Surely you don’t get too excited about sandbags, but every professional knows how valuable they are. I was sent a pair of Impact 15 lbs Filled Saddle Sandbag to review, and they’re about as great as sandbags can be.
Saddle-style sandbags are a versatile part of any tool kit. They support and stabilize your equipment, such as stands, backgrounds, tripods and more. These sandbags in particular came with a caution-stripe design, which I love.
Impact Filled Saddle Sandbag — Specifications
- Design: Saddle Bag
- Weight Capacity: 15 lb / 6.8 kg
- Number of Bags: 1
- Fill Material: Sand
- Closure Type: Zipper
- Water Resistance: Water Resistant
- Environmental Protection: Advertised as Water Resistant (Test Methodology Not Supplied)
- Material: Nylon
- Dimensions (L x W): 17.8 x 11.0″ / 45.2 x 27.9 cm
- Strap Width: 1.5″ / 4.0 cm
Impact Filled Saddle Sandbag — Design and features
It’s bright, so they’ll help prevent tripping even on dark sets. Also, the color is easy to see on camera so you can should be able to catch shooting scenes where part of your stand is creeping into the shot.
The 15 lbs weight is great (they come filled). Lighter sandbags are sometimes improperly used for stand stabilization, as bumping a stand with your elbow is enough to render them pointless. While heavier bags would certainly provide more support, it is not always necessary to have them depending on your setup … and they just add bulk to your toolbox.
This weight sufficiently anchors the tripod and C-stands for normal use cases (i.e., as long as you are not extending a heavier light way off center).
While sandbags are relatively simple and straightforward, the Impact includes a few noteworthy features. The Cordura material is a thick and durable nylon fabric that is water resistant, so it will help keep your sand dry.
The design also features a double-zipper, adding another layer of protection to keep the elements out and your sand in. They “feel” durable and rugged, if that makes sense, and that’s how you usually want your sandbags.
The handles are well-constructed with nylon webbing. There is a top handle and a bottom handle. The top handle strap circles the entire bag, so it seems extremely reliable and durable. Besides making the bags easy to transport, you can use the straps as a counterweight if you have a boom arm.
The Impact Filled Saddle Style Sandbags excel at the main use cases you’re most likely to encounter. If you have a 3-leg tripod style stand, you can wrap the bag around the center pole to weight the stand down. However, note that if you are using a very compact stand, such as the Dracast Compact Collapsible Light Stand, you won’t have the necessary clearance to use larger sandbags.
In those cases, you can often place the bag around the center pole, hang from one of the stand’s clamps, or attach it with a carabiner. If you have a C-stand, you can drape the bag over the highest C-stand leg and it won’t touch the floor. Obviously, if the bag touches the ground, its weight becomes much less helpful, but you’ll achieve ground clearance with these. They are also useful for keeping floor plates or framing backgrounds securely.
