Today’s B&H DealZone (one-day deal) features a deal on the BlackRapid Double Breathe Camera Harness — it’s now $79.95, a $55 discount from the regular price of $135.
The BlackRapid Double Breathe Camera Harness accommodates two cameras by allowing them to hang from the right and left shoulders. The cameras can then rest upside-down along both the right and left hips and can be quickly raised for use.
For people that shoot events, this can be a real handy thing to have. I personally use a two camera setup for events. I keep a camera with standard zoom under my right arm on a rapid strap (usually 80D and 17-55mm). Under the other arm, I keep a camera with 70-200mm F2.8 inside a Lowepro toploader case, with a lens case on the side with a wide zoom. Holy trinity, all within my reach, where the two most used lenses are always ready to rock. Got to say, it looks a little silly just walking around like that for kicks. This also looks silly if you are just walking around, but is probably pretty handy for events, where you will probably want to stand out as the photographer. Mostly becasue people see you, they think they need to get out of your way since most the time they respect that you are working. If I didn’t have my current setup, this would have been cheaper way to accomplish what I am doing now. I jsut don’t recommend walking around in this setup for typical shooting. You will look pretty dorky. But if you don’t mind, then why not?
For those who use this rig I would like to know if any of you have had issues with the camera detaching from the rig? There are a half-dozen reviews with the camera becoming detached and falling to the ground. I’m wondering if this is truly a concern or if it’s operator error by the user? This looks like a great rig but having dropped one of my 1DX-II’s and subjected to a 1k+ repair bill I’m concerned. Any comments to this issue?
There is no strap that exists that doesn’t come with the potential for failure. And there is no way to tell how many of those reviews are the result of human error. All I can say is I have never had a failure on my rapid strap. I don’t have the double rig, I have sport strap, but it uses the same jig and tether. It also came with “just in case” safety tether for redundancy. Black Rapid is well known as a reliable company, and there use is widespread among pro togs. With that large a sampling there are bound to be some horror stories.
I have never used a dual-rig like this, but I did have 3 BlackRapid straps at one time, and every single one of them suffered from the same problem – the loosening of the carabiner locking mechanism. This was in the days of the old RS-4/RS-5/RS-7 strap systems and before BlackRapid came out with the LockStar Carabiner Protector, so it must have been a known issue at that time. On 3 separate occasions I had my locking mechanism get loose and cause the camera/body to fall off the strap. The first two times, it fell from less than 2 feet on soft, somewhat muddy dirt. The 3rd time, it fell from 3 feet onto pavement and bent my less-than-year-old Tamron 70-300. It was after the 2nd incident that I began checking the locking mechanism frequently, so this was not user error on my part. Once BlackRapid came out with the LockStars though, they never left my straps. Even so, I continued to have loosening on the carabiner locking system underneath the LockStars.
What finally killed BlackRapid usage for me was the inability to easily tighten the straps. Once the PeakDesign Slide straps came out, I had something to compare BlackRapid to. One Slide strap eventually switched to all Slide straps, and I’ll never look back. I tell people shopping for straps that there really are only two systems: BlackRapid and Peak. The BlackRapid system is still solid, but the failures left a bad experience in my mind. The Peak system is more expensive at first glance, but get more for for money, namely a system that is far more easily adjustable and customizable. With BlackRapid, they nickel & dime you to death. That you have to pay extra for the LockStars that should be standard makes the PeakDesign a far better value in my mind all day long.