Black Rapid safety strap

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marvf

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Still wrestling with the best strap for my Z8/600mm PF trip to New Zealand. For those of you using the Black Rapid strap, do you use the included safety strap, and, if so, how? Black Rapid suggests hooking it to a camera lug while the main carabiner attaches to the lens foot. In the case of a heavy lens, doesn't this violate the idea that all support of the combination should be applied at the lens foot (or lugs if the lens has them - which the 600mm PF does NOT)? In addition, BR shows the other end of the safety strap attached back at the carabiner, so the carabiner is a single point of failure if it breaks, which, from feedback on the BR strap, has happened. I would think that a better point would be on the strap somehow, but there is no "D" ring anywhere on the strap to provide that secondary attachment. I guess the assumption is, that the primary point might fail at the lens foot, so the carabiner would then support the combination through the safety strap. Hudson Henry says he's never had a failure with his BR strap.
 
Still wrestling with the best strap for my Z8/600mm PF trip to New Zealand. For those of you using the Black Rapid strap, do you use the included safety strap, and, if so, how? Black Rapid suggests hooking it to a camera lug while the main carabiner attaches to the lens foot. In the case of a heavy lens, doesn't this violate the idea that all support of the combination should be applied at the lens foot (or lugs if the lens has them - which the 600mm PF does NOT)? In addition, BR shows the other end of the safety strap attached back at the carabiner, so the carabiner is a single point of failure if it breaks, which, from feedback on the BR strap, has happened. I would think that a better point would be on the strap somehow, but there is no "D" ring anywhere on the strap to provide that secondary attachment. I guess the assumption is, that the primary point might fail at the lens foot, so the carabiner would then support the combination through the safety strap. Hudson Henry says he's never had a failure with his BR strap.
For longer walks or hikes with a long lens rig on my BlackRapid strap I do use a backup tether to the camera body lugs but it's loose and not supporting any weight. Yeah, if the main connection point failed and the backup tether took weight it wouldn't be great in terms of torque on the lens mount but if it's that or the lens and camera crashing down into the ground I'd take the risk of bending the lens mount.

FWIW, I've never used any BR supplied tether, I connect my own tether that attaches to the strap buckle which has a Magpul quick release mounted on it to the camera lugs. I guess if the concern is the strap buckle failing then yeah it's a single failure point but personally I'd suspect something else other than the metal buckle assembly to fail such as a poorly connected magpul QR connector or something along those lines. In the end it's tough to have redundancy on everything unless you wear more than one strap and have completely independent systems and that hits me as overkill.
 
the biggest point of failure on some nikon lenses is the 4 tiny screws that hold the foot base on the lens itself coming loose .

one day i felt my 2 week old nikon 600mm pf f6.3 moving slightly on my monopod .

a further check showed the 4 screws were loose .

a quick check on line showed it’s a common problem on some nikon telephoto lenses .

so far some loctite has prevented them from loosening up again .

but that to me seems the weakest point for failure but i see no way of tethering a nikon lens itself and not from the foot
 
As DR indicated, the safety strap is there in case the primary connection at the lens foot fails. I use the safety strap with another QD connector that attaches to the base of the L frame on the camera. In hiking with this setup, all weight is on the QD connector attached to the Hejnar foot on the large telephoto. I use this with the 600PF/Z9 and 800PF/Z8 combinations.

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As DR indicated, the safety strap is there in case the primary connection at the lens foot fails. I use the safety strap with another QD connector that attaches to the base of the L frame on the camera. In hiking with this setup, all weight is on the QD connector attached to the Hejnar foot on the large telephoto. I use this with the 600PF/Z9 and 800PF/Z8 combinations.

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What brand of QD connector are you using? Are you happy with it?
 
the biggest point of failure on some nikon lenses is the 4 tiny screws that hold the foot base on the lens itself coming loose .

one day i felt my 2 week old nikon 600mm pf f6.3 moving slightly on my monopod .

a further check showed the 4 screws were loose .

a quick check on line showed it’s a common problem on some nikon telephoto lenses .

so far some loctite has prevented them from loosening up again .

but that to me seems the weakest point for failure but i see no way of tethering a nikon lens itself and not from the foot
I really don't know if that is the case, however, my 800 PF arrived with the foot seemingly intact and yet two of the four screws were loose. One was significantly loose, while the other one was only slightly loose; this was determined when I swapped out the foot for a Hejar one. If I remember correctly, the screws had some form of white thread lock (?) on them and yet they arrived this way. Was it a quality control issue, a problem which developed in transport, or simply poor design, is anyone's guess. Having checked the foot periodically, I have not experienced any further loosening.

From the standpoint of fixation, no matter what method is employed, there will always be potential failure points. Personally, I have solid experience with QD connects with firearms of similar weights compared to the camera/lens combinations. Of note, I have never used leashes/tethers or other backups with firearms and have not experienced any failures including single point sling carry. Nonetheless, with my cameras/lenses, I do employ a safety tether though it is attached to the lens rather than the body itself. If the primary QD fails (at the foot or the connection itself) a tether to the body lug would likely be ineffective and an attachment to the camera baseplate socket could possibly cause significant damage to the body itself.

There are several ways to mitigate this though all of them are potential failure points as well. First, I performed some ad hoc testing with a small rig cage which has a built in QD on its baseplate (the cage's primary attachment is at the screw baseplate, though it hugs the camera around the body). Using the cage as the secondary attachment point, I disconnected the primary QD on the lens's foot and allowed the rig to drop - expensive and potentially perilous experiment, no? - anyhow, no damage was sustained, and I speculate that the cage distributed some of the forces around the body. Would the result be similar without the rig and against the primary screw connect? Perhaps, though I leave it to you to determine the outcome with your cameras.

If the lens has an anchor lug on it, that's an excellent target for a safety strap. In its absence, another alternative is to use a strap tether which surrounds the lens itself. Optech used to sell such a loop, though I see that it is no longer available on its website. I use a safety tether strap which has a large loop on one end which I fit around the lens and the other end connects to the strap. Admittedly, it is not a perfect solution and even with this system failure could occur.
 
Like @ajrmd I use a QD connector (on either a BR or PD strap) attached to my lens foot, along with an extra safety tether connected to a lug on my lens. So nothing is connected to my camera body with this setup.

However, I will sometimes use the above setup in combination with a Peak Design Cuff Camera Wrist Strap attached to my Z8 or Z9, potentially for longer hikes. This way my camera body can be secured to my wrist, while carrying the weight of the lens on the shoulder strap.

When using the wrist cuff, the lens and camera body combo still rests alongside my hip, but my hand would be lightly holding the camera body, vice using it to also hold onto the lens foot (of course you could hold the camera this way even without using the wrist cuff). This allows me to still steady the gear from any rocking motion while walking, and I am always ready to bring the camera up to my eye to begin shooting. <-- This may not be a solution that everyone will like, but I use it occasionally, so I thought I would mention it. :cool:
 
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What brand of QD connector are you using? Are you happy with it?
To be honest I forget the brand that I’m using. But they are military grade used primarily for weapon slings. I like them a lot. I have a pair from Pro media gear that I haven’t tried yet but come highly recommended and look beefy. Kirk makes QD connectors that I would consider comparable. I would definitely stay away from the cheap Amazon type stuff. Saw another photographer picking up the pieces of his connector. It literally came apart. Fortunately the camera and lens survived.
 
One well-known wildlife photographer really likes the ALG Defense QD connectors. They're back ordered right now but they have very very high feedback and just like Magpul there from the weapons area. I ordered the last one in stock at Opticsplanet. Amazon is out of stock too but has also very high feedback for the QD connector from ALG. There are other third parties that Google Google finds that have them also.
 
On Black Rapid and similar straps the failure point is the swivel. What I've done is attach my safety tether to the actual buckle (not the swivel see photo) and the other end to the camera stud. There is enough slack as to never put stress on the lens to camera mount. Just will (hopefully) keep camera from hitting the ground should the swivel stud break or I forget to secure the carabiner.
Here is how it is on my camera set up. I honestly don't remember if this is the one that came with the BR strap or if it was something I cobbled together from stuff I had here. I know the split rings are "after market" but are quite heavy and only need to work once. I see them as a disposable part. If the camera falls and they hold, even if they get all bent out of shape they did their job.

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