Tag: black rapid

The Q Strap Review

The Q Strap, Quick Strap, or whatever they’re calling it today, is a direct knock off of the Black rapid straps. They’ve even copied the logo, replacing the R with a Q!! Chinese made, the main difference is the camera mount. The Q strap uses a flat plate with a hole at the side which allows the camera to hang at a more natural position, allegedly.

First impressions

The Q Strap

It arrived in a plain poly bag with the Q logo. No extra fuss or packaging. The strap looked good, but the plate stank and it took a couple of months to get rid of the smell. No amount of cleaning could get rid of it. It did go eventually though, but I’d be cautious about leaving it your camera bag until the smell goes away. That said, it is a genius mount and has two major benefits over the connector that comes with the Black Rapid, which I’ll cover later.

Build quality seems okay. The carabiner is a gun metal colour and the gate has a locking screw so it doesn’t unhook accidentally. The strap is made from a seat-belt type material which I like and includes a single bumper, which acts as a ‘stop’ for the camera, making sure it hangs where you want it too.

It can be bought on eBay for about £15 and is the cheapest of the 3 I’m looking at.

 Comfort

The pad is pretty comfy with plenty of padding. It sits nicely on the shoulder thanks to it’s slight ergonomic design. This brings me to the first advantage of the connecting plate – the camera really does hang at your waist in a more natural and comfortable position. The lens hangs back against your waist and the camera doesn’t feel heavy at all.

 In use

Q strap
The Q Strap being ably modelled by my son.

The pad has a small zip pocket that holds two memory cards. Not really necessary but useful to have.  The carabiner glides smoothly up and down the strap allowing you to grab and shoot quickly. The only irritation is that the pad does slide back over your shoulder with use. There are two ways around this. First push the camera back against the bumper when returning it to your waist. That pushes the pad back into position. Second – buy an arm strap. Sadly, The Q strap doesn’t have that option, so you’ll have to fashion your own, or buy one from a competitor.

The connecting plate also allows for a tripod quick release plate to be attached, making it quick to unhook, attach your camera to the tripod, shoot and hook it back onto the strap. That’s another benefit not offered by the Black Rapid connector.

 Overall

It doesn’t include a second bumper, and there’s no arm strap, but other than that, the Q Strap gets a thumbs up. Considering it is less than half the price of the Black Rapid strap, it is excellent value for money.

More details at www.qstrap.co.uk

Camera Straps

Rule number 8: Camera Straps are a pain in the neck

I’m not a fan of camera straps. If I have one attached to my camera, I tend to wrap it around my wrist. I could live without them, but it’s nice to have the security of having something just in case I get clumsy, which I’ve been known to be from time to time. The biggest problem with them is that after wearing your camera around your neck for a bit, your neck feels like it’s spent a couple of hours at the gym.

My first stab at cracking the camera strap woes was under the guise of the Optech Pro strap. This is basically a shaped chunk of neoprene that sits around the base of the neck and distributes the weight. It also detaches from the camera attachments, which then clip together to form a short strap. As a piece of design work, it is genius. I gave it a full day’s testing at the Waddington Air show, and afterwards decided it was time to ditch the neck strap all together. The problem with the Optech strap was that it rode up my neck, making the camera heavier than if I’d just used a regular strap. Plus, on a hot day, all that neoprene makes for a sweaty strap.

So I got onto the net and looked at sling straps. There are a few to choose from, especially if you live on eBay, and over the next week or so I’ll post reviews of the Q strap, Carry Speed CS-1 and the Black Rapid RS-4. After reviewing each of them I’ll do a comparison between the three and make a few recommendations.