So now that I have two 5ds, I needed another strap for my second body since I cant stand using the default Canon straps. For my first body, I have the Black Rapid R Strap version RS-3. I love the Black Rapid straps but I feel that it is a little pricey for a strap especially when you can easily make it yourself for a lot less money. The version of the R-Strap that I have uses the older fastener that is not as nice as what the new ones use. So I could buy another new R-strap for about $60 or I can try making it myself for less than $20 in parts. I actually used this http://www.rphotographers.com/showthread.php?t=246 as a reference and it was very helpful. I basically used parts that I currently already had and purchased parts from http://www.strapworks.com.

This is the finished product.

I already had a shoulder strap that came with my Case Logic Lens Case but you can easily buy the 1 inch belt straps from Michael’s, JoAnn’s, online or any fabric store. For the shoulder pad, Strapworks.com only had one choice for a shoulder pad and I didn’t like it since it was just a generic pad. You can probably find nicer ones that are replacement shoulder pads. I had a free Smug Mug camera strap that had a nice shoulder pad so I cut off the ends, and cut a couple lines in the leather end so that I could run the shoulder strap through the pad. To keep the fabric strap in place on top of the Smug mug strap, I used a hot glue gun and it worked nicely. The image above was before I did the hot glue.

From Strapworks.com, I ordered the Metal one inch Beefy Snap and the Plastic one inch Acetyl Plastic Cam Buckle.

For the actual fastener that connects the camera to the hook, you can buy the Fastenr from Black Rapid or even buy a cheap Eye Ring hook from Home Depot. The fastener from Black Rapid is nice, but I did not want to pay $12 for it. I had an extra camera connector that is used to connect the camera to my Sunpak tripod. So what I did was remove the screw from the part pictured below. I took out the black plastic part, which left a hole through the top piece in the picture above. I used a D ring and crimped it into the hole. I then took a nut and washer and screwed it into the screw part so that there is no extra room after screwing it into the camera.

*Update*

I have now updated the fastener with the Induro replacement camera screw pictured below and a 3cm locking carabiner from Sports Chalet to give it more support instead of the fastener above .

Here is an updated image of my alex strap. I have the redundant carabiner because it feels more secure. The carabiner has a locking screw to avoid accidentally falling off. The buckle unfortunately does not have any locking but I like the fact that it can swivel or else I would just hook the carabiner to the strap.

This isn’t as pretty as the Black Rapid R-Strap but considering I basically replicated it for a lot less money, it was well worth the effort since it works just as good.