I'm so happy right now. Just have to tell you guys.

I got my new Blackrapid RS-4 (free of charge) in the mail today.
Those guys are so serviceminded and of assistance.

Backstory.
I have the old RS-4 (the original with the weird connection and screw) and i wrote to them and was unhappy that they dident swap these for people who was there in the beginning and supported them when they knew the old connections was not working properly/safely.
I got a mail a few hours later were they asked me to send in a photo of my RS-4.. so i did that and the next day they asked for my adress.. and 5 days later the package landed in the mail.
The NEW and improved RS-4 with two bumbers, the little pocket with zipper and the connectR 2 and fastnR 3 and all in stainless.

Now thats what i call customerservice.. i'm loyal to them, and they show their gratitude by giving me an RS-4 for free. They even included a nice sticker.. it's going on the car tomorrow


Just had to tell you guys.

they are an awesome company and a great product

And nOw the PotN effect. They'll be getting so many emails they will have to stop sending out new straps!

Down_Shift wrote in post #14743297
And nOw the PotN effect. They'll be getting so many emails they will have to stop sending out new straps!

LOL.

Pretty cool.

great customer service is almost as good as a great product. Kudos to them.

Nice to hear.

Cool! Nice to hear their service is good.

Ok, I'm walking into this thing late. What's this about BlackRapid RS-4's early designs being flawed and how it has been acknowledged by the company and recently revised?

My RS-4 is two years old. I am ready to douse it with gasoline and and take a match to it as I've had a second incident with it recently. Finding this post may have me re-consider the torching idea in favour of contacting the company. Please read my story:

Four days ago I attended a major league ball game and thought I'd take my 5D Mark III along and get some shots. I instinctively attached the RS-4 because I didn't want to have any accidents during my time out. At one point during the game I decided to tighten the screw/fastener to the camera as well as the safety screw that's attached to the clip. I made it TIGHT.

After the game we decided to hit the town and do some walking and sight seeing.Typically I'll hold on to the camera while the RS-4 is around my neck just to reduce the amount of bouncing while the camera is hanging by my side. Here's the the part that gets ****'ed up. At one point of our walk I'm standing on a dock by the harbour with the camera in my hand and I'm JUST ABOUT to release the battery grip to allow the camera to hang by the strap when I see that the camera is NO LONGER ATTACHED to the strap. Now this part must be read with complete trust and belief because I s-h-i-t you not, the screw in fastener was still TIGHTLY secured in the camera *AND* the safety screw that's on the latch/clip was also fully tightened just as I had left it at the ball game.

Photo: a clip and a fastener attached together as it should be! Only detachable if the safety piece is un-screwed.

I apologize for not being the sharpest tool in the shed, but I'm not sure I understand what you are saying happened, though I have no doubt it happened.

Are you saying the ring that screws into the camera was still screwed in and despite the gate lock on the carabiner being tight, it somehow slipped out of the carabiner?

Obviously, however it happened it sucks. I had a Cotton Carrier fail on me and my camera dropped to the ground, thankfully while I was hiking and landed on a bed of leaves with no damage whatsoever.

First, call or write BR customer service. I have no doubt they will replace it, should you choose to trust their products any longer.

Even if you don't want it, get it and then sell the new one.

Bottom line is that thankfully you were holding your camera and it didn't fall.

I once dropped my then brand new 1DsMKIII (yeah, 8 thousand dollars worth of camera), when I let it go thinking the neck strap was around my neck. It landed on concrete. It only cost $600 to repair though.

MDJAK wrote in post #14861077
Are you saying the ring that screws into the camera was still screwed in and despite the gate lock on the carabiner being tight, it somehow slipped out of the carabiner?

Precisely. The gate lock on the carabiner was still fastened TIGHTLY.

And yes. The other component (the fastener) that screwed into the camera's tripod socket was still tightly secured into the bottom of the camera.

The two components were miraculously apart. As I said, almost magically. I could not reproduce this result even if I tried to. Especially given the fact that I was casually walking the shopping strip for all of 20 or 30 minutes when I came to the docks and coincidentally glanced at the miracle in my hand. I ALMOST dropped it to the ground. I have a little voice that usually goes off in my head that sounds kind of like, "Don't trust the security of your strap - check before letting go". Especially since this has happened before.

<bitter sarcasm>Maybe my RS-4 came into contact with a small pocket of dark matter from space which disrupted the structural matter of the caribener, allowing it to seperate from its usual safe connection.</bitter sarcasm>

Seconds after it happened I felt a little dizzy because what I saw was a violation of physics and of course my perception of reality. I quickly asked my wife to verify the strength in the safety gate's tightness. I may as well have super glued that safety gate the day I brought it home because I have no doubt it would have not made a difference.

I do recall a time the safety gate coming lose was the reason for my camera accidentally coming apart from the strap. It was visibly obvious the looseness was the reason for that near accident. Not at all the case this time.

I remember a time I was a Canada's Wonderland Theme Park having taken a few pictures of the kids on the horse carousal. We were in line to buy some snacks - I was holding my strapped camera (5D2+70-200) and for some reason I had the lens held in my left hand and the camera in my right hand. Without much of a budge, I look down and the lens is in my left hand completely un-attached from the camera. I suppose I hadn't locked the lens in place. Could have easily done what is normal and sling the camera to my side while the lens would have kept going right down the pavement.

Moments that make your heart skip a beat.

I've been too lucky and had too many close calls. 10 years in photography and still no bad endings. Just the feeling that somebody or something is looking out for me.

I can't imagine the feelings of having dropped that new 1DSiii. You must have felt sick very quickly. That's just plain horrific. It's a good thing that money can patch up wounds.

There is only two possibilities as I see it.

1. The gate lock was loose and rubbing it caused It to relock somehow..

2. You been nipping' a bit too much at the bottle. AGAIN.

MDJAK wrote in post #14861429
There is only two possibilities as I see it.

1. The gate lock was loose and rubbing it caused It to relock somehow..

2. You been nipping' a bit too much at the bottle. AGAIN.

Bahahaha. Yeah, I'll take number 1. That's some logic I can latch on to. Otherwise number two looks like a tempting option if any supernatural play was indeed involved.

Emailing the company right now.

Also, I'm recalling a trick that I used to apply after incident #1. I took two twist-ties and connected the carabiner+fastener as an extra layer of protection. If I do continue to use this product, I will have to get back in the habit of doing this. Again.

Pearlallica wrote in post #14861573
Bahahaha. Yeah, I'll take number 1. That's some logic I can latch on to. Otherwise number two looks like a tempting option if any supernatural play was indeed involved.

Emailing the company right now.

Also, I'm recalling a trick that I used to apply after incident #1. I took two twist-ties and connected the carabiner+fastener as an extra layer of protection. If I do continue to use this product, I will have to get back in the habit of doing this. Again.

Get a zip tie for it. You'll have to cut it apart to get it off.

luciddreamer wrote in post #14861682
Get a zip tie for it. You'll have to cut it apart to get it off.

Or use the zip tie and push/slide it up against the safety screw after you locked it, so it would have pressure or some sort of friction preventing it from sliding down, im only picturing this so not sure if it would work/help...

But i have never had a problem like that with my RS-4, half the time i dont even screw it tight to lock it.. @Pearlallica