FS7: Making an FS7 a bit more packable

Thanks for sharing. I've been traveling a lot with my FS7 on carryon latley. I don't use the FS7 handle or Mic holder so those two items are permenantly disconnected from my camera anyway. That being said, my rig has a tilta vmount holder permanatly attached as well as rod baseplate. I'm able to tuck the monitor to the side and fit it in a pearstone DV777 camera bag. The thing I find hte most difficult is traveling with vmount batteries above 100wh. TSA allows up to two but require airline approval. I'm always being held up at TSA because of confusion on proper precedure so I have to arrive early enough to clear things up if they decide to hold the batteries while I get approval from the airline. I often fly United, their customer service recommended to just deal with it at check in/ticketing counter...but it always causes confusion.
 
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Two spares and one on the camera is I believe the international rule.. thats what I always do.. but yes the occasional angry with the world, why do I have this shitty job , checkers do rear their ugly head every now and again..
 
Fingers crossed, we haven’t had any issues with v-mounts. We are primarily flying American, Delta and United. We have a couple of 98 and a 145 (I think) we fly with. TSA hasn’t had any issues. That’s coming through some pretty major airports too.

Thanks for the kind words. We have a few more videos to throw up. Specifically how we pack our Thinktank and Manafrotto backpacks to fly with.
 
I'd be careful about flying with anything larger than 98's. Last year one of my Steadicam op friends was not allowed to bring a larger batt through TSA at NYC/LGA flying AA -- and ended up needing to find someone in the outer terminal who would ship it to him. Isolated case or trend? -- I don't want to be the one who finds out by having to leave my batteries at TSA. Just as the projectionist has final cut, the individual TSA agent may have final say.

Yes, seeing how things fit in the bag(s) is always interesting. Lately (during the bad weather season) I've run into several 'equipment changes' for aircraft -- going from a CRJ145 to an ERJ145 (if I have the letters right). The difference being that the (larger side) overhead in one of them is a 'standard' 9" high while the other is only about 6". I've taken to packing my cameras so that if necessary I can pull them out and place them under the seat in front (never get bulkhead!), put my lenses (packed in neoprene) into an otherwise empty laptop backpack which will still fit in the 6" overhead, and have a soft bag with a belt strap that all the batteries can be carried in - that will likewise fit into the overhead. Anything left in the rollaboard should be packed well enough to survive underneath the plane. I get a lot of laughs and smiles from other flyers as they see me carrying two cameras down the aisle, one in each hand!
 
I had to fly for a job back before Christmas and I usually ship everything ahead, but @#$%& FedEx didn’t get one of my cases(with my batts) to the hotel in time. Fortunately I looked at the status before I left and I knew that it wasn’t going to be there in time, so I was able to take batteries with me(I was hand carrying my F55). I prefer to shoot with large capacity batteries, both for the runtime and a little added weight on the back of the camera. That’s why a large portion of my camera battery inventory are the CoreSWX 190’s. They split into two 95wh halves that meet airline travel restrictions. I put one on the camera and then another one broken down in my backpack(=2x95wh batts). And I broke the on-cam batt down before boarding and put in in my backpack, as well.

My second case finally showed up late morning/early afternoon of the shoot day and the producer went back to the hotel to get it(it also had lights that we needed for the end of the day interview), but I think I did the entire shoot(only one day) on one battery.
 
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OnSet said:
I'd be careful about flying with anything larger than 98's. Last year one of my Steadicam op friends was not allowed to bring a larger batt through TSA at NYC/LGA flying AA -- and ended up needing to find someone in the outer terminal who would ship it to him. Isolated case or trend? -- I don't want to be the one who finds out by having to leave my batteries at TSA. Just as the projectionist has final cut, the individual TSA agent may have final say.

Yes, seeing how things fit in the bag(s) is always interesting. Lately (during the bad weather season) I've run into several 'equipment changes' for aircraft -- going from a CRJ145 to an ERJ145 (if I have the letters right). The difference being that the (larger side) overhead in one of them is a 'standard' 9" high while the other is only about 6". I've taken to packing my cameras so that if necessary I can pull them out and place them under the seat in front (never get bulkhead!), put my lenses (packed in neoprene) into an otherwise empty laptop backpack which will still fit in the 6" overhead, and have a soft bag with a belt strap that all the batteries can be carried in - that will likewise fit into the overhead. Anything left in the rollaboard should be packed well enough to survive underneath the plane. I get a lot of laughs and smiles from other flyers as they see me carrying two cameras down the aisle, one in each hand!
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I always have a copy of the Batt regs on my phone.. most battery sellers have it on their websites as down load.. its very plain 100-160 WH.. one in/on the device and 2 x spares.. its not rocket science.. call a supervisor .. it really comes down to lifes losers just having a power trip.. take the time.. report them for the sake of others ..I do.. get them back under the rock from which they crawled.. Grrrr
 
That's a great idea- have the battery regulations easy to get to as you travel. I'm stealing that.

You guys using any smaller profile V-mounts for travel? Those are on my shop/demo list for NAB this year.
 
RCoblentz said:
That's a great idea- have the battery regulations easy to get to as you travel. I'm stealing that.

You guys using any smaller profile V-mounts for travel? Those are on my shop/demo list for NAB this year.
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I down loaded from the iDX site.. as my batteries are from them.. even has pictures .. people print them out too.. I pretty sure PAG and Anton Bauer will have it too as a PDF.. vital for dealing with the sociopath airport checker.. iDX are supposedly going out with some smaller V mounts batts.. Hawkswood have some small ones..
 
As for stripping the FS7 - Im well happy with my solution of arca plates top and bottom that enable full rip down in seconds.
 
Appreciate all the advice here on packing the FS7. For all the quirks, the camera's an incredible value.

One item I demo'd in order to allow for easier packing was a quick-release nato rail-mount top handle (from Wooden Camera, though Smallrig and others make them). However, I found that I actually saved more space overall with one of the Sony audio units that plug into the "smart hotshoe" of the stock handle. (I own the two-channel wireless receiver that works with Sony wireless transmitters, but there's also one that just adds 2 XLR inputs.) While I'm usually fine with just a shotgun mic and a single lav mic for an interview set-up (using both native XLR inputs), it happened often enough that they'd want to wire up one more person, and so I had to carry a separate mixer/recorder. Now, I can confidently leave the mixer/recorder for most jobs, because two XLR ins + 2 channels of wireless will take care or pretty much any job where they're not hiring a separate sound person.

All that said, has anyone figured a clever way to turn the stock handle into a quick-release? It's one thing to break down the camera for air travel, but another to do so in such a way that it's useful for typical "run and gun" production, which for me means travel by subway or taxi and then have the camera built, monitor on, client picking out the background within a few minutes of walking in the door. I'd remove the top handle all the time if I didn't have to fiddle around with the screws. In practice, this usually means that the FS7 travels partially built in a semi-rigid bag. I'd love to easily go to and from a backpack, leaving me free to carry a tripod and a litepanel. Maybe I just need to give in and get an A6500 for these types of jobs?
 
Worked on a tv doco using FS7 cameras recently, they used big V mount batteries which broke in half so that each was easily under the 100W limit while flying.
 
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