BlackRapid Sport Camera Strap Review
I am the kind of photographer who never leaves home without a camera, always ready to shoot. I have a camera within reach at all times. I love photography; it is in my blood, my heart, and my soul. Having said all that, carrying a camera around all the time used to be very difficult and a huge pain. I hate carrying a camera around my neck as so many tourists do. It is so uncomfortable. I used to sling a camera over one of my shoulders with the manufacturer’s strap, but the camera would always slide down my shoulder, and I would have to keep re-adjusting it, which was extremely irritating.
About the only photo, I have of the carry speed strap. I had no website at the time and I seldom took pictures of my gear then.
And then one day, while I was browsing YouTube, I saw a review for a camera strap by Jared Polin. I watched the whole review and thought that it looked like the perfect solution for me. I tried to get a copy of the strap in China but could not find one anywhere. I searched for a couple of months with no luck. Eventually, I found an alternative called Carryspeed and ordered one. I used it for about a year and really saw the advantage of carrying a camera across my shoulders, but I was not very happy with Carryspeed. The ball-and-socket mechanism they use to attach the strap to your camera felt clumsy, and I could not connect the strap to the tripod mount on my larger lens.
While it might look like a strong solution, the ball and socket mechanism will wear out very quickly and break. The worst part is that you cannot tell how worn it is because it is hidden away with the locking nut.
And then the unthinkable happened. I had just bought a brand new D4S, and while I was shooting my first show with it, the ball-and-socket mechanism broke, sending my camera crashing to the ground with my Nikon 80-200mm lens attached. The camera crashed down onto its pentaprism, tearing it open and warping the body. I had only taken about 300 photos with the camera by that time. To cut a long story short, the D4S was a write-off; it could not be repaired, and my confidence in using a Carryspeed strap was forever gone. I searched online again, and by now there were many companies selling BlackRapid straps, so I ordered two: one Sport R model for my work and one Metro model to carry my everyday walk-around camera.
The ConnectR can hold a ton of weight with no problem.
The new straps arrived, and I loved them. They were super comfortable to wear, though the sports strap was a little bit better in my opinion. The Brad strap really helps to keep the strap nice and secure on your shoulder. The FastenR (tripod nut that connects to the camera) makes it so much easier to use than the CarrySpeed camera strap. I usually keep a fastener attached to each one of my cameras and on my big lens, so that I can move the camera strap to new equipment very quickly.
My usual work process, a Blackrapid nipple on my camera and my big lens makes it easy to switch lens and camera.
The ConnectR (steel bracket—I hate their personalized vocabulary) feels strong, and I have carried some heavy gear on this strap, and it has worked well for me so far. The shoulder strap distributes the weight nice and evenly, even when I have used my Nikon D3S with the Tamron 150-600mm lens on this strap. That combination may be over 6kg or more, and it never felt like it was going to pull my shoulder off. When I use a larger lens, I connect the strap to the tripod collar on the lens, not the camera. This seems to balance the weight fairly evenly and takes the stress off the camera mount.
One thing that I do with my Blackrapid strap is that I attach my photo pass to the brad strap, the pass hands from the opposite of the camera, it is out of my way but still visible to security.
The ballistic nylon that the strap is made of seems very strong, and on both my straps there is no sign of wear or tear. Good, well-made products like this are hard to find. But not everything is perfect with the strap. On the urban model, I find that the strap will rotate on your shoulder, and after 30 or 40 minutes of walking, the shoulder pad has done a 180 and is near your camera while the unprotected strap is on your shoulder. Not a big deal, but it does happen a lot. However, there is one major problem that I have encountered with the strap, and that is with the buckle. The ConnectR that connects the strap to the camera will slowly wear over time when you use it, and it could break. Mine did break, and it destroyed one of my cameras.
The Blackrapid Metro failing on me, destroying my camera.
Luckily for me, this was a cheap old film camera this time. Now, I check my straps very often for wear and tear, and if I think that the ConnectR is too worn, I will buy a new strap. I still love the strap, to be honest, even though it did fail on me once and break one of my cameras. I just put that failure down to excessive use, as I used the strap almost every single day for two years. Would I recommend this strap to other people? Absolutely. This is a great piece of photography gear. If you shoot a lot, then you absolutely need to buy this strap. Save your neck and enjoy the benefits of having a camera by your side at all times, ready to shoot.
My D3S hanging on my Blackrapid, during a show. The camera hands very comfortably off the strap and I hardly know it is there.
Rating
- Build Quality: 5 out of 5
- Easy of use: 5 out of 5
- Durability: 3 out of 5
Shaun