I asked Shape if they would make these nifty accessory pouches available as separate SKU options since users might prefer one particular type of pouch over the other and they said that is in the works.įour zippered accessory pockets in the lid are covered with clear plastic that means you can actually see what is inside them before fishing around with your hand and there’s also two small flashlights affixed to two interior zippers to help find items on a dark set. It’s a bit hidden, but one of those AC focused features is a removable rain cover behind a small zipper pocket at the base of the bag and the rain cover itself is big enough to cover a full camera or a 17″-inch ish monitor in a weather emergency during filming. In practice, the molle system just means that adding or removing accessory pouches is as easy as a snap or two and they don’t slide around or fall off while in transit from location to location. Three removable accessory pouches are included with the bag and use the molle system (Modular Lightweight Load-carrying Equipment) which was originally developed for NATO, UK and US military forces. Expanding the bag to “operating mode” is easy and means sliding a few protective panels into place around the center exclosure. I will say that the dimensions are not carry-on friendly and Charles from Shape mentioned they are designing a smaller bag aimed more for the traveling camera team in mind. The Shape Camera bag ships with the interior compartment collapsed and that means less costs for shipping the roughly ten pound bag and might even make it useful for checking onto an aircraft within a hard case for an international project. Obviously sizing is a bit dependent on what types of accessories you’re adding overall and you might need to pull a matte box off while transporting if you find yourself not fitting perfectly into the Shape bag. The interior dimension of the Shape bag is 20.00 x 10.00 x 11.00″ and, after testing, it’ll fit most mid-sized camera bodies in the range of a RED DSMC2 (not ranger series), Canon C300 MK II, C100 MK II, C200 and the Sony PSW-FS5M2 or Panasonic AU-EVA1. I’ve worked with other bags of a similar size from other brands that can land as high as $399 or even $499. Image Credit: Graham Sheldon / CineDĪt $219.00 the Shape bag, given the size, is on the lower end of the cost range when you take the size of the overall bag into account. There was also a heavy emphasis placed during design on usability for AC’s and that extends into a few interesting features (more on that later). For one, the final bag is the result of four generations of prototypes and heavy feedback from working AC’s and DP’s in the field. I spoke with Charles Vallieres, Vice President at Shape, before I began this review and he gave me a few interesting tidbits about the design process. The Shape Camera bag is mean’t to be a hybrid of both the camera coffin and assistant camera bags that are ubiquitous on set, but tend to vary widely in quality. Comment below if you disagree, but a solid and a little morbidly named “camera coffin” is tough to find and my camera teams most often turn to a simple tub/furniture pad combo - which certainly isn’t head turning while filming. Occasionally I’ve found myself focusing too much on the flashier high dollar cinema products and less on the nuts and bolts things that we rely on every single day while we’re on-location when it comes to reviews and oftentimes it’s those nuts and bolts equipment that truly improves your life while filming. Could the Shape camera bag be the one camera bag to rule them all? Let’s find out. I’m sure most of us have had experiences with both sides of that particular coin and when Shape announced their new relatively affordable camera bag my interest was immediately piqued.
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