dropped your camera, so naturally you're pissed. What is "a lot less variation?" Has anyone quantified the variation for BR straps vs. others? I doubt it.
All I'm saying is, you're clearly biased, having damaged gear. I am biased as well, having a 100% positive experience. Proper statistical analysis (as opposed to anecdotal accounts) might go a long ways toward deciding if either one of our biases were well-founded. I'm betting no such analysis has been done. Without any quality evidence either way, I'm going off my own experience, and you're going off yours.
Like I said, we disagree. I'm good with that. I have a very low opinion of both the ability of BR to execute a new product and get it right and in their design which seems to have issues with dropping cameras. You like yours. Although, I'm fairly confident you'll change your mind when you also have a camera dropped and you become pissed as well.
For comparison, if you want to see a well put together sling strap then look at the Luma Loops product. Much more finished and nothing drops anywhere. All secure and good execution. Besides that, you don't have to give up your tripod mount to use it.
I have used my Black Rapid RS-7 strap on my D700/MB-D10 on a 10 mile walk for cancer, amusement parks and family trips without any problems. I inspect each time before an outting and the loop stays where I left it. I use it with my 24-70 and 70-200 lens combo. I have an extra loop that stays on the 70-200 collar. HTH.
When you have to use extra cables, lanyards and screws to make a product like this safe, I think there is something basically wrong with the design of the product.
I never understood this strap. I keep may camera on my hip with a two point strap, and never had a problem getting it up to my eye quickly.
With a BlackRapids RS-7 I carried my 1D III and 100-400L through NY streets at least 6 miles and 13 hours each day for 2 days and never complainted.
I did shift around a few times but it was never a bother, and I'm usually a wimp about carring heavy things around.
damn strap. +1 on the Cotton Carrier. I wore it 9+ hours for each of two days at the Red Bull Air Races at Liberty Park, NJ, last June. Talk about comfort and convenience; the CC has it in spades! What I really, really liked is that I didn't have any problems with my D700 banging up against the metal benches we were sitting on 
, as I would have had happen with the BR-7, unless of course I had grabbed hold of my camera each time I stood up or sat down. Also, the CC fit perfectly underneath my ThinkTank 360 rotation, giving me another option with respect to how to transport my gear. Moreover, it fits perfectly under my Gregory backpack, so I can hike to my heart's content, carrying all my gear, and not have to worry about my camera's safety or missing a shot because of where the damn camera/lens is flopping about. I've consigned my BR-7 to the 'excess gear bag'. Full disclosure requires me to say that I'm damn pissed off at BR for not having fully disclosed the potential for dinging my D700 in the aforementioned places. Bad on them.