Today I made a decent discovery, one that was always likely as I have found before, but still a little unexpected. I learned a while ago, that a good camera bag does not have to be a camera bag, so I always keep one eye on options.
I have been struggling with video rigs and camera bags. basically, the two are not compatible.
Cameras are relatively predictable, most being universally “flat” even if height may vary. Lenses mounted or not can be dealt with as needed, maybe sometimes stretching things a little, but the paradigm is known, shapes created, allowances made.
Stick a camera in a video cage, add a top handle, side handle, mounting points, tripod plate, lens and suddenly you have a box.
Boxes do not fit into camera bags.
Boxes tend to fit into bigger boxes.
Add to this the reality that many video accessories, like monitors, mics, matt boxes, battery packs etc, are all similarly large and boxy and you have an obvious pattern.
Lots of video bags are available, but tend to be either overkill, designed for big video cameras, or are designed to purpose, but often at a disproportionately high cost for effectively a padded box.
Today, while shopping for travel pants (with success), I discovered a bag designed for handgun owners at range practice.
I know guns, I do not like them, but I know and respect them.
Guns and cameras can have certain needs like size, optics, stabilising, relative fragility, discreetness and preciousness, needs that when addressed can serve both.
The bag is the 5.11 brand “range ready bag”, which seems ideal for a video kit if you ignore the “made for guns” bit and was priced like a sturdy tool bag. $150au bought me a bag as big in volume as the Domke roller case, but “boxier”, i.e taller. It also sports Domke scaled pockets on every facing.
With the S5 for scale. Tall as the F804, but way deeper and with pockets on all sides. Big pockets. One pocket holds both mat boxes and all the adapters. The other holds all my filters, step rings etc, another takes all the mics I would bring normally. There is even a water bottle holder on one end and a separate “brass catcher” bag that may both end up being useful lens bags.
To be clear here, this is not a casual carry shoulder bag. It is a haul bag, a base to work from.
The straps go all the way under for added strength, the zippers are heavy duty and smooth running, the nylon is 600D rip-stop. The whole thing feels genuinely heavy duty as befits a bag that can take a lot of serious metal. Being square it stacks on a trolley well with other cases and bags.
The padded removable insert with full length zip pockets each side and two very strong velcro inserts walls (only 1 used above). This takes my current two rigs well, but the new G9 Mk2 will have a top handle fitted, so it will sit side-on with no lens, the handle sitting on the top edge of the insert. The base pad is a spare I bought for the F804, which is actually longer than the original, able to fit a Domke F1 “little bit bigger” bag. It is a perfect footprint for the insert.
The insert in the bag shows that there is probably 30-40% more space.
With the insert, there is room for a decent sized Neewer 480 LED panel, another case for a smaller 176 LED and filter set and each wall is lined with a padded pocket/wall. If removed, the inside would take a full rig on a chest brace or shoulder rig ready to go, or two rigs with handles, separated by something (?).
The full length back (front?) pocket has 8 magazine pouches that just happen to take Panasonic camera and NPF 550 batteries snuggly. When I get the G9 Mk2, I will have exactly four of each, so another perfect fit. I have a couple of 970’s but they go in the bottom of the pocket and I tend to use these for bigger lights, not camera monitors etc. Check out the nice Bokeh balls on the zip from the 25 f1.8.
This thing was a no-brainer. I bought it knowing it would not take everything, but it would take things other bags struggle with.
What surprised me was it’s versatility. I think with a little thought it will become my all-haul option.
ed. It has become the ideal cinema bag as a companion to the video bag Domke 217 roller. The pocket size, volume and scale are the right thing for fat cinema lenses, mat boxes and mat box filters.