It’s no secret, I love my Broncolor Move 1200L packs.
I love them so much, that I take them with me almost everwhere I go. They became part of my shotkit, and Broncolor does a good job providing a backpack/trolley when you get on eof their kits. It looks pretty good next to my other bag I often use, and I can attest that the backpack is working (although you may not necessarily want to haul this around on a hike, as the pack with two heads is heavy).
What I noticed though is that when you use the backpack as a trolley to bring the move packs and heads on set, they are quite bulky and not sturdy enough at all for a tough on-location life. What I mean is that they take up space in your car or truck in a less than most efficient way, while only providing little protection against rough handling. This issue becomes worse when you are forced, as I was recently, to check this backpack and hope it’ll all survice the lovely and careful handling by TSA and airport employees. One of my kits had an umbrella and softbox inside, and both were bent somewhat after the flight. The backpacks are also rather bulky to store. They don’t really fit into my shelves, and they take up quite some space on the ground. I am sure you movepack owners out there have experienced this as well. For me, there was only one solution: get rid of the backpacks (repurpose them), and create my own custom carry cases.
So when I started out with my design, I wanted to make sure that these cases can be locked, that they are air- and watertight, that they have solid and durable wheels, that they come in bright colors (much easier to spot on the conveyor belt), that they look unsuspicious from the outside, and that they can carry at least two move 1200L packs at any given time. While I initially wanted these cases to be carry-on’s, I soon abandoned this idea, because available cases were simply not able to caryy two packs and a few accessories reliably. I also wanted to focus on portability and versatility on the shoots that are more local to me, so I ended up settling for the smallest size possible (which is no longer a carry-on). Next up was to decide on how many packs I want to be able to fit into these cases, and whether I wanted to include the heads as well. I decided against putting the heads into the same case. Here’s why: I figured that I could design a case that would house 8 heads, or simply use an off-the-shelf case to keep lamp heads together. Getting heads into the same case with the packs would just have made it much heavier, and also much bigger. So this is what I ended up with:
This is the smallest case I could find that was able to accomodate two Broncolor move 1200L packs, as well as some accessories. After thinking about it for a while, I also decided against adding room for spare batteries. I only twice ran out of battery power on a location shoot, and whenever I shoot near an outlet, I can always use the broncolor power adapter to charge the batteries while I am using the packs. It is that the 1200L packs are just so powerful, and I get so many flashes out of them, that it is unlikleyu that I will run out of power, even with only one battery per pack. The cutout of the foam looks like this:
As you can see, the case allows to securely and safely carrry two broncolor move 1200L packs, as well as up to four RFS2.1 trasmitters. Although not designed for it, the cut outs will also fit some pocket wizards if that’s your poison. I prefer RFS 2.1, because it allows me to control the modeling linghts, as well as the output on each channel for several packs. This comes in handy if one or more of your lights are in remote or difficult to access locations, or simply if you work on your own, or with a lazy assistant
As you can see, the packs fit nicely into the custom case:
What I wanted to make sure when I designed the case is that the move packs would’nt move around when you toss the case, or even have to ship it somewhere. As you can see below, the packs slightly extend through the top of the base foam, which provides just enough pressure on them with the lid closed.
That said, I love that new case. It provides a safe and secure way for shipping and carrying two move packs to almost anywhere. Next up? A case for four packs, my lampheads, and one to hold a para88 & para133 at the same time. Want one of these for yourself? Message me, and I can hook you up!
Broncolor Dual Move 1200L Custom Case
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