How are you guys boxing Red and Accesories?

[Harcharan Singh]

Hi Guys,
I am getting my Red in 4-5 days time with accesories such as EVF,HDD,LCD,Rods handles etc.

Just wanted to know how are you guys taking care of all this items to carry to location,assembling on location ...ie what cases do you use and how ready these boxes for the above.Some pics will be really helpful for me.

Thanks in advance.

Harcharan:shifty:

 

[Julio Quintana]

I use the Pelican 1650 case. I'm able to carry my complete RED kit in it because I don't have a mattebox. It's pretty heavy though.

 

[Mitch Gross]

I finally designed some really nice cases for our rental kits which we'll make available for sale as well. Should have them in a few weeks and then I'll post pictures.

 

[david farland]

Obviously there is no 1 correct way. Eveyone one has different needs. Some people are owner/operators, production companies, dry hirers.
some need robust protection and the kit will be in many boxes, some want to carry kit assembled in a run 'n gun situation all the time or on set and others don't care but want it unassembled in 1 box (1620) with a tripod.

I rent my kit complete or as individual accessories.
I also shoot with it myself. So I need boxes for both situations.

For personal shooting I use softcases, Kata Banana 3 bag with separate tripod bag. I could have easily gone with a hard case w/ wheels and tripod.

For rent, I use ~15 hard boxes.
For Red kit I have a separate case for the body, power, media/backup and accessories.
my equipment goes out individually as much as it goes out as a kit and I'm not going to ship the body only in a pelican 1620!
It's all a compromise of what cases you need for each different shooting situation.

But there is a common principle, which is when you get to a location and put down the boxes, you open the first one, i.e tripod and assemble it.
Open the next, say camera case (with base plate attached) and place it on the tripod (or cart).
Then go to the next box (or tray) and get all you need out of that and the next and so forth.
You don't create the situation where you need to open 4/5 boxes at once....to start assembling the kit!

In my case I have an o'connor 1030 head/legs & ET dove tail in a soft bag.
when this goes out on hire the softcase is placed in a hard case with a tubular case containing 19 or 15mm rods (Case 1).


Next comes the Red body with base plate, ET breakout box & handle in case pictured below (Case 2).

So assemble tripod, attach camera, then add accessories (Case 3).

The accessory case comes with top and bottom trays. assemble all the parts from the top tray.
Any additional parts i.e. hand held etc, will be in the bottom layer.
The bottom of the top tray need to be padded (use neoprene and not foam or carpet).
Any soft padding will pick up dirt when placed on ground and when placed back in the box this dirt will fall onto the accessories below.
Make sure your tray has feet/standoffs to reduce this.

I have a separate case for batteries(6), charger etc.
Placing all this in the accessory case would make it to big/heavy.
Also easier for AC charging batteries overnight etc.

Media (CF/Drives) are in another case with backup drives.
You could include a laptop with spare battery/charger also.

Other individual case include follow focus, matte box, filters, monitor, audio etc.
As stated because I dry hire, I want to ensure the kit is safe and simple to assemble. Because I also hire accessories I need boxes for them too.
For individual components I have different size pelican cases where I layer the amount of foam depending on the size of component.
Individual Reddrives will fix nicely in a pelican 1040 and then should be placed in a larger case.
Everyone has different needs and will be making compromises so they don't need to buy 3 or more sets of cases for every scenario.

It's all about the most common uses and kit YOU have!

Anyway the point of all this is before you see a layout that looks good, make sure you think out how it's going to be when you or others unpack it.
Do you time/motion study on assembly before you invest in boxes!
Access one box or layer before going to the next!

Cheers,
Dave,

 

[cinemano]

wow.. so much packing definitely not for guerrilla shooting or small crews.. but will definitely keep your RED set like new forever

 

[Nils J. Nesse]

I finally designed some really nice cases for our rental kits which we'll make available for sale as well. Should have them in a few weeks and then I'll post pictures.

Mitch, I'm looking for a carryon case for the camera/bridge plate/top handles, plus a few basic accessories (2 batteries, LCD, EVF)

Any chance of a case like this?

 

[Mitch Gross]

Mitch, I'm looking for a carryon case for the camera/bridge plate/top handles, plus a few basic accessories (2 batteries, LCD, EVF)

Any chance of a case like this?

Not in the one I did, but I worked out a soft bag with a manufacturer that I'm waiting to see that should be just the ticket. They took the shell of a case they already make which is max carry-on size and we reworked the interior to fit as much of a usable kit within as possible. As soon as the prototype shows up I'll let everyone know.

In the meantime, the case I designed for our Rental Dept. holds a camera just about completely assembled, including an ET bridgeplate on the bottom and the viewfinder mounted on the camera via an ET finder bracket. Top rods are on so the battery Quickplate is as well, as is an ET V-Dock. There's a slot for the 12" dovetail, 18" rods, three drives with ET Iso-mounts on them, CF cards and all the cables one needs (I'm sure I'm forgetting some bits & pieces but this is from memory). The battery & charger case can hold 2x chargers, the RED AC power supply and up to eight RED bricks. Oh, and the main camera case is available on wheels with a retractable handle (our ladies in Rental were complaining about the weight without wheels).

What I really like about the kit is that for the most part one can pull the camera out of the case and get started. I hate those cases that require one to disassemble the entire system and then reassemble it every time the camera goes in and out of the case. I understand that it can be a modular design (I call it the erector set), but one shouldn't have to be forced into this. 99/100 times they'll use the kit just as it is assembled. As much as possible I tried to make it a no brainer for the AC to deal with the gear and the case. My experience in Rental tells me that not only will this make our clients the happiest, but we'll have our best shot at getting our gear returned complete and intact if we do it this way!

This will be the standard design but I can always modify it for special orders. I just couldn't get two people to ever agree on what they would want in the past so I finally said screw it and made it the way I wanted.

Note: In rereading what I wrote here, it sounds like I'm criticising David's case design. Not at all -- I think his setup is very nice. But he hires out his gear both as a complete kit and piecemeal. We hire out as the complete kit only. Our different purposes reflect our different uses.

 

[david farland]

This field is a F$## black art!
Love to see when you're done Mitch.
you didn't mention FF or MB so I'm assuming these will be removed with lens.
If it's for rental I guess you may also require 6"x6" MB's, so no joy there.
I kinda like the idea of a 'short form' quickdraw with everything up to the PL mount, if that's what you're doing.

Below is a basic quickdraw configuration with MB/FF on 24" rods in softcase (Kata Banana 3). Of course not suitable for shipping or hire but used to illustrate a point.

It has a Red 18-50 but can accommodate 3" longer lens been left on.
Over that and it's a matter of opening matte box and removing lens, i.e Red 18-85.
As well as battery quick plate, this setup takes the Red cradle as well.
Also plenty of room for filters, drives, sun shades etc.

If you wish to leave the MB/FF on your rig, the problem comes with what to do with the other MB/FF/Red accessories.

For example these FF bits...

or the MB reduction rings, mattes etc.

A lot of people have already bought boxes. It's usually one or two boxes for Red stuff, another for MB & FF etc. Some are layered with trays etc.

In my case if I decided to send out my Red assembled in a hard case with MB/FF/EVF/Cradle/rods,
I'd no longer need the top tray in my accessory case (a couple of posts above) as all the parts would now be assembled on my camera.
i'd build another top tray for the accessory box to accommodate the additional MB/FF parts not already on the camera i.e reduction rings, mattes, focus knobs etc.
If I had space left over in this top tray, I'd include media and batteries/charger but it's starting to get very heavy now.
Dave,

ps: I didn't think you were criticising me Mitch.

 

[Mitch Gross]

Absolutely a black art! We rent LOTS of different gear and do so ala carte, so we need to keep things in separate cases. But I wanted to set a limit on exactly what would be in an Abel Rental RED One kit. Everything defined by that kit fits in the two cases (camera case & power case). One brick can be stuck into the camera case if necessary.

 

[Nils J. Nesse]

Not in the one I did, but I worked out a soft bag with a manufacturer that I'm waiting to see that should be just the ticket. They took the shell of a case they already make which is max carry-on size and we reworked the interior to fit as much of a usable kit within as possible. As soon as the prototype shows up I'll let everyone know.

Any news on this?

 

[Mitch Gross]

No news yet. It can be very frustrating how long these things take. But there are other projects these manufacturers have active that take them away from the things we often hold as valuable. Oh well.

 

[Evin Grant]

Just another approach...

This case is made with the XLT plastic which is much lighter than plywood.
It's very strong but still under 50lbs. (23Kg) when fully loaded which is necessary for checked luggage to not incur overweight charges.

 

[Rich Schaefer]

I was in the Red store last week, I have to say the "Red Case" is VERY slick! It is all die cut foam with different trays..... I was impressed!