I have had various SLR cameras over the years and have always used them on or close to the water. The standard straps provide with them have never been great. I have never liked wearing the strap around my neck and have always ended up wrapping the strap around my wrist/arm a few times to keep the camera safe. Thinking back the camera was never really secure, but I have been lucky and have never dropped a camera in the water or on the ground.
As I have been doing more photography lately the strap situation was becoming more of an issue. After looking around for a while I found the Black Rapid Sport camera strap. The system is similar to the type of straps the military are now using for rifle slings. That in itself was a good reason to check the Black Rapid Sport 2 out.
After a few months of weekly use I can honestly say that I love the system. It just makes it so easy to swing the camera into use whilst it still remains safe and secure. The strap in super comfortable and even when shooting at the NSR earlier in the year after 5 hours plus of use I didn’t feel any discomfort.
The strap works well even when wearing a rucksack, which tends to be my preferred way of carrying lots of kit. The straps are available in left and right handed varieties, I use the right handed version which sits the padded strap on the left shoulder. An additional quick release strap help keeps everything in position.
The strap has a small screw gate karabiner which is attached to a metal gizmo that screws into the tripod mount thread on your camera. I have attached some accessory cord to mine for when I have the camera on the tripod to prevent loss of the part.
I have probably used the strap for around 100 hours or so and I wouldn’t go back to the old OEM strap.
The full features are explained in the video below, which is where I found about the Black Rapid Sport 2. If you are a Nikon user this guys videos are well worth checking out.
Nice, I’ve been toying around with the idea of buying one of these for a while or the spider holster also a great product saw a chap using one at a wedding tough bit of kit
Can’t comment of the spider holster but the Black Rapid is really well made. They do a fair bit of other stuff as well.