# Joby Ultra Plate with Blackrapid strap?



## Dantana (Jul 10, 2013)

Joby has released a shoulder strap and an Arca Swiss compatible plate with a place to mount the strap. Any thoughts on using this plate with a Blackrapid strap? I had been thinking of going Neuro's route with a Kirk clamp on the end of the strap, but this looks interesting:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/981773-REG/joby_jb01278_cww_ultra_plate_black.html


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## brad-man (Jul 10, 2013)

The plate you linked to is meant for a_ hand _strap, not a Black Rapid sling. If the sling is intended to be supporting your gear by the camera, then you should buy a camera plate that is custom fitted to your camera. Kirk, RRS, Promediagear are good places to look. If your gear is going to be supported by the lens tripod collar, then you'll want a lens plate that has anti-rotational "feet" on it. Either way, there is no plate that will save you the expense of purchasing a clamp for your sling (assuming you're going the arca-compatible route).


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## Dantana (Jul 10, 2013)

brad-man said:


> The plate you linked to is meant for a_ hand _strap, not a Black Rapid sling. If the sling is intended to be supporting your gear by the camera, then you should buy a camera plate that is custom fitted to your camera. Kirk, RRS, Promediagear are good places to look. If your gear is going to be supported by the lens tripod collar, then you'll want a lens plate that has anti-rotational "feet" on it. Either way, there is no plate that will save you the expense of purchasing a clamp for your sling (assuming you're going the arca-compatible route).



Yeah, there's a place for a hand strap, but there is also a place to screw in Joby's version of the shoulder strap, at least that's what the pictures look like to me. It's in the "More Photos" section of the link.

Here's the description on the Joby site:
http://joby.com/camera-straps/ultraplate-quick-release-plate

They also reference it on their sling strap page.

Unless I'm missing something it's meant for a shoulder strap too.


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## brad-man (Jul 10, 2013)

Got it. It's an elongated plate with the sling connector attachment off to the side. Seems like it should work. The only reservations I would have would be whether the connector being offset would put the load too far out of balance to be comfortable. No way to know without trying it. The other problem is when you are using a tele lens with a lens collar (assuming you use such a lens) you would still have to unscrew the connector and move it to the lens plate. Using the clamp on the sling eliminates both of these situations. Plus I still feel a dedicated camera plate is superior to a "universal" gasketed (is that a word ?) one.


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## Dantana (Jul 10, 2013)

I just re-read my original post, sorry for how vague it is.

I have the Blackrapid Metro strap and I really like it. It's very comfortable, and for the size of my gear (not too big) it works very nicely. The one design flaw seems to be that if I want to put my camera on a tripod, I have to unscrew the strap, screw in a plate, and then mount the camera. Not exactly quick.

I have seen Neuro's solution with a Kirk clamp on his strap, plate on his camera. This is what I was thinking of doing, as my tripod head is also Arca Swiss compatible.

Then I saw this plate in a B&H announcement email, and it seemed like another solution, a cheaper, smaller version of the Custom SLR M-Plate Pro. http://www.customslr.com/products/m-plate-pro

My concerns with this type of solution is that the strap stays attached to the camera, so I have to keep taking the strap on and off (maybe not a big deal), vs adding the extra piece and weight of a clamp, plus an extra attach point that could fail.

Thoughts?


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## brad-man (Jul 10, 2013)

Since I am using the same setup as Neuro, I am a bit biased. I have no problem trusting the clamp with my gear and the added weight of the clamp is negligible. As long as you put Locktite between the screw thingy and the clamp, all is good.


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## Dantana (Jul 10, 2013)

brad-man said:


> Since I am using the same setup as Neuro, I am a bit biased. I have no problem trusting the clamp with my gear and the added weight of the clamp is negligible. As long as you put Locktite between the screw thingy and the clamp, all is good.



Thanks, and good to know. I think I'm still leaning that way since it seems a bit more flexible.


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## neuroanatomist (Jul 11, 2013)

brad-man said:


> The other problem is when you are using a tele lens with a lens collar (assuming you use such a lens) you would still have to unscrew the connector and move it to the lens plate. Using the clamp on the sling eliminates both of these situations. Plus I still feel a dedicated camera plate is superior to a "universal" gasketed (is that a word ?) one.



+1 on both points. 

A dedicated camera-specific plate has an anti-twist feature that's better than a rubber/cork surface on a flat plate. Plus, I prefer to use an L-bracket sometimes. 

More importantly (to me), I have 7 lenses with tripod collars - the ability to easily switch the strap connection around body and lenses with a QR clamp is very convenient.


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