I just saw that Photosister is holding a month of giveaway contests, including a couple of RS-W1 camera straps. I wanted to do a quick review of my own R-strap that I won from Photo Sister a couple of months ago. But I need to start the story from March of this year…

My husband gave me an R-strap, the RS-7, for my birthday in March and I was ecstatic. Previously, I hung my camera and very heavy telephoto lens around my neck, and that was not very comfortable. I knew at some point, I probably needed a better strap than the one the camera comes with. The R-strap had been on my wish list for a long time, but I never mentioned that to my husband. So imagine my surprise when I opened my present! It was like he read my mind!

I don’t know any other way to say this, but I love, love, love my Blackrapid strap. I don’t think I would ever use anything else because I no longer get neck or back pain. It totally takes the weight off those areas. I know a lot of photographers think that it is very bizarre to have your camera upside-down and have the strap attached to the tripod mount, but you get used to it pretty quickly. I like it because some people don’t even notice my camera because it is at my hip! I don’t have any qualms about having some freak accident where my camera crashes to the ground because it’s really sturdy. You just want to check the connection every so often and make sure it’s tight.

Several month later, I learned that Blackrapid was going to come out with a women’s version. I was a little bummed because I would love to have a women’s version but there was no way I was going to buy it because my RS-7 was still fairly new and working just fine for me. But I was really curious about this new version. I kept up with the news on it and was so excited to find out that LaRae Lobdell was holding a contest and giving them away on her website, Photosister. And I scored one! Yes!!

I’ve been using the RS-W1 for the last few months, and I prefer it to my old RS-7. Finally, an R-strap design for a woman’s body! I really like the slimmer design, and it’s even more comfortable than my RS-7. For me, the padded part does not move around as much as my old R-strap, so I don’t have to adjust like I used to. There’s also a clip on the back, so I don’t have to worry about the dangling slack of the strap (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, let’s try a belt and pants analogy. Imagine that you are fastening the buckle of your belt, and you have that leftover belt you put it through the buckle, and then sometimes it will flop around if you don’t have a belt loop).

I’ll end with a picture of me sporting my RS-W1 (thanks to Binita Patel for taking this lovely picture of me). I hope the review was helpful and please let me know if you get one too!

Thanks Blackrapid and Photosister!

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