If you ever thought having insurance for your camera gear wasn't worth investing into, you should take a minute to read this. It's like the old saying goes, "better safe than sorry." I learned that lesson first hand this weekend, and because of a faulty camera strap, I am now wishing I had insurance.
It was Valentine's Day, my girlfriend and I packed up the car, grabbed our Golden Retriever puppy, and headed for the Grand Canyon. As we watched the sun set over the beautiful red rocks, I proceeded to capture the beauty with my Canon 6D and 35mm L lens. It had been a perfect Valentine's Day. On our way home I stopped several times to try my luck at some long-exposure shots of the night sky. We were finally on our way home when we made a last pit stop to use the restroom. While here, I decide to bust the camera out one last time to get a night shot of the popular lookout spot, Sunset Point in Arizona. With my Slik tripod in my hand, I scurry over to the ledge to set up. As I am walking over to the ledge, I hear the most devastating sound a photographer can imagine: the horrifying sound of my camera gear exploding against the cement. I pretty much freak out at this point as I try to gather the pieces of what is left of my 35mm L lens. I start to assess what happened and realized my Peak Design camera strap had failed me. One of the anchors had broke and let my equipment fall to the ground.
Editor's Update: We now have a comment from Peak Design: "The product issue described in this article was limited to Peak Design straps made before March 2015. Since then, Peak Design has changed the material of their Anchor cords from Vectran® to Dyneema®, a material that is not susceptible to the same kind of abrasion wear. Additionally, Peak Design's new Anchors feature a multi-layered cord design that shows a bright red indicator when wear is present, alerting the user to replace the Anchor. To this date Peak Design has seen zero Anchor cord failures caused by abrasion on the new Anchors. Additionally, the original author was reimbursed in full by Peak Design for repairs made as a result of the incident below." According to Thomas Ingersoll, the aforementioned reimbursement was made after this article was published.
The damage: A Canon 35mm L lens left in pieces. A Canon 6D with possible frame damage and a cracked screen. It will also take a couple weeks to fix everything, which means I have rent a camera for all my jobs until my camera is fixed.
I received the Peak Design Leash about two years ago. I loved how easy to use the strap was, and how fast I could take on and off my camera strap. This was really appealing to me since I shoot landscapes and portraits. The Peak Design Leash has been with me since my 5D and to the 6D I purchased last year.
I also love the low-key design of the strap, with minimal logos, and not having the big "CANON" across the strap (that to me screams "come steal me"). I loved all of these features until Peak Design let me down. Their patent-pending Anchor Link™ system couldn’t even last two years. One of the threads that held the anchors just snapped, allowing my camera and lens (RIP) to fall to the cement. Although I loved the strap while I owned it, I don’t think I will trust Peak Design to hold thousands of dollars worth of my gear again.
Here is a little about the Peak Design Leash system that sells for 35 dollars.
The most versatile and quick-connecting camera strap in the world, Leash™ can adapt to any camera and any shooting situation. Easily configure Leash™ as a sling strap, neck strap, safety tether, video stabilizer and more. When you don’t need a strap, Leash™ quickly disconnects and stores in your pocket, purse or camera bag. Leash uses our patent-pending Anchor Link™ connection system and comes with four Anchors for attachment.
I reached out to Peak Design in hopes of a similar outcome as the Black Rapid story. In my email I explained to them what happened and how I loved their product. This was their response:
Hi Thomas,
Thanks for reaching out to us and so sorry to hear about your camera fall due to an anchor that broke. We are continuously working to improve our anchors and you can read more here about Anchor Strength, Anchor Wear & Anchor Engineering Peak Design is not liable for any damage to your camera while using our products and are not able to refund you for camera repairs, but you can use the code ***** at www.peakdesign.com to receive a new set of anchors for free and I will send you a set of the newly designed anchors once they become available.
Best, Jen
Although I appreciate the gesture of new free anchors, I wish they had the same customer service as Black Rapid. I believe Peak Design needs to take their patent-pending design back to the drawing board. I for one think a camera strap should last more than two years. If any of you use alternative camera straps, make sure they won't leave your lens and spirits in pieces.
I am pretty upset about the strap breaking, but this incident has opened up my eyes about looking into buying insurance. Before this, I never really considered buying insurance for my gear. I always thought it was too expensive, or that I would not ever need it. I have always been so careful with my gear, but accidents happen to us all. Whether it is a mistake of your own, or something that you would least expect, like a camera strap breaking, it is always nice to have the comfort of knowing you are not totally screwed when something like this happens.
Well, as of today I am looking into insurance.
Here is a great article by Philip Vukelich that gives more insight about affordable insurance..
And finally, here are some of the last pictures my poor lens took.
I had a Peak Design strap fail on me, and they sent me new anchors. I then purchased a new strap that was part of the troubles they had around Photokina with a bad batch from manufacturing and that strap failed. That bad batch news hit Reddit and the world found out about Peak Designs pretty poorly designed and quality controlled products. They did not offer to repair my lens that was damaged, though they did fix the persons gear that appeared in the Reddit post. I have since moved back to camera straps that have no risk of ever breaking. Peak Design needs to go away.
I also use the Peak Design straps (both the Leash and Slide). I love the products and will continue to use them. The points on Canon bodies where you attach the connectors have very thin and abrasive metal edges. The Peak Design connectors are just made out of woven fibers, so I fully expect to see wear due to friction between the two parts. I check mine from time to time and can see some degree of wear on my most used body. I think I'll go ahead and replace them after reading this. The connectors on my less used body are still in near perfect condition. Even though I will continue using my gear with the straps, I probably would not had it been my lens that broke. Not sure what I'd use instead, because I still think Peak Design has the best quick release system out there.
For the author, if you are a full time professional photographer, you should have had insurance (equipment and liability) long before this happened.
Wow. All these Peak Design apologists questioning the OP's motives and basically blaming the victim have finally forced me to register at this site. I use five different PD products, have participated in their kickstarter projects, and often recommend their gear to other photogs—at least until now.
It is ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous, for anyone to suggest that any use case that does not involve outright abuse is an excuse for a premium product like this to fail. Over the years I've used many different straps from Tamrac, OpTech, and others which required no careful monitoring or care. They just worked. If you are one of the posters who suggested that it is just too much to expect any strap to hold up under the stress of being connected to a Canon body I have one word for you: IDIOT. Same goes for you folks who look at the failed connector and think you can discern its condition one way or the other before it failed.
Peak Design makes a big deal out of the durability of these connectors. Either they stand behind their product and their marketing hype or they don't. If this is that extremely rare exception to their overall reliability then they should step up and do the right thing. If they had, then we would be saying good things about them right now. The fact that they didn't suggests to me that either this is more than an isolated incident—a suspicion bolstered in my mind by the reports that they have redesigned these connectors—or that these guys are just another company that says the right thing when they want your money and gives you the "sucks to be you" line when you really need their help. That is NOT OK.
It is apparent that some people would rather this incident had gone unpublicized. I suspect if the shoe was on the other foot that they might feel differently. Regardless, I consider this post a public service both in regard to the insurance issue as well as in regard to raising the possibility that a catastrophic failure could occur without warning when using this system. I don't see myself using this system again until this issue is openly addressed by Peak Design.
Since you're throwing the word idiot around please note that Peak's own Mr Dering has in fact addressed this issue in this thread.
Thank you for pointing this out. Half a day passed between my reading the post and comments and my being able to post my own comment. That said, I stand behind my use of the term "idiot", which was directed at apologists who were trying to assign blame to anything but the anchors. Peter Dering's comments only confirm that the problem was the anchors; not the actions of the author of the post or his Canon body.
I also took issue with those that thought it was inappropriate to publish a post that mentioned this problem and, again, Peter's own comments seem to support the position I took.
It is good—no, great—to see PD address this issue in a transparent and candid way, discussing both the issue and the way forward for those with affected anchors. It is exactly what I hoped for. I'm glad I don't have to look for an alternative system for my camera bodies. I've become quite attached to the Peak Design products.
Here's PD founder's response reposted from earlier in the thread in case it's hard to find:
Hi Everyone,
Peter Dering here, the founder of Peak Design and co-inventor of the Anchor Link system. First off…I’d like to thank those in the comment string here who have come to our defense. We owe our company’s success to our loyal supporters, and it is deeply felt and appreciated.
But…when a story like this breaks, we can't blame the messenger…we take full responsibility. Fstoppers have done a wonderful job telling the world about our products when they’ve come out. Telling the world about their failures is simply fair and honest journalism, which we hold in high regard.
In my view, there are two issues here Peak Design needs to address. First off, we had a product failure. Secondly, we had a customer service failure and a policy discussion on our hands. Insurance is an interesting topic, but is outside our expertise or right to comment on.
Apologies for the forthcoming novela - there's just a lot I'd like to address...
Product Failure: Here's the history behind all this...
1. We've upgraded our Anchor design 2 (soon to be 3) times. The Kevlar/Delrin connectors that broke on Thomas’ strap are v1 Anchors, launched at the end of 2012. This is indicated by the old logo on them.
2. We heard about the first Anchor breakage in early 2014. We paid close attention to the issue and worked closely with the customer who experienced it. We previously thought the system would stand the test of time no matter what. This incident made it clear that Anchors were subject to wear in certain use cases.
3. This realization prompted three actions:
a) We immediately put warning tags directly on Anchors, so that everyone using these products would know that these are a “wear item”, that could require eventual replacement. We were able to get this warning into the product stream quickly.
b) We wrote a blog post and help article (http://support.peakdesign.com/hc/en-us/articles/203702175-Anchor-Strengt...) about the need to check Anchors for wear, and implored people to do so.
c) We re-examined high performance cords to see if there was a better option.
4. Within a month, our v2 Anchors began being produced, using Vectran instead of Kevlar. Vectran is better against UV and abrasion. As soon as we could, we inserted these new Anchors into the product stream, and began issuing free replacements to those with frayed v1 Anchors.
5. These v2 Anchors were an improvement, but not the panacea we were seeking. The material is better, but the weave of the Vectran is looser, which fought against the its abrasion resistance. We still wanted to do better.
6. We are now in production of our v3 Anchors, which are actively being inserted into all new products. At significant cost, we scrapped 50,000 Vectran Anchors so that we could switch more quickly.
7. The new Anchors are made with Dyneema…a material that has shown to be 10x stronger than Vectran and 15x stronger in Kevlar in our reciprocating and vibratory tests.
8. v3 Anchors cords consist of three layers: a black exterior, a yellow middle core, and a red inner core. They come with instructions to seek replacement when yellow shows, and immediately cease using at the first sight of red.
9. As soon as our fulfillment centers are stocked, we intend to release this news as far and wide as we can, and provide a very cost effective way of getting these v3 Anchors into the hands of those who are already using products with the Anchor Link system.
In our biased opinion, Anchor Links remain the most innovative and convenient way to connect a camera to a strap, and we are committed as a company to never stop improving on the products we have.
Customer Service Failure:
I hesitate to label this as a customer service failure, if only because it reflects poorly on our customer service manager who I have extraordinary respect for. But as I take responsibility for the failure of any of our products, I also take responsibility for the our customer service. In this case we failed to give you the service that one deserves in such a serious situation, and I'll be following up with you directly to make things right.
Peak Design has been lucky enough to see a huge uptick in the popularity of our products and the number of people using them. With that has come a huge influx of customer service needs. We have been meeting that demand by trying to create efficient systems that let us handle a large volume of issues, as typically we see most questions and issues come in waves. Broken Anchors, however, are not a common issue to be handled by a response we’ve created using ZenDesk. This issue should have been handled with extreme delicacy and personal attention, and it wasn’t.
Peak Design products are carrying the gear of about 250,000 photographers now. Certainly, we’ve had breaks in the past. Thank goodness, very few. And in most cases, I have personally engaged with customers, with the aim of learning more about the situation people were in that led to a failure, shared with them the plan for v3 Anchors, and have also paid our fair share of insurance deductibles and repair charges. These are painful discussions to have to have, but the confidence that’s rebuilt in the consumer is worth every penny.
That said, the policy we have in place is that Peak Design is not responsible for damage to equipment. We need to have this blanket policy in place, mostly to protect against fraud. The consumers’ protection against Peak Design is that if we are negligent or fraudulent….we will cease to exist far more quickly than we were born.
This community has my assurance that we will be taking steps to improve our customer service and not have this type of failure. We’ll be increasing capacity, eliminating any process based replies for something as serious as a camera drop, and making sure that we have the bandwidth to speak with everyone who wants their voice heard. These changes won’t come overnight, but by April of this year, I hope to be staffed up and ready to give the service our customers deserve.
I’d like to close with a heartfelt thanks to all of those in the community of writers, bloggers, and readers of this content. There is a whole ecosystem around photography that Peak Design is pleased and humbled to be a part of. Thanks for your efforts, and your enthusiasm.
Thanks for the repost, Ann.
Exactly what would you expect Peak Design to do in this case? Fix his camera for him? Peter Dering said that this guy was using V1 anchors and that new anchors were offered to him and anyone else who was using this system FOR FREE that are 10x stronger than the original. It only takes a very cursory understanding of physics to know that the canon attachment points are partially at fault.
Again, I stand by my comments about anyone who argues that it is too much to expect a premium strap system to survive a Canon body. Apparently, I'm talking to you. I've been using Canon bodies for 30 years and miraculously all have survived completely intact. If a new strap system is introduced that has a problem with the attachment points, the problem is with the new strap design.
As far as compensation goes, I did not specifically call for PD to pay for the cost of repair/replacement. That said, I absolutely feel like something more than offering free replacement anchors is the right thing to do if the situation is likely a result of PD's product design. Apparently PD agrees, judging from Peter's comments. Now if PD had contacted owners of the V1 anchor system prior to this occurrence offering free replacements and the OP had ignored the offer then I would feel differently. That's not my understanding of what happened.
As for the whole FOR FREE replacement offer that you are referring to, I'm not aware of it nor have I read anything about it. Peter does say that the anchors are covered by a lifetime warranty and if fraying occurs they will be replaced. That is different than what you just claimed.
shouldn't your home owners insurance cover this?
Hey Thomas, I had been using Black Rapid RS7 system, where the anchors are metal ones and after 2 years of using it with D3s-70-200VRII combo even that metal piece started to wear out so much that it got thinner by 30%!!! I was still using it but also checking it before every shoot. Then before this season started I simply reached out to the company and expressed myself that I do not want to wear this out anymore and what they suggestions would be for me. You know what they did, They thanked me to let them know, told me that this version1 was not as great designed as the new one and send me 3 anchors to replace the older one, and plus completely new RS7 system to set me up for the new season and my other cameras! The lesson, you are the only person responsible for your gear, no one else! I had my lenses, flashes and lights broken to the pieces at events by people who simply were having fun / too much boost etc at weddings /, that is part of being working photographer. A carpenter breaks a hammer from time to time a photographer breaks a lens... Things happen and a strap thing, honestly, even if you drive a car and you crash because your tire was already without any thread on it, would you try to ruin a company like Michelin because of that..? Only you know how much of the life in that strap was left, so if you let it be and did not pay attention to it, the bad thing happened to you because you underestimated it. Nothing last forever, and the insurance is a good thing but common sense is above it IMO. So good luck with a new strap, but the complete back up gear would be my recommendation unless one day you break it again but this time you upset a client of yours who will be left without images when your gear is in the pieces ! Things happen, get ready for that :) Happy shooting.
Sorry to hear about that. Insurance IS cheap. I have coverage for $18.5k in camera gear, 10K in office equipment and $2M in general liability, theft coverage + a bunch of other things and it's only $135 every quarter. http://www.tcpinsurance.com/
Also, If you're shooting weddings you really should have insurance. If someone trips over a light stand and breaks a leg you're pretty much done.
Joel is so very right. If you're a working photographer, i.e. you get paid, it is critically important that you have liability insurance. It's likely even more important than insuring your gear, for that one time that someone gets hurt, or you "ruin someone's wedding day" and they sue you for thousands, or even millions of dollars.
Sure, rub it in. TCP won't write insurance policies in Louisiana.
The Black Rapid article is titled "Black Rapid goes above and beyond."
"Above and beyond" means more than what is needed, necessary, required, or expected. Which means if BR did not do it, that it would be them doing what is expected. It's a shame that customers feel the need to either get what they want or effectively blackmail a product company. If you replace my gear, I'll write and article singing your praises about how you go above and beyond. If you don't, I'll say your whole company sucks. I just' don't see a small company like Peak who started with Kickstarter (right?) being able to hand out $ every time someone breaks their camera and says it's their fault.
Ugh! This breaks my heart, and I know I need to get insurance (even though I have nowhere near as much $ in gear as many of you do... I would only need to insure my 6D and 24-105L at the moment. Probably wouldn't insure my t3i and lenses)
Sorry this happened to you, but I'm glad I read the story.
Hey Thomas, Sorry for your loss, never cool. I'm a PD pro, I've used the anchor system since before the kickstarter [ https://instagram.com/p/RynTxNizBf ] in many configs, no issues to date - I do notice how my anchors are looking, I guess, because I swap straps between multiple cameras. Anyways, just sharing... Better luck in the future! --S
I really don't blame the author for not checking the strap, mine is 12 years old. It has been with me four cameras, there is very little fraying, but I will check more often.
I have these on all of my camera bodies. Just had the opportunity to take them all off and inspect them. Several are worn over halfway through and are definitely at the breaking point. Guess I should say thanks for this, and I'll be taking advantage of that lifetime warranty on the product.
In my opinion, there are only two manufacturers of conventional camera straps whose products are worth using: Upstrap: http://www.upstrap-pro.com and Op/Tech: http://optechusa.com. Upstraps are like limpets: they just stick to your shoulder. Op/Tech straps are incredibly comfortable when wearing the camera around the neck. If you want something fancier, Black Rapid is probably still the best around.
Buy a Nikon camera. You'll see why .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6NiswPBIUg
Mine does.
I have been using my PD straps for over a year on a Canon 5D and a small Rebel that I used for real estate panos. I designed products for many years and as such I tend to notice little issues with the design of the gadgets I use and the first thing I noticed when I attached the original Canon straps to my 5D was that the metal strap mounts on the 5D are a terrible design. They are made from pressed metal that has almost 90 degree edges and I thought to myself, "These strap mounts are going to wear through just about anything over time". A good design would have perfectly rounded surfaces for the strap to rub against. (Take a close look at your Canon, even a non technical person will notice it is not a great design.) I seem to think Nikon have much better strap mount but can't remember for certain.
While it seems that the original PD straps had issues, I do not think it is fair to place the blame for the failure only on PD. I took a look at some of my older canon straps and they too are showing wear from these nasty Canon strap mounts. A PD strap has a fraction of the surface area that is in contact with the mounting point compared to a Canon strap so it is to be expected it will last a fraction of the time if made from the same material.
One should always keep a careful eye on your gear when you change something from original equipment to a custom solution. The OE solution would have been rigorously tested as a single unit. Even though Canons strap mount is not a great design, it is good enough when combined with their very bulky straps.
I would like to see Canon improve their mounts.
Yesterday my Rebel got stolen out of an overhead luggage compartment on a flight from Denver to Portland with my PD strap attached, so I no longer have to worry about my PD strap failing - in fact I hope it fails tomorrow... :)
When I purchase a new one, I will certainly keep an eye on it as long as it is attached to a Canon.
I loved my PD strap and will not hesitate to replace mine with another PD. It is great for the work I do.
Get one but check on it from time to time. You are dangling a few thousand dollars on the end of a very fancy piece of string - it just makes sense to check the piece of string from time to time.
I had an anchor link wear out on me after only a day of shooting. Turns out I was using it with an old plate not designed for it. Jen hooked me up with a new plate, and some newer style anchor links that have different colors inside (Black exterior, yellow interior, red core) to help you notice if stuff is wearing out.
I use Slide with a Sigma 150-600 Sport and a 5D3. I check my links regularly for wear.
Free lifetime warranty on Peak Design stuff, if a link wears out its your own fault for not checking it and getting it replaced.
This article is comparable to getting mad at a brake manufacturer because your car's brakes failed when they were worn out. Everyone's use is different, that link looks super worn out. IMO its your own fault for not checking your gear.
Should be titled "Photographer doesn't check equipment for two years, and the inevitable happens". Kind of messed up that this is the first thing that pops up when I search for a review of their camera bag. But at least you got that off your chest yea?
I too just had my strap fail, almost $8K worth of brand new gear smashed on the concrete. I blame myself, I knew better. I knew this was gimmick trash, every time I picked it up I knew. After almost 30 years shooting, I never thought that the strap needed BS millennial innovation. I hope this company is ruined by Chinese knock offs. FU#K everything about this company.