The thought of spending $70 on a camera strap does seem crazy. DSLRs come with a strap out-of-the-box, and if you don’t like it, there are third-party straps for $20 or $30. But $70? It better be one hell of a strap.
Well, call me crazy. I ordered a Black Strap RS-Sport from Amazon over the weekend, and it arrived today. I’ve been looking for a better camera strap for a while. The standard Canon strap has the problem that pretty much every standard camera strap has; it puts all the weight of the camera on the back of your neck. And when we’re talking about several pounds dangling on your neck for hours, you start to feel it. Beyond that, there’s the issue that the camera is just dangling on your chest. If you walk around, it bounces about unless you raise your hand to hold it in place. Then there’s the issue of the camera bumping into everything in front of you, such as the counter at a store.
And then I discovered Black Rapid, a company that is actually down the street from where I work in Fremont. Black Rapid has created an entire new category of camera strap/slings that are simply awesome. I picked up the RS-Sport, a padded shoulder strap/sling with an additional band to add stability to the strap. The camera attaches to a device that can ride the strap up and down. When not in use, the camera dangles at your side very naturally. When you want to take a photo, just raise the camera to your eye, shoot, and then return it to your side. It feels so natural and effortless, and now all the weight is distributed across your shoulder rather than your neck. You really have to experience it for yourself; it’s so much better it’s a wonder why Canon and Nikon haven’t gone to this.
Black Rapid straps have an incredible number of stellar reviews on pretty much every shopping site out there, though there are one or two horror stories of something (usually the metal pin holding the carabiner to the strap) failing and thousands of of dollars of camera gear slamming to the ground without warning. My own experience with metal carabiners is that metal fatigue inevitably sets in and something snaps. So I designed a simple backup tether. I bought 50ft of 3mm utility cord from REI for $4.50. This is nylon/polyester cord rated at holding 400 pounds; very useful for camping purposes, such as hanging your food in the air to deter bears. Or, in this case, keeping a 7D on its strap.
I cut off about eight inches and went to Animated Knots for help with the next steps. I threaded one end through the camera strap mount on my 7D and tied a double overhand stopper knot to keep it in place. I then tied the other end in a loop around the strap using a non-slip mono knot. Should the metal pin holding the carabiner, the carabiner, or the fastener attached to the tripod socket fail, the camera is still attached to the strap with the cord. I’ll rest easier knowing that I’m safe even in the face of an unlikely catastrophic failure.
