Do It Yourself Black Rapid type Strap

[DigitalDivide]

I'm not worried about the BR lugs unscrewing on my setup.  If you moisten the rubber washer a bit before screwing it into the tripod mount, you can get it pretty tight with your fingers and it has no tendency to back out.  I check mine often as I'm still a bit paranoid about have that much valuable equipment dangling upside-down, but I have never once found it to have loosened.  There really is not reason for it to do so as there shouldn't be any rotational force from the swivel bracket.

What does concern me is the possibility of the swivel separating.  I looked at a lot of user reviews before buying the BR, and I found a couple of references to the mushroom-shaped part that stops the swivel pulling out of the bracket deforming until it could or did pop through.  As I recall the negative comments largely referring to older versions of the BR hardware, so maybe they have improved the design.  Regardless, I do inspect it regularly for any evidence of this happening (did I mention I'm paranoid?  )

I hadn't really thought about the possibility of the tripod mount pulling out of the camera body (great, another thing I can be paranoid about...).  This definitely seems like a good reason to use the lens tripod collar as the mounting point whenever you have a heavy lens attached, as well as to reduce stress on the body's lens mount.  I'm hoping that the tripod mount is firmly attached to the metal body of my 5DII.  Not sure I would trust it so readily on a plastic Rebel series camera.

Would BR really pay out if their swivel bracket failed?  A lot of warrenties limit the liability to replacement of the purchased product, with consequential damages being specifically excluded.  I certainly wouldn't rely on them to cough up without going to court.  Better to have separate insurance for your gear.

[AdamJ]

Would BR really pay out if their swivel bracket failed?  A lot of warrenties limit the liability to replacement of the purchased product, with consequential damages being specifically excluded.  I certainly wouldn't rely on them to cough up without going to court.  Better to have separate insurance for your gear.

Damage to property (or personal injury) caused by a defective product would be a product liability claim in tort, not a warranty claim - the warranty would only apply to replacement of the defective product itself. Where the evidence of a defective product is obvious, most claims are dealt with by the manufacturer's product liability insurers without going to court.

Disclaimer: always seek professional advice, which mine isn't unless you pay me. 

[squidgyg]

This is actually how I carried my camera on my recent world trip (About 12 cities in Europe and Asia)
I bought a rip-off Black Rapid Screw from ebay, and had that in my tripod mount. Then I had a twisty Caribeena/Harness thingy like the one used on the black rapid straps, attached to a heavy duty caribeena that I'd duct-taped together on the strap of my messenger bag. It was fantastic.
For the first couple of countries, I would tend to have my hand on the camera at all times, scared that it would detatch itself and fall onto the floor, etc. But after I got used to it, I trusted it so much, and it was brilliant.
Easy enough to take off of my bag too if I needed to. Was definitely better than carrying BOTH a black rapid and a bag, felt more comfortable and stuff, and I could carry my other lenses (and everything else you pick up whilst travelling lol)  in my bag too.

TOTAL COST (Already owned the bag): $25 AU

In these pictures you can kind of see how I did it. (The last picture, my camera was not attached but you can see the caribeena. Plus im next to a TARDIS, so whatever haha)


EDIT:
just realized im wearing the same top in every photo. How awkward.