To strap or not to strap? R strap review
Dear Photographers,
I am sorry to tell you that you are about to spend 50 bucks. But it will be the best 50 bucks spend ever, cause you need one of these.
Love, Sunny
All joke aside, welcome to our Black rapid R4 strap review.
Black Rapid
So what is all this R strap business? It is all because of Ron Henry, an avid shoot of the ” Seattle music scene, weddings, and other dynamic environments” (blackrapid.com). As photographers we travel and we shoot a lot. For example, a single photo shoot here at SHEI runs on average 5+ hours!
To handle our camera, there are usually two routines - the no strap or the strap. I personally always have a strap for safety and that thing is always around my hand or neck. That leads to problems, if the strap is around your neck it does get uncomfortable after a while, because of the weight and the heat. If you are wrapping the strap around you hand it get annoying after a while. To photographers that is not shooting a lot, it really doesn’t mean much, but to anyone does a moderate to heavy amount of shoot, comfort is king!
And come black rapid to save the day. The back rapid is a “gun slingers” approach to camera handing, and to be perfectly straight with you, it is brilliant. check out the picture for more details. Black rapid has come through with a product that easy and it increase the efficiency of my work flow. So how is it really?
R4 Strap
So let’s start with the R4, it is the simplest strap they have, the entry level of the straps. It comes with a bag and the strap. Installation is simple enough, just get the base on the camera and click. It feels good from the get go, beggin the question how come one very come up with this before!
Aside from the good stuff let’s talk some concerns. There has been complaints online about cameras dropping, it has not happen here yet, and I feel very safe using the R Strap; but the lock on the connector gets stuck sometime and that is annoying. The strap is smooth for sliding the camera up and down, the plastic stopper make sure that the camera stays in place when not in use. I will definitely follow up with a long term review about the durability. The strap stays in place almost 100% of the time, so no real complain there. There is a small pocket on the strap, but i have not found any use of it yet. I have actually been using it for a solid week now and you can shoot all day long with this. If there is a way to cover my camera (small triangle bag? or one of those silica shells?) I don’t even have to use a bag for light travel photography. The camera hangs pretty safely on my side, the only annoyance is when I sit down, but I should take my camera off.
Overall, this is an impressive product, and i would recommend it to any photographers that shoot for a good period of time, or travelers.
Also the folks at Black rapid is cool enough to send us a R7 and the upcoming BRAD MOD, and I have to tell you, it is a dangerously awsome combo. look for our review early next week!
-Sunny, Photo Editor
