Unboxing the Mystery
Oct. 27th, 2021 04:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kevin_standleeYesterday evening, Lisa opened the mystery box.
Well, inside the box is another box.
Specifically, it's a Thermodyne SHAN-HPX300 Case specially designed to hold the Panasonic AG-HPX300 camera. It has carrying handles on three sides, closes with the butterfly clamps you can here above the arrows, and also has a space for a lock. There are also wheels on which it will roll, as you can see here with Lisa holding it by the handle. This is a heavy duty case designed to protect the camera and potentially allow us taking it as checked luggage on a flight.
We have heretofore stored and transported the camera in the box at right, which has been okay when traveling by car, but not something Lisa would want to trust to an airline, although it is the same box in which the camera was originally shipped to us. At the left, you can see the new case with the carve-outs as originally shipped. Note the large rectangular foam piece held in place with a couple of Velcro straps above and behind Kuma Bear. That is the cover to the accessories compartment, and will be part of the story later.
So now we have a heavy-duty transportable and luggage-checkable case for the professional Panasonic camera. We ordered this many months ago. It's not cheap: the case cost around $650. These cases are made as one-off jobs at Thermodyne's plant in southern California, and supply-chain and labor challenges made us worry that the case wouldn't be here in time for our trip to Worldcon this December. But now came the next challenge: making the camera fit in the case.
Here's what the camera looked like in its previous storage box. Lisa made this by buying cut-to-fit foam rubber in sheets, then carving out the space to hold the camera.
Kuma Bear has a look at how the camera initially fit into its pre-fit space. There was immediately a problem: the microphone that normally sits on the camera sticks out to the right of the viewfinder. In order to make the camera fit in this space, Lisa had to remove the microphone and its mounting bracket. That was not a good long-term solution, as it would have to be taken off/put on every time Lisa stored/unboxed the camera.
The next issue was that the cover to the accessory storage area didn't leave enough clearance to actually close the box. Although one could sort of get it closed, it was putting too much pressure on the many buttons on the left (top in this orientation) side of the camera.
We told Kuma Bear to say safe in the old storage box out of the way so he wouldn't get into trouble, as the next steps required Lisa to wield cutting tools to make things fit properly.
Lisa carefully removed the accessory compartment door. It's not really designed to be removed, but Lisa managed to do so in a way that she could put it back in place if necessary. The zipper bag can still be used to carry various bits and pieces.
With the door removed, the case closed easily and the camera did not shift around when we moved it. Note that the reverse-L-shaped hole in the foam at top right is a cut-out to clear the viewfinder and also the lens if there was a lens hood on it. (This camera came without the hood to the lens. Lisa has been trying to find a replacement lens hood for some time now, without much success.)
Next was making room for the microphone. Lisa re-mounted the microphone on its bracket. With me helping hold the camera in place, she drew an outline with a Sharpie marker of where the extra space needed to be. Then, using a couple of knives, she sawed out a space in the pre-cut foam. Unlike Pelican cases, the foam here was cut to a specific shape, so this step had to be done rather carefully, as it needed to be right the first time.
Finally, with the modifications done and most of the camera accessories transferred from their separate case to the new case, Lisa tested that everything fit. Later, she realized that the space at left (currently holding spare memory cards) is actually for the base plate that attaches the camera to its tripod. She normally keeps that base plate with the tripod, but now that we have a place for it, she can put it here.
This case is pretty heavy, but that's partially because the camera itself weighs a fair bit and partially because the case protects the camera. Because we won't need a separate accessory case, this should result in a net reduction of space needed to store and transport the camera. While it won't matter on the train trip this December, we may even be able to check it as luggage should we decide to take it with us somewhere to which we have to fly.
I'm happy the case got here in time for us to use it this winter. We may also take it with us to Westercon 73/Loscon 47 over Thanksgiving to record the Westercon Business Meeting, which will give us our first field test of the case.
Well, inside the box is another box.
Specifically, it's a Thermodyne SHAN-HPX300 Case specially designed to hold the Panasonic AG-HPX300 camera. It has carrying handles on three sides, closes with the butterfly clamps you can here above the arrows, and also has a space for a lock. There are also wheels on which it will roll, as you can see here with Lisa holding it by the handle. This is a heavy duty case designed to protect the camera and potentially allow us taking it as checked luggage on a flight.
We have heretofore stored and transported the camera in the box at right, which has been okay when traveling by car, but not something Lisa would want to trust to an airline, although it is the same box in which the camera was originally shipped to us. At the left, you can see the new case with the carve-outs as originally shipped. Note the large rectangular foam piece held in place with a couple of Velcro straps above and behind Kuma Bear. That is the cover to the accessories compartment, and will be part of the story later.
So now we have a heavy-duty transportable and luggage-checkable case for the professional Panasonic camera. We ordered this many months ago. It's not cheap: the case cost around $650. These cases are made as one-off jobs at Thermodyne's plant in southern California, and supply-chain and labor challenges made us worry that the case wouldn't be here in time for our trip to Worldcon this December. But now came the next challenge: making the camera fit in the case.
Here's what the camera looked like in its previous storage box. Lisa made this by buying cut-to-fit foam rubber in sheets, then carving out the space to hold the camera.
Kuma Bear has a look at how the camera initially fit into its pre-fit space. There was immediately a problem: the microphone that normally sits on the camera sticks out to the right of the viewfinder. In order to make the camera fit in this space, Lisa had to remove the microphone and its mounting bracket. That was not a good long-term solution, as it would have to be taken off/put on every time Lisa stored/unboxed the camera.
The next issue was that the cover to the accessory storage area didn't leave enough clearance to actually close the box. Although one could sort of get it closed, it was putting too much pressure on the many buttons on the left (top in this orientation) side of the camera.
We told Kuma Bear to say safe in the old storage box out of the way so he wouldn't get into trouble, as the next steps required Lisa to wield cutting tools to make things fit properly.
Lisa carefully removed the accessory compartment door. It's not really designed to be removed, but Lisa managed to do so in a way that she could put it back in place if necessary. The zipper bag can still be used to carry various bits and pieces.
With the door removed, the case closed easily and the camera did not shift around when we moved it. Note that the reverse-L-shaped hole in the foam at top right is a cut-out to clear the viewfinder and also the lens if there was a lens hood on it. (This camera came without the hood to the lens. Lisa has been trying to find a replacement lens hood for some time now, without much success.)
Next was making room for the microphone. Lisa re-mounted the microphone on its bracket. With me helping hold the camera in place, she drew an outline with a Sharpie marker of where the extra space needed to be. Then, using a couple of knives, she sawed out a space in the pre-cut foam. Unlike Pelican cases, the foam here was cut to a specific shape, so this step had to be done rather carefully, as it needed to be right the first time.
Finally, with the modifications done and most of the camera accessories transferred from their separate case to the new case, Lisa tested that everything fit. Later, she realized that the space at left (currently holding spare memory cards) is actually for the base plate that attaches the camera to its tripod. She normally keeps that base plate with the tripod, but now that we have a place for it, she can put it here.
This case is pretty heavy, but that's partially because the camera itself weighs a fair bit and partially because the case protects the camera. Because we won't need a separate accessory case, this should result in a net reduction of space needed to store and transport the camera. While it won't matter on the train trip this December, we may even be able to check it as luggage should we decide to take it with us somewhere to which we have to fly.
I'm happy the case got here in time for us to use it this winter. We may also take it with us to Westercon 73/Loscon 47 over Thanksgiving to record the Westercon Business Meeting, which will give us our first field test of the case.
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Date: 2021-10-28 10:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-10-28 11:17 pm (UTC)