BTHL80w Monitor Case

J

Joe Lawry

Well-known member
Anyone know of any good 8" lcd cases for my 80w? just picked it up second hand ex olympics and already have dirty director finger prints on it.

I've seen the Porta Brace one.. but its a bit too expensive currently.. what with the whole recession and terrible exchange rates currently going on.

But there doesnt seem to be anything else on offer out there for the 8" monitor, Petrol and Kata make one for the 9" panny.. but nothing else.

Might just have to go with the Porta Brace..
 
I travel a lot, and work with some larger crews where I know the PA's are little rough with the gear in the back of the cube... So I keep mine in a Porta Brace PB 2400 hard case.

G.
 
I'm using Petrol's PLCD-3. Its not a perfect fit, but it works really well and protects the monitor quite well. I'm not a big fan of the plastic screen cover though so I keep that out of the way most of the time and use a piece of plexi I got at home depot and cut to size. The plexi is hold on by velcro at the corners and works great.
 
Yea i plan on putting the whole kit (batts and charger) in a storm case for general transport/rentals.. but i want something to cover the monitor when its actually in use.. might go have a look in my local suppliers and see if they have anything before i bite the stupidly expensive bullet and buy from B&H.

Cheers
 
Hey Joe I'll try and get some pics of my LH80 in the petrol case if you want. It'd be tomorrow morning but I dont mind if that would help you out.
 
Cool - here you go

Petrol%20Case1.jpg

Here you can kind of see the little bungees that keep it in place - holds it in really nice and tight.

Petrol%20Case2.jpg

Front with Shade open so you can see the monitor a bit better - I've got the plexi on it here - the actual screen is perfectly clean :)

Petrol%20Case3.jpg

Shade velcroed up. It sits perfectly on a table like this with the back door down for cabling. I use it like this alot for a client monitor. Small zipper access on the bottom allows me to still get to the zacuto mount on the bottom of the monitor so I can mount it on a zamerican arm with the case still on.



Petrol%20Case4.jpg

Here it is all packed up - still plenty of room in the back pouch for accessories even with a battery on the monitor. There is a little bulge on the sides due to the width of the monitor that you can see here. No big deal, but its not a perfect fit either.


Petrol%20Case5.jpg

Just thought I'd toss in a pic of my fancy paper dolls I made for a client once who was having trouble visualizing why having all CU's and no wides was a good thing for a web video, but might be a bit scary for theater projection. Wanted to make sure they could relate it to a machine gun and a dog too of course :) Got a little carried away...

Hope that helps - let me know if you have any more questions - its pricey, but I wont buy anything but Petrol or Kata cases now - both are tough as nails and well thought out. Dont know the Kata monitor cases though.
 
I've i trust kata and petrol too, never have actually been much a portabrace man.

I went into my portabrace dealer today to discover i was about a week late.. they had 2 in stock but both sold too 2 other owner/operators who also rent their gear out, both who i know personally. So im gonna go and have a chat with them about the porta brace case. I also got a price on it in NZD... a whole heap more expensive than buying from BH.. so i think that might be the way to go eventually.

Thanks for the Pics though Jeff, good to know it will fit in a 9" case fine if need be.
 
I have the Portabrace bag for the 80W and I'm very disappointed with it. It fits like a glove which is unfortunate because I want it to fit like a monitor bag. It's rubbish! I think it was designed in about 30 seconds. The hood is flimsy so it obscures the screen most of the time. The monitor frequently 'pops' out of the front. I think they just rushed this bag out of the design room in order to get something they could supply for the 80w.

When I have saved up for something from another manufacturer this one will be on Ebay.

I have always liked Portabrace gear and I have had a lot (being a sound recordist) but they have let me down on this one.

Weenie.
 
Definitely give the petrol case a look weenie. Personally I've never been a fan of the portabrace stuff. Just not as well made or designed in most cases. Granted I dont know their stuff for audio gear well, mainly just production bags and monitor cases.
 
Thanks for the advice Jeff. I do like the look of the Petrol gear and did consider it when I was looking for a bag. The reason I went for the Portabrace bag is that it was the only one I could find that was 'designed' to specifically fit the 80w. But I can see from your pictures that the Petrol one fits just as good, if not better.

I am beginning to get used to how the Portabrace bag works now. It's not (from experience of Portabrace) what I expected but it does the job in a roundabout way.

The thing about buying jackets/bags like this is there is no way to evaluate them before you buy. Where I live in the UK there is no outlet that stocks the bags for you to look at. They are often ordered from the manufacturer when a customer places the order. Unless you have a colleague who has the same bag you don't get to see it until you pay your money and it arrives.

I'm not sure if there is a solution to this issue other than returning the item if you're not satisfied.

The Portabrace bag is now working for me but I wouldn't recommend it to others.

Weenie
 
When I replaced all my audio gear a couple of years ago I went for a sound bag from KTS here in the UK.

http://www.ktsystems.co.uk/

Their stuff is great and I would recommend it to anyone looking for jackets/bags/rain covers etc. They do a made-to-measure service too which could be handy.

I went to them first when I was looking for the bag for my 80w. They didn't have a bag designed for the monitor but said they would do one but at that time it would take about a month to put into production. I needed a bag quicker than that so I went for the Portabrace one. I now wish I had waited.

Weenie
 
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