Kinda late to the party here, but I actually bought my polymer Cinch from
@Rent Outdoor Gear. I’m using it on a pair of Razor HD 12x50(my go-to’s) & Razor UHD 18x56(Dads). I live in AK but have spent the past 2 months in AZ deer hunting (visiting family too) but mainly spending time in the southern desert looking for a badass Desert Muley. Lots of glassing time was spent and the RRS polymer cinch literally performed absolutely perfect. Depending on our day/location, I used the cinch on a couple different tripod combos: field optics pro max tripod w/ RRS BH, RRS Ascend-14L-BH tripod, and an absolute beast of a tripod in my dad’s RRS TFCT-34L. We experienced classic desert weather, sub-freezing nights/mornings, quick temperature fluctuations, we had a bunch of major downpour days that came and went within minutes, and ofcourse we had some windy days with dust blowing all up in our gear. I used the Poly-Cinch throughly it all and only had one issue, when I was fitting the cinch it felt like it took me a long time to find the sweet spot, I get nervous about clamping too tight to binos (I know, I know) but I just don’t want to break anything due to my gorilla brain trying to over tighten stuff.
Main Reasons I went Polymer is:
A- Weight (I know it’s not much but as they say, “ounces equal pounds”)
B- Flexibility, it’s a nice, low-pro mount that mounts to pretty much whatever arca clamp you want, and it’s easy to use amongst essentially any bino you choose. Plus it’s kinda like a QD, super easy and quick!
C- Price, if you’re comparing the aluminum to the polymer, I’m sure there’s a difference in flex and like it’s been stated above, if you’re worried about that go with the aluminum, but the cost of the polymer cinch is less and half that cost and is pretty dang close, lighter, and is still made in the USA which is a huge plus!
All in all, it’s personal preference. What may work for me, may not work for you. You know yourself best, trust your first thoughts and if you just so happen to be wrong, shoot that’s just a learning experience!