I've been happy with the design and use of the link cam after I've used the Red #1 linkcam for several months. However, the durability of these cams after only several months is subpar. In particular, the triggers in the first generation link cams will probably quickly break!

I called OP after a trigger wire popped off after stopping it's first, allbeit _tiny_ (hips right at the piece) lead fall. This has happened on a number of their first generation cams, I was told. It seems that the pins that hold the trigger cables to the lobes were not manufactured to spec and can easily pull out of the trigger plastic. This has caused numerous people to report trigger wire failure and durability issues to OP. I have sent my #1 link cam in to OP and they happily have agreed to replace / repair it.

NOTE - this flaw does not compromise the safety of the placement, only renders the cam useless for subsequent placements. The pin popping can make a horribly unnerving sound, however, something you don't like to hear when you're looking up at your sole roof crack placement. ;)

My only other beef with the cam is that due to it's relatively weak spring action, the feel of the cam placement in it's wider mode, feels a bit flimsy compared to what I'm used to (BD Camalots). I've found that it seems much more secure and solid in the smaller configuration.

Other than that, I think it's a great idea, and is wonderful for doubling up two sizes of cams on your rack when you're on a budget.

Overall rating a 3. Give the product a bit of maturation before thinking of investing.

Ive had this cam for about 2 weeks now and ive placed it about 10 times alreasdy, ya i know i climb a lot. But they place exceptionally well and it causght my 15 foot fall, great design and does its job, also i dont have to carry doubles of everything all the time which makes things a lot simpler.

I agree with many of the other reviews - these versatile cams are great to place and to have on a rack. However, they're not very durable.

We have been using a set of link cams (red and gold) since spring 2006 and both have become unusable in less than a year of moderate use. The cable attaching the trigger to the lobe on the gold cam broke off rendering the cam useless. The spring also appears to be broken. The red link cam now has a hairline fracture in one of the lobes so its integrity is lost. We're not sure how this happened but it hadn't been abused (more than anything else on the rack). Both cams lasted less than one year of moderate use free climbing and a few pitches of aid.

Based on these issues, we recommend that the cable attachments should be swaged onto the lobes and trigger to replace the current 'snap' configuration and that the lobes be constructed of a material similar to a BD camalot in terms of its strength.

These cams are a great idea but I'll wait for the next generation of link cams before I purchase a set.

Surprise! Link Cam Review
By Dingus Milktoast

We put a lot of stock in first impressions don’t we? In the world of business, on first dates, tasting some weird ice cream, first impressions are often a make or break situation. And yet… we all know that often enough, first impressions can be deceiving.

When I first became aware of Link Cams from Omega Pacific, I must admit I did not have a positive impression. In fact I literally thought, “there’s someone’s college design project gone wild.” It almost seemed like a 3-bladed razor, ya know? To be quickly superseded by a 4-bladed one, then 5. A marketing ploy if you will.

Know what I found out? Those 5-bladed razors work pretty damn good! Best shave ever, I almost hate to admit it; so much for first impressions. I own two 5-bladed razors now, one for home, one for travel. 3-blades? Bah! Stone age sheet!

When my new Link Cams showed up in the mail I took a hard look at them. The first of several surprises; I expected well-made. Omega Pacific makes good gear after all. But just looking at them, hefting them, working the trigger, they feel exceptionally well-made, like a fine watch or a sturdy clock. No slop in the throw, no hitches as the cams retracted, smooth as butter in fact, but with a solid, Mercedes-sort of feel.

The trigger assembly is very well designed too. I like the trigger wire material itself, never seen anything quite like it. The swivel points on the attachments make them very smooth too. I reckon the X-pattern increases the throw, very necessary considering how far the cams have to travel.

Further, the intricate shapes of the cams are a thing to behold. Watch the interaction of the lobes as the cams retract, it’s quite beautiful. I subsequently learned the design is based on a patented Greg Lowe concept. It seems wonderfully executed, reminds me of the multiple jaws coming out of that Alien creature in the SciFi movie.

I purposely avoided all available literature prior to my using the cams. I didn’t even read the user’s manual, sorry god. I wanted to evaluate them ‘untainted’ by the opinions of others. I avoided spec sheets, marketing claims and the opinions of other reviewers and testers. You’re getting my unbiased bullshit here.

I also wanted to solicit the opinions of my partners. I didn’t talk them up either, for the same reasons. I wanted their untainted opinions. I just asked them to try em out.

Rack-em up, they hang like Camelots. The gold one is the same outer size as a gold Camelot too, for reference purposes. That had to be on purpose and good for them, Goldilocks, as we like to call the gold Camelot, is a time-honored 3-generation standard for many folks, that great hand crack piece eh? Hang about the same length too.

When you try to grab one off the rack, the distance between thumb and trigger fingers takes some getting used to. I have big hands and I still had to open my hand pretty wide to ‘get at em.’ Specially the gold one. Also, I sometimes had difficulty getting my thumb though the webbing loop to push against the trigger. I think the flange on the end of the stem could stand to be just a tiny bit wider, to hold the webbing a little bit more open.

They are heavier than other cams, no getting around that. They’re especially top-heavy, so to speak. A floppier stem would have them floppin around all over the place. The stem seems *just stiff enough* to keep it from happening though. Still flexible for all that.

Place em, ohjeez these babies are out of this world! Within their size range they seem to fit almost any crack configuration, from flairs to pods. Those dreaded thin cracks that expand as they get deeper? SLAIN! Offset crack? DONE! Hand to finger potential? ONE PIECE. Flair? We don’t care bout no stinkin FLAIRS!

I commented to Angus after a my first lead up a nice finger and hand crack,

“This is the All-Time Panic Piece” Angus.” Seriously, you can rip one of these bad boys off the rack and slam in that hand to finger crack and pretty much expect the thing to find its own home. Keep the trigger pulled and drag it down the crack, presto it will stick somewhere!

Couldn’t get them irretrievably stuck either and I tried. Now I’m sure some rock and some cracks will snag them, but on the bullet-hard volcanic cracks I was climbing, full of inner rugosities and tenuous warts, I failed to put them in a position of no return.

Also, when you do get a good deep placement, you often also get an enormous cam surface contact, far more than with any other cam I ever saw or imagined. Its mind boggling, the more narrow and deeper you place them the more cam surface there is to catch. If the piece starts to pull, it has all that surface contact to resist and adjust.

I don’t know how these things behave in a hard fall, didn’t take any. Funked em pretty good but took no serious falls. We used them in flint-hard columnar volcanic cracks and in textured and sometimes grainy alpine granite.

I was totally surprised! I went from ‘marketing gimmick’ to GENIUS! On one crack lead, blew me away! My partners put em to use and had similar comments, observations and surprise. Each of them expressed doubt, till he used them. Then they were all,
“Chyaaaaaaaaaahhh!” Seriously, they were.

Angus placed two of them on his ballsy first ascent of Crack-a-dile Hunter, both flaired granite pods where no other piece would fit. Scuffy used them a couple of times, again in places where no other cam had a hope of fitting. Miwok slammed in a few as well. The main point with all three men, each having climbed more than 20 years, is that when these pieces were on the rack? They got used, inevitably. And they received good marks in the process.

Design features touted by Omega Pacific include the greatest expansion range of any cams on the market, constant cam angle throughout, full-strength holding power, a unique trigger wire arrangement including the ‘swivet’ attachments and cross-cabling.

Omega Pacific cites several benefits of these features including increased surface contact in small sizes, reduced tendency to walk, offset capability, less time to find the right piece, and the crack-jumaring already mentioned.

So as you can see, my untainted observations matched up almost point-for-point with the marketing hype. Definitely not hype in my opinion, these Link Cams, from Omega Pacific. I think they rock.

I see many of the same potential roles as suggested by OP too. Crack jumaring, check. They were BORN for crack jumaring. Supplement a single rack of cams, instead of taking halves of the next set, take two Links and one larger one and yer prolly good2go. Might take 5 or 6 additional pieces otherwise. I can totally see them augmenting a rack of hexes for the great alpine rack… hexes for lead pro, cams for the belays, or whatever.

I figured they’d end up in the bottom of my aid box, to be blunt. Little did I know, they ended up on my primary lead rack, lol. And like I said to Angus, they are the All-Time Panic Piece, best ever in that category. Since I climb scairt a lot I should know.

Now if you’re one of those list-makers (you know who you are… you checked it on the master after all), my review will leave you feeling less than satisfied. You’ll be wantin numbers bygawd, charts and shit. Done tole yall, I don’t do lists. You wanna compare specs, sorry, I’m not doing your OCD for you.

Infer your own list conclusions. Or better yet, just try em out yourselves. BTW, I never did compare their strength to the competition, or size-range to size-range. I’m an analog climber damnit. They seem strong enough to me and I know they have a wide expansion range, know that for a fact. Why fret numbers (cept the $$$, they aren’t cheap) I’ll promptly forget anyway? I don’t really get my bowels in an uproar over that end of the bidness.

But you can do it yourselves here… easy as pie.

http://www.omegapac.com/op_products_linkcams.html

Enjoy mates!
Cheers,
DMT

At first I was a bit of a skeptic: Links don't have that Camalot "you-can-drive-a-truck-over-it-and-it-will-work-fine" heft to them. But after using them for several easy lines and now some harder stuff, they are the shit. Very easy in and solid when the're there, they substantially cut down on the number and sizes of gear you have to rack when you don't know the lead you're on. Flaring cracks? Not a problem: open it up, stick it in, and it will hold something awesome. The biggest problem is in your head, getting used to the idea that a cam will hold in a flare.

At first, the mechanism may seem delicate. It really is just different than what you're used to. They say they are field repairable, but after losing a pin in one and F*#%ing around with it for a while trying to fix it, I sent it back, and they sent a new one with NQA...way cool.

Pros: VERY versatile. 6 of these can be as useful as a dozen single sized cams, particularly when you don't know what sizes you'll need. They cover a huge range of protection widths. In most cases Links cut down on gear selection and placement time; critical when you're climbing at the limit. They hold like glue, even in marginal placements, as the sized portion of the cam that needs to contact the rock is what actually grabs the stone across the whole caming width: each lobe functions independantly. Protects flares. Great company support. The're cool, and every one wants to play with them.

Cons: They are designed and made differently from other cams, and this can take some getting used to. They are somewhat heavy, but you may not need to rack as many in total, so the weight bitch may be a wash. Cheap they ain't. Field repairable my ass, and I can make a car out of a tin can with a screwdriver. In their smallest range they are wide in comparison to single width cams of the same protection width. Some rack snobs don't like OP gear 'cause they didn't have to give their first-born to buy it. The're cool and every one wants to play with them.

In the end, the're a great rack addition. I give them (@TS!) two opposeable thumbs up....