I purchased the Tamrac Quick Release shoulder strap for my camera because I wanted to be able to take the strap off quickly for those times it gets in the way. This happens frequently, especially when I’m tripod shooting. So I bought this strap.
When it arrived, I took a close look at the strap. There are a couple things that concern me about the quality and longevity of the strap.
The first is this particular ring that holds the strap to the quick release portion of the strap. This little tiny ring is plastic. PLASTIC. Who makes a critical component like this out of plastic? I could get some metal rings to reinforce this so that it can’t snap and drop my camera to the ground.- The second portion that concerned me is the buckle. Yes, I knew this going in to the purchase. Buckles are usually pretty good, but I did break my buckle in my Lowepro camera fanny bag. But at least there it’s a 2″ buckle and the camera would be inside a padded camera bag if that broke while in use.
The third portion that concerned me is the thin nylon cords that attach to the camera. This type of cord does wear out but I could keep an eye on that.- The fourth portion is the stitching for the webbing. One stitch is already coming apart.
In each of these 4 failure points, if any one of these were to fail, the camera would fall. Actually there are 8 failure points as its the same on both sides.
But, I went ahead and put it on my camera for the past 3 months and it has been working fine.
Last week I was digging through some old camera equipment that someone gave me a long time ago. I found a Domke Gripper Camera Strap with quick release. This strap is much better built than the Tamrac. Here’s the main differential points:
- The quick release mechanism is all metal.
- The qr mechanism clips onto a metal ring that is sewn into the main strap. That this ring is metal is a huge improvement over the small plastic ring of the Tamrac.
The attachment point to the camera is also a metal ring. And to protect the camera, they provide a leather protector so the ring doesn’t scratch the camera body.
Overall this strap seems far better built in terms of longevity. I just put it on my camera yesterday.
