Eshin Direct

I should offer the same advice I offered to folks looking to eat peacefully at Newton Market to those looking to brave the photo equipment stores in Singapore. After a particularly tough week, I decided to see what was to be had for my photograph craving and naively walked into the store with an itch to buy something and no clear idea of what I wanted. A foolish, and potentially dangerous, situation.

However, I must say though that perhaps its not a bad thing that I did. After my Lowepro Slingshot 200 AW purchase, one thing that was still bothering me about my setup was the strap. I have a c-strap to give me extra-stability and the support gives me peace of mind, but the main strap was still not quite what was working for me.

Apart from the big, yellow Nikon lettering that marked me out as an amateur photographer, when I strapped my camera around my neck, it made me look a little dorky. Crossing the chest so that it sat on my left shoulder while the camera hung over my right hip didn’t work as well as it should since the camera jossled around too much. In order to have enough play to get the camera into a good shooting position meant that I would have to lengthen the strap too much, resulting in aforementioned jossling become downright unmanageable.

In fact, what I needed was a sling setup that wasn’t too dissimilar to my army cadet days where the sling would hold the weapon close to your body while you were doing other stuff but when the action was supposed to hit, you had a quick release mechanism that gave you a lot of play to be flexible with the weapon. This I needed for a different type of shot.

Letting the shill at the photo store do his work, he talked me into looking at a promotional video about the BlackRapid R-Strap RS-1. This ingenious strap pretty much does what I was talking about above except without a quick release mechanism. It secures the camera to the body using a cross-chest strap, but the camera itself sits on a guide to allow you to bring it up to appropriate eye-level in a snap. When once it returns to its resting position, it does so at your hip and by the magic of some widgetry, it puts the camera with the lens pointing behind you. Perhaps a video might make it more clear – Intro to the R-Strap.

I’ve tired it out this weekend and I must say that I am impressed with the concept. It really does make carrying the camera a lot easier and more accessible. There are going to be times when I just want to leave the Lowepro Slingshot behind and be alone with my camera. The only thing is that it interferes with the pouches I have on the front of Slingshot but it still works. A little pricey but it works better than a regular strap setup. The only drawback (aside from price) is that the attachment used to connect it to your camera makes it a little bigger and resting the camera right-way up, forces it into a position that puts weight on the lens.

Tags: blackrapid, camera accessories, convenience, Photography, rs-1