Oh, hey, it's time to talk about sandbags.
Hi, this Jay P. Morgan.
Today on Slanted Lens, we're gonna talk about sandbags.
Not a sexy topic, but one that everybody uses on set.
These don't weigh 250 pounds.
Did you fall for that?
Really?
So what we have here is one, two, three, four different types of sandbags.
Number one is, this is a handle bad.
This guy is probably 40 pounds.
The weights vary depending on the manufacturer.
Ours are about 35 and 25.
I think this is more like 40.
I don't love this handle because the handle goes over the top.
And so when you put it on a leg, it doesn't pull the sandbag off the leg when you pick
it up.
This one, the handle goes across the sides of the sandbag, so when you put it onto the
stand and it's locked onto the stand, you grab it right here and it lifts itself off
from the stand leg.
Much easier to use.
These, when you put 'em on a stand, when you pick 'em up, the weight just gets tighter
and it's hard to get 'em off from the stand leg.
So, there's different kinda handles.
My favorite, obviously, pulls across the side.
So across the front, across the side.
Different weights.
We have 35, or probably 45, 35, and 20, or 20...yeah, probably 20.
This is the one we use the most because it's just a nice weight, it's easy to move around,
easy to put on stands, it's easy to use.
These are all sandbags.
This is a shot bag.
It's filled with lead shot.
So it weighs as much as this, but it's in a very small, compact, little container.
So shot bags, you can get 'em to use 'em on booms, on the back of your pole, they're just
really small, you don't have to deal with all this huge bulk, be able to get a nice
amount of weight on the back of a boom.
So shot bags are really worthwhile.
So I would look at those.
Get a 10 or a 5 pound shot bag.
Just great to kinda give you some weight.
These are great to lay down if you're gonna put your camera on something.
Once you get your tripod set up and really set, it's got that little hook right in the
middle.
You ever wonder what that does?
Well, you just put a sandbag on there.
Now your tripod is weighted.
It's not gonna fall over, it's not gonna get bumped very easily, if someone kinda knocks
into it, it's not gonna fly away.
And here's the sandbag that I always take when I travel.
I take...this is a Rocksteady Bag by PhotoFlex.
It's a bag that has zipper pockets in it, so that you could put water bottles or something.
And you can take it on location, when you get there, you buy some water bottles, fill
it up, and you got a great sandbag to go on your lights or your tripod, or whatever you're
doing.
Let's now talk about the proper way to use a sandbag on a stand.
First off, a lotta people do this, which just doesn't work.
If you throw this on here like this, and somehow you think that's going to hold your stand,
as the stand pulls up, this will fall off, slide off, and the stand falls over.
So it doesn't really work.
So we put the sandbag in here, can't fall off, it's gonna give us nice weight, we can
lift up on this handle right here, and it pulls it away from the stand, and slips out
really easily.
So that works out very nice.
Now, the proper way to use it on a C-stand.
I see people all the time that drop it on that leg right there.
What happens is that most of the weight is on the ground and not on the stand, so the
stand's gonna lift up quite a ways before it starts to engage the sandbag.
So you really have to use these things on a heavy leg, get it off the ground, so all
that weight is solid on the stand.
I also adamantly feel like they should be away from the weight.
If you've got a heavy light and it's pointed that direction, more of the weight's that
way, put it away from the weight, it pulls harder, it's gonna hold the stand up.
So there you have it, sandbags and the proper way to use 'em on a stand.
So keep those cameras rolling.
Keep on clicking.
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