DEFINITION August 2019

TENBA ROLLER 24 BAG | USER REVI EW

PRICE £349/$399.95 CINELUXE ROLLER 24 DOP Ash Connaughton tried out the new Tenba Cineluxe Roller 24 bag – and found that it excelled in multi-location shooting scenarios

WORDS ASH CONNAUGHTON PICTURES TENBA

RIGHT The general build quality is good with wheels fully planted even at a running pace

had a shoot that came up in Manchester, which needed two interviews with the CEOs of two of the fastest-growing companies in the UK. The client wanted something a little different, so the interviews took place in the back of a moving taxi – think Carpool Karaoke. The shoot was over two days: one for prep and one for the shoot. On the shoot day we had limited time. Add to that the complication of lighting and shooting in a moving vehicle, and it meant we had to move fast. While the core of the interview was shot using a Panasonic GH4 and four GoPro H5 cameras, we wanted to capture some ‘prettier’ B roll using my Kinefinity MAVO LF. TENBA CINELUXE ROLLER 24 Normally my LF lives in a Peli-style case, which is great. It’s carry-on sized and holds everything I need to shoot with the camera, minus lenses. But with the caveat that I have to de-rig the camera to pack it into the

“THE BAG ALSO FEATURES TWO SOFT LENS WRAPS FOR PROTECTING MORE DELICATE GEAR”

SECURE CAMERA The bag also includes a strap for securing your camera in place. It’s located in the middle of the main compartment, which is attached to a Velcro pad, so it can easily be relocated depending on the camera you have. There is also a lens ‘pillow’ that again has a Velcro pad for easy relocation. As well as that, the bag features two soft lens wraps for protecting more delicate gear, one padded pouch with a zip for smaller accessories and then two external zipped pockets that are great for even more accessories! The general build quality feels solid – not as tough as a Peli, but few things are. The wheels are nicely spaced apart, so when wheeling the bag it feels very firmly planted to the ground and not likely to tip, even when walking at a pace. Priced at £349, it’s similar in price to its competitors and feels like a fair price for the quality of bag you get – especially one that can fit a fully rigged, MAVO LF, Red, FS7 etc, plus a whole host of accessories!

case. So on jobs like this I usually end up chucking the camera on my passenger seat, or the lap of an AC or runner. With the Tenba bag, I no longer had to strip it down. With the lens, battery, matte box etc all attached, I could drop the camera into the Tenba, zip it up and wheel off into the sunset (or rather, to the next location). At the next location, it was: unzip, pull out camera, power up and begin shooting within seconds. This is something that isn’t possible with my current Peli storage solution for this kind of fast-paced shoot. In terms of the bag itself, it’s a doctor-style bag, with a central zip that opens the top flaps to reveal a large main compartment designed to fit a fully rigged camera. The main compartment has a great degree of customisation options. There are Velcro-padded inserts that can be repositioned and flexed to fit various camera rigs and accessories; even to create pockets for more secure/ separated storage for cards, lenses or whatever other accessories you want to store in the bag.

BELOW The Roller 24 allowed for a fully rigged camera to be protected but still available

AUGUST 20 1 9 | DEF I N I T ION 59

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