Rudmin wrote:

Totem Cams Adam and I took these up in the quartzite of Big Cottonwood Canyon near Salt Lake City, Utah to test them out. First thing that hit me as I picked up the cams was, "These cams are really cool looking, but there's a lot too them." That thought came true as I racked them up. They definitely take up some room on the gear loops. At the same time, they look really cool, and in my book, that scores some points. As I looked at how the cams are engineered, I was even more impressed by the engineering. If I'm understanding it correctly, and I believe that I am, the trigger wires actually hold the fall. I was a little concerned at first that these might wear out rather quickly. The other concern that I had was that the trigger wires seems rather exposed, especially when the device is cammed past 75%. Despite these minor concerns, Adam and I took the attitude of, "Well, they're cams. No one makes cams that just don't work at all." and we headed up to the crag. We stuck them in cracks and compared them to our other gear. They seemed simple enough. The sizes wouldn't be too hard to get used to, and the 2 lobe placement claim seemed to make sense. I took the first run at them. We were on a steep 5.10 with a crack that varies from perfect fingerlocks to knobby fists. Perfect for fall testing cams. I place the green totem about 30 feet up, backed it up and climbed until it was 3 feet below my shoes. Sure enough, cams hold, and the cam held the short whipper just fine. I climbed back to where I was and then up past into some bigger placements. I found a nice place for the red cam, backed it up, climbed above and took a good 15 foot whip on it with a nice hard catch. Once again, the cam performed brilliantly. With how easy it was to place these cams, I was beginning to think that they were a pretty good product. I finished the pitch and lowered off to give Adam a go. He wasn't nearly so kind as I was. His first piece he placed perfectly and took a small whip on, but we were here to test. Most anything works in an ideal situation, but when you take it a little more extreme, that's when you see if there is any substance. Adam placed his next piece in an ideal spot, but with only 2 lobes engaged. He tugged on it and it seemed to hold. Then he took a short fall with the piece at waist level and it ripped right out. Unscathed, Adam climbed back up and place another marginal piece. I didn't see this placement, but I know he put it in with all 4 lobes engaged. The 12 foot whip he took on that piece pulled it as well. Either Adam didn't know how to place gear, or he was purposely making bad placements. Adam finished his pitch and I decided it was my turn to give the cams a good test. I really wanted to be fair, but also test the limits of the cams. I found a perfect spot: a spot in the main crack flaring straight down at approximately 35-40% (Think about the hands on your clock at 5:35 or so). I placed the green cam and backed it up. Sure enough, that cam (that I totally expected to blow) held a 15 footer with a hard catch. My kidneys were starting to feel the hard catches now, but i wanted to test a few more. I tried the purple in a slightly more flaring placement. Not only did I pull the Totem Cam, but I pulled what I thought was a bomber backup. Quite the surprise. After all the whipping was through, We carefully inspected the cams for damage. The wires held up fine and didn't seem to ever contact the rock. We didn't load them over any horizontals or anything, but I felt like we tested them fairly hard. I'd like to see how they end up loaded over an edge, but I didn't want to ruin them. The lobes definitely showed some wear, especially on the back sides of the lobes. Very interesting spots for deformation. The aluminum seemed pretty soft, and someone that falls on their gear a lot might end up with some mashed up lobes on their cams. I'm sure the specs speak better to the softness of the metal than I can. I'm impressed, but not ready to go out and drop $80/cam on these. I normally climb on Metolius and BD and will continue to do so for now. I didn't have any major complaints though, so try them out if you get a chance. Climb safe out there. Jason Price On a scale of 1-5: Look and feel: 4 Ease of placement: 5 Holding power: 5 Durability: 3 Size: 2 Price: 1.5

I would rate bd as "different"

My go-to pieces are Metolius, followed closely by BD, but even those two are just different. Different cams work in different spots.

If I had to rate BD on the same scale that I used below my review:

Look and feel: 5
Ease of placement: 4.75
Holding power: 5
Durability: 4
Size: 4
Price(value): 4

Metolius:

L&F: 4
Ease of placement: 4.75
Holding power: 5+
Durability: 5
Size: 4.5
Price(value): 4.5