Big thanks to the SnapKnot wedding photography directory for offering this great camera giveaway!

I hate traditional camera straps!

I've always hated traditional camera straps. When my camera is on a tripod I hate having the strap hanging down getting in the way of the head adjustment and so on. They take too much time to take off and put on and I'm always removing it for one reason or another. 

I've been looking closely at the Rstrap from Blackrapid.  I liked  what I saw but $54 (retail, as of the posting of this) is a lot for a strap, maybe I'm just cheap.  While looking for reviews on the Internet of the Rstrap, I noticed that many people were making their own straps using the same basic idea of mounting it to the tripod socket and using a slide clip. Most that I've seen are creative and seem to get the job done, although most (not all) lacked style. 

I decided to look around my garage for things I could use. To start I needed a 1/4"-20 bolt with an eyelet.    

The most commonly used item is a 1/4"-20 eye bolt cut to fit. These are very strong, not too heavy but face it they make it look like Home Depot is your camera store. After looking at the Black Rapids Rstap fastener, I found some semi-round aluminum stock that had the same 1/4"-20 threads as found in most tripod sockets. Aluminum is easy to to cut with a simple hack  saw.

 

 I drilled the opposite end perpendicular to the already threaded end to attach a split ring to attach the strap to via a 2" snap bolt. I used a long 1/4"-20 threaded rod and tightened it with vice grips before cutting it off at 3/8". I used a rubber gasket, eliminating the need for a second nut to secure it to the camera. This works well and has never even started to come loose.

For the strap material and strap hardware, I purchased it from strapworks for less than $10. I used the 2" wide by 72" long Heavyweight Poly Pro belt. The 2" wide strap stays put on the shoulder and provides a wide area to distribute the weight of heavy camera/lens set-ups more efficiently then a narrower strap. I wanted to stay with plastic hardware for all except  the snap bolt. This was to eliminate any chance of metal to camera contact. I chose a metal snap bolt because of strength and where it's used, it has minimal contact with the camera.

Purchased hardware (less than $10)

• 2" wide by 72" long Heavyweight Poly Pro belt
  
• 2" Acetyl Plastic Slides
  
• 2" Bolt Snap

HDR [high dynamic range]

These were my first attempt at Night HDR's. I shot them with a Nikon D300, Sigma 10-20mm F4-5.6 mounted on a Bogen Manfrotto tripod. I braketted 5 shots at 1ev for each image. They were shot in raw mode to achieve the widest range of exposure and adjustment. I proccessed each image in Lightroom 2.3 then imported them five at a time into Photomatix.