New Sponsor: BlackRapid
A great big welcome to BlackRapid. The makers of the most simple yet innovative camera strap to come down the proverbial pike in a while. As soon as I get my mitts on the new RS-3 I will do a short review on it. Plus, we might just be giving one or two of these puppies away, so stick around.
David DuChemin gave me a RS-2 while doing the last Lumen Dei in India. I put it on, adjusted the length and was good to go. Well, almost, for some strange reason David had misplaced the small connector that BR make to fasten the camera to the strap called the FastenR. So as you can see from his blog HERE we used some cord (actually from the R-Strap’s net bag that the strap is packaged in) and attach that to my battery grip and then the strap to the cord. I tied a simple but “bomber” figure eight knot in the cord and that was all she wrote. The length and even they way the camera hung from the strap was perfect. Now David did not have any of the RS-1 straps left, but he did give me a RS-2, the more bulky strap with the cell phone pouch. I am not even sure BlackRapid even produces the RS-2 anymore. After rigging the new fastener, the first thing I did (sorry guys) was to cut off the “Velcroed” pouch and slimmed down the profile of the RS-2, now it was much closer to the light weight RS-1 and the camera hung just at the right angle to grab in a hurry.
Just no way around it, BlackRapid straps are a cut (pardon the pun) above the rest.
Welcome BlackRapid. Glad to have you on board!
I love my RS-2 and can’t imagine using any other strap again. My only complaint about BlackRapid is that they were taking orders a while back for a new hooking mechanism and I paid for my shipping (item was free if you pre-ordered) and I have yet to recieve it, I sent them an email about it and they said they were behind schedule, something like 3 months now. So I say use the strap, but be weary of ordering directly from them.
I think Blackrapid were pretty clear that the new hooks were being pre-ordered and shipped when they arrived – when the manufacturer/supplier of the hook fell behind Blackrapid issued an announcement that they’d willingly refund on these. I think, Craig, you’re right to wish this were faster, but they’re a young company and they’re dealing with the growing pains, in my experience, as honestly as they can. This strap become more popular than they imagined and it’s been a challenge to keep up for them – I think they’re doing pretty well, all things considered. If you’re unhappy with them I suggest you speak to them – I know them and know they’d do what they could to keep you happy and restore your trust in them. Just my two cents worth.