Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

A little background : I've never liked neck straps since the camera just gets in the way and with large DSLR's and lenses it puts a lot of weight onto your neck. One thing I don't like about the Black Rapid or similar sling style straps is the connection point - the tripod mount. Personally, it would get in the way when shooting in a portrait orientation and hinder tripod usage. It also worries me a bit that there's so much weight put onto the tripod mount on the camera/grip when it wasn't really designed to hold weight in that fashion. I created my own sling style utilizing the OEM strap mounts on the body and it has served me well so I never bothered looking for another sling style strap. I happened to come across this Optech strap and it seemed like a perfect strap (which I explain below.) Since my custom sling strap doesn't have padding and the connection points are a bit bulky I decided to give this strap a try. The Optech strap is very well built. The padding is great, helping to cushion and distributes the weight wonderfully across the shoulder. The quick-release connectors are a sturdy plastic and the engage/disengage clips require quite a bit of force which eases the worry of accidentally releasing them. (I don't use the quick-release too much though and was thinking of chopping off the quick-release connectors and replacing them with metal carabiners with locks.) The length of the strap is perfect as well. Personally, at 5' 9" and a big build it rests comfortably near waist level. The main part of this strap which made me buy it were the "system-connectors". These connectors, which have a nylon loop on one end and a quick-release clip on the other, utilizes the OEM mounting points on the camera. This makes me feel a lot more comfortable than using only one point at the tripod mount like other sling straps. These system-connectors connect to one (or two) matching free-floating connectors on the main strap. Movement of the camera from waist-level to your eye is very smooth with the connectors. As mentioned, the actual connection to the camera is nylon, through the OEM mounting points. Like with OEM neck straps, it'll eventually eat through the nylon after extended amount of use. The beauty of the Optech strap is that you can buy just the system-connectors for under $10 if you ever need to replace them. My heaviest setup (and one I use very frequently) is the Canon 7D with grip and the Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II. The strap feels very solid and I don't have to worry about the integrity of the strap. The padding on the strap definitely does help in distributing the weight. It really does feel lighter when using this strap (at least compared to my custom one.) If you're looking at this product and wondering if this is a good sling strap I would definitely say yes. It is well designed and solidly built. The mobility that a sling strap gives you is a wonderful feeling and with most lenses you won't even feel it over your shoulder.