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Wednesday, July 23, 2008

REVIEW:  Petrol PMLCB-2 Production Backpack

A Lotta Backpack For A Hundred Bucks

Flying with equipment in the 1980’s was a piece of cake.  We used to pull up to the curb at the airport with eleven cases of gear, and when the skycaps came running we’d give $50 to the man in charge and say, “Make sure it gets on the plane.” And it always did.

I’m sure you are aware that several things have changed since then, both for good and ill.  On the bad side is baggage charges of all types on all checked bags.  On the good side is micro-sized gear that can make great pictures and sound.  So as always, we adapt, and bag maker Petrol is right there with us to make our jobs possible, if not exactly easy.

The Petrol PMLCB-2 backpack makes traveling under the “one bag and one personal item” rules actually doable.  This midsized bag can actually stash a HDV camera, batteries, chargers, mics, cables, tapes, scripts and more - and when the shoot is done, the laptop you will edit your piece on as well.  About all you can’t attach or stash is a tripod, sadly (but maybe you can jam a small one in your rollaboard.) In total, the bag features seven pockets that are accessible from the outside.

The PMLCB-2 is sized for cameras like the Canon XH-G1 or XH-A1, the Sony HVR-A1U, or the Panasonic DVC-30.  Of course, there isn’t any reason that smaller cameras couldn’t fit in happily.  The camera slides into a special zippered door at the bottom-right of the backpack.  In my testing, the Canon XH-G1 was a tight fit, but if I had removed the lens shade there would have been plenty of room.

A truly clever feature is this removable orange pocket.  It is coated on the outside with Velcro strips, which allow you to vary where you place it.  It attaches in the same chamber that the camera occupies, sort of hovering above the camera.  It’s large enough to hold batteries, charger/power supplies, wireless mics or a short shotgun mic.  Depending on the height of your camera, you’ll get more or less in it.

A laptop rides in the area just behind your back, in it’s own extra-padded pocket.  My Dell and IBM laptops (with 14” and 17” screens) fit easily, and while I don’t own one, I think a 17” Mac would fit as well.

All of this hardware can add up to some weight, so it is a good thing that the back and the straps of the PMLCB-2 are generously padded.  Mesh fabrics are used to keep the sweat levels down, and a chest strap will hold the straps in place when you are sagging after a long day.

My only major gripe about the PMLCB-2 is that the exterior pockets are rather small, but at this price I almost feel guilty complaining.  Petrol has built a bag that will be a friend to the one-man-band documentarian on a budget, or even a familly videographer on a vacation.

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