I used a Blackrapid sling strap and on my Sandakphu trip I had to constantly watchout since despite tightening it well, the strap screw attaching to the tripod collar of the lens would come loose as you hiked.
The second issue is that the Nikon supplied lens foot on the 500mm PF also has a tendency to “slide out”. And a lot of us use a strap fitted to the lens foot. If the lens foot slides out while carrying on the strap, the camera and lens will fall to the ground. On my Mishmi trip that finally happened. Luckily no damage. Also this photo.net thread ” Nikon 500 PF lens foot comes loose issue ” reports the same problem.
But here is a solution that I have rigged. You can use a strong nylon shoe lace or a para cord like the one I have used. The idea is to use a safety anchor using the camera strap eyelets. So incase the Blackrapid or the lens foot comes loose and pulls free from the lens tripod socket or lens itself, the safety cord tied to the camera strap eyelet and Blackrapid main buckle will take the load and save the fall. Note the I have purposefully avoided securing this safety tether to the carabiner on the Blackrapid strap.
The pics below tell you how to rig this.
Can easily take the weight of the whole system and save your rig from accidentally crashing to the ground.
Alternatively can get a “camera safety tether” like a Joby camera safety tether or equivalent.
Leave a Reply