Sandbags

SJRobbins

SJRobbins

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Anyone got recommendations on cheap refillable sandbags/weights for lightstands?

Most of the ones I've seen seem crazy expensive for what they are - I can buy a camera bag for the same price as some of them :p
 
I hate bloody sandbags. I mean, they're good and useful and better than not having them. But I hate the way most of them are made. Even the Calumet ones I had started to split (and I was using pea shingle, not lead or anything *really* heavy). I Still have a few - particularly the smaller ones for weighing down my boom arm, but the bigger ones are usually crap.

My favorite solution these days is home made. Get a couple of those nylon fabric 'bag for life' things that the supermarket sell - the ones that fold up like a little purse. Then load them down with bottles of mineral water. Add a bit of paracord to tie them together if you're using more than one and Bob's your father's brother.

Bonus the first - you can buy everything you need to make them in any supermarket when you arrive for a shoot
Bonus the second - you can drink the mineral water and refill the bottles
Bonus the third - if you go to Sainsbob's, your bags will be bright orange

All my stands have hi-viz tape on them anyway, but you can never be too bright with things that people trip over...
 
Rice, sugar & flour are all cheap....

Get any dual layer bag, sew a loop on it & you are done..
A fancier (cheap) way is to use a neoprene bag...
 
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SJRobbins said:
Anyone got recommendations on cheap refillable sandbags/weights for lightstands?

Most of the ones I've seen seem crazy expensive for what they are - I can buy a camera bag for the same price as some of them :p
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Out of curiosty what sort of weight you hoping to put in the sandbag and what sort of price are you calling crazy expensive?? I ask as I may be able to help you!!
 
The arri ones aren't cheap, but are very good. Always put the sand in a couple of sealed poly bags before you put it in the sandbag.
 
I prefer pea gravel personally, 3 quid from b&qs!
 
I'm not talking anything heavy, just a hotshoe flash or Quadra head with a softbox, potentially on an arm at an angle.. it's more for stability when nudged than any issues with it not standing up in the first place.

I've actually ordered some gazeebo weight sandbag things which were pretty cheap, just to see if they're usable or not.. worth a punt :)
 
We actually manufacture bouncy castles so make sandbags for these but they take a full bag if sand 25kg but depending in what people wanted could make then to any size and would obviously be strong and last
 
pitkin2020 said:
We actually manufacture bouncy castles so make sandbags for these but they take a full bag if sand 25kg but depending in what people wanted could make then to any size and would obviously be strong and last
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Interesting, but when I say "expensive" I'm meaning "don't expect to pay more than a fiver for one", so that might be in a different league to what you were thinking :)
 
Send me some links to te type your looking as we charge £7 for the ones I mention which you would need that big so could obviously do them cheaper
 
HMMM, found the ones mentioned above http://www.kupogrip.com/velcro-refillable-sandbag-15lbs/

Not very big tbh, purely for cheapness I would make them as a single bag with a double velcro flap at one end so they can be filled with sand, pebbles, pea shingle. Would be made of PVC so heavy duty, same as a commercial bouncy castle. Would put a webbed loop at top so it could be hung with a carabiner from a tripod for instance, if it needed to be folded over the leg that would still work as you would just bend the bag to where you want it equalling the sides out. Velcro would keep the contents in (sand would still put in something as it goes everywhere).

getting the sizes right would be the hard part
 
pitkin2020 said:
HMMM, found the ones mentioned above http://www.kupogrip.com/velcro-refillable-sandbag-15lbs/

Not very big tbh, purely for cheapness I would make them as a single bag with a double velcro flap at one end so they can be filled with sand, pebbles, pea shingle. Would be made of PVC so heavy duty, same as a commercial bouncy castle. Would put a webbed loop at top so it could be hung with a carabiner from a tripod for instance, if it needed to be folded over the leg that would still work as you would just bend the bag to where you want it equalling the sides out. Velcro would keep the contents in (sand would still put in something as it goes everywhere).

getting the sizes right would be the hard part
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In my (limited) experience just folding them over the leg isn't good enough on it's own - with the legs at an angle they have a tendency to slide off if the stand is pulled directly away from them.
 
SJRobbins said:
In my (limited) experience just folding them over the leg isn't good enough on it's own - with the legs at an angle they have a tendency to slide off if the stand is pulled directly away from them.
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thats how the bags in the link work though?? They are folded, albeit the material is left blank over the leg but the principle is the same unless they are some how fixed but the pic doesn't make that obvious
 
pitkin2020 said:
thats how the bags in the link work though?? They are folded, albeit the material is left blank over the leg but the principle is the same unless they are some how fixed but the pic doesn't make that obvious
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I think that's how those work, and in the picture they're on a C-Stand, rather than an angled legged "normal" light stand - I think some kind of loop to stop them sliding down the leg would work better - the gazeebo ones I have I wrap around the centre stem with velcro.
 
adding a loop is no issue or even a velcro strap to hold them but then your moving away from cheap and cheerful lol.

Maybe some pictures of some of the stands might be of use as i don't have to really know what would be best lol
 
pitkin2020 said:
adding a loop is no issue or even a velcro strap to hold them but then your moving away from cheap and cheerful lol.

Maybe some pictures of some of the stands might be of use as i don't have to really know what would be best lol
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The stands are pretty much as Beyond The Blue posted, but without the free weights on them :D
 
SJRobbins said:
The stands are pretty much as Beyond The Blue posted, but without the free weights on them :D
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so they have flat arms to them,so whats the problem with laying the weight over them exactly as they aren't going to slide anywhere??
 
pitkin2020 said:
so they have flat arms to them,so whats the problem with laying the weight over them exactly as they aren't going to slide anywhere??
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Those flat arms aren't particularly strong, they're not designed to take any weight, although if the bag also rested on the floor a bit that might not be too bad. This is how I've normally seen them used:

light_stand_saddle_bag.jpg
 
I only arrived on this thread after googling flood protection. Why the f*****g h*** should such a prosaically functional object come in a choice of colours, or indeed cost money? Are people up their own ar**s round here? Get an old flour sack & put some sand in it. Sand is far coarser than flour so shouldn't leak out. Reject consumerism. Do it now.
 
There must be hundreds of adds for sand bags on eBay from about £3 shipped for China upward and from under £10 UK! I use some cheap saddle bag ones from eBay (Rocwing I think) some larger Calumet ones and the Lastolite ones and I don't think I paided more than a tenner for any of them. If you want to go down the bag 'n' water bottle route, get a Morrison Wine Bottle carrier if they still sell them, with the six pockets (99p the last time I bought them) and a karabiner.

Paul
 
droj said:
I only arrived on this thread after googling flood protection. Why the f*****g h*** should such a prosaically functional object come in a choice of colours, or indeed cost money? Are people up their own ar**s round here? Get an old flour sack & put some sand in it. Sand is far coarser than flour so shouldn't leak out. Reject consumerism. Do it now.
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Oh dear wrong side of the bed ?

The brighter colours can be quite useful for stopping people tripping up on your stands and suing you as for the aesthetics some people will be happy with a morrisons bag others will want something that looks like those, each to their own.
 
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