Time for a New Strap

I was a big fan of the Crumpler line of camera accessories.  I used the Crumpler 6 Million Dollar Home Photo Bag to store my lenses and the Crumpler Industry Disgrace Camera Straps to hang my cameras.  They are well made products and quite comfortable…IF.  If you have a leather neck and carry small cameras and lenses. When I started out that was the case.  I rocked a Canon Rebel (hey don’t laugh, I got my first paid national magazine gig with a shot from that baby) and a lightweight nifty fifty mm 2.8 lens.  I could do a 6 hour photo walk with the 6 Milli and Disgrace and not feel the slightest bit of neck pain afterwards.  However that is not my kit these days.

Yesterdays wedding is more the norm.  Canon 1D or 5D Mark III with battery pack, 85mm 1.2 or 70-200mm maybe with an extender tube and sometimes a flash or attachment in the shoe.  My neck was not loving the weight of this setup after a 7 hour day.  So because I have to take care of my most important piece of kit… me, today I looked for a new solution.  My first impulse was the Black Rapid RS-5 Camera Strap strap.  It seemed like a good option, but I did not care for the fact that it used my tripod mount as I would have to remove it constantly.  However if this was the best solution I would deal with the hassle.  Then I came across Carry Speed CS-PRO Camera Strap with Under Arm & Wrist Strap.

After watching the video it seems the creator addressed all of my concerns and then some about the Black Rapid.  Was about to order two today when I read the Carry Speed reviews.

DO NOT BUY THE Carry Speed Strap (CS-PRO),March 6, 2012

By

Allan J Dresner

This review is from: Carry Speed CS-PRO Camera Strap with Under Arm & Wrist Strap (Electronics)

Ok, so here is my review of the Carry Speed Strap.

At first glance, this seems like a great deal and great design. They advertise that they are in their second generation of design and that this current design is 1 year old. [...]
The strap is comfortable but it is so long that once adjusted it does not leave a lot of room to raise the camera without the camera bumping into the camera adjustment straps.

The shoulder pad is awesome…very cozy

The ball and socket design is excellent and a very secure way to connect your sling to your camera.

But then the party stops. The mounting plate that goes on the bottom of your camera is flawed heavily and not usable. The plate itself is somewhat hollow to hold a piece of rubber that should rest flush with the bottom of your camera. The mounting plate has two mounting points that extend out and should clear the body of the camera and stop around the lens.
The problem is the mounting points do not extend far enough and are pushed up by the body of the camera. This pushes the plate upward toward its front naturally pushing the back of the plate into the camera causing the plate to sit unevenly. That uneven sitting causes the rubber to be pushed to far into the body of the plate and you can not put the alen wrench into its holding slot. You also have to screw the plate in way to tight just to get it to mount onto the camera. This is not good for the camera and it’s not a secure way to carry your camera. The work around is not to use the plate and screw the ball and joint directly into the camera. Then you paid for a 55 dollar neoprene strap that is too big with a small piece of metal and worthless metal mounting plate with serious design flaws making it unusable.

I contacted Carry Speed and was taken back by their attitude. They failed to apologize, told me that I would need to buy an upgrade, and admitted they are selling a flawed product. Here is their response:

Dear Client,
We recently found this issue and we will re-design our product.This is our fist generation , and our product is not perfect. And our new designed mounting plate will coming soon.We don’t suggest you to put your Allen key into mounting plate right now. But when our new designed mounting plate is available, we will offer a discount price to upgrade your product.
Thank you

So while Carry Speed has a great idea, they don’t know how to design or engineer their idea into a workable product. Maybe they should hire a real engineer and make the product in a place with proper quality control.

I have filed a complaint with the Houston BBB and contacted Carry Speed for resolution. They need to be stopped from selling a defective part and those who have purchased this piece should be getting a refund or free replacement.

YIKES!  I think I will order one of each and decided for myself.  Will let you know how they work out.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 28th, 2012 at 12:08 PM. It is filed under Blog, Equipment, Photowalks and tagged with 6 million dollar bag, amazon, Black Rapid, camera straps, carry speed, crumpler, gear, industry disgrace, kandidz, messenger bag, neck, pain, photography, reveiw, shoulder. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.