Silencing the Sony A7iii Strap Rings

Now that I’ve had the Sony A7iii camera for a few days now, I’ve come to really enjoy it and get a sense of just how powerful of a tool it can be.  Sure it has some quirks that can be complained about, but overall, it’s an amazing camera considering the price point.

Having said that, one thing has been really bugging me since I first picked it up and that is the strap rings that come on the camera.  They are the usual triangular split rings with plastic cover that every camera has, but for some reason they seem to be much louder that other camera’s I’ve owned.  I took them off for a day, then questioned how I’d attach neck strap and fiddled with a tripod-mount strap for a bit. Once I got tired of only having that option, I thought about how to quiet them down so I won’t hear them when shooting video.  My solution was a pair of rubber O-rings on each lug that keep the triangle split-ring in a mostly static position until pressure is applied to it.

As you can see, there are 2 different sizes of O-rings.  To install, I removed the plastic clip and the triangle split-ring.  I then slid the larger O-ring first followed by the smaller O-ring onto the strap lug.  Holding those in place with one hand, I reinstalled the triangle split-ring on the lug and then slid the plastic cover back on.  And just like that, no more clatter from loose split-rings.  The nice thing about this is that on the right side grip, my hand naturally rests just underneath the split-ring as it sticks straight out.  So I’m not fighting with it when I go to grip the camera.  The split-rings will still freely move when a strap is attached and they pivot without issue, but there is just enough pressure on them to keep them moving around by themselves.  The beautiful sound of silence.

The sizes I got for the O-rings are below.  They were each about 50 cents from a local hardware store.

2 of the bigger O-rings: 1/4″ x 1/2″ x 1/8″ #9

2 of the smaller O-rings: 7/16″ x 9/16″ x 1/16″