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Zen & The Art of Wrapping Cables – Or how to wrap your cables to guarantee tangle-free use

Recently, we posted about workflow efficiency on video productions and one of the things we mentioned was learning how to wrap your cables properly and safely. Safely because it helps minimise the chances of them fraying in the middle and properly because it means you shouldn’t ever see another tangle again. No more tangles means a longer life for your cable and an easier time for you on set because you don’t have to untangle them.

Learning how to wrap cables properly is a skill that takes hardly any time at all to learn, but it’s one that’ll stick with you for the rest of your life with any long cables you might have to deal with. But how do you do it? Well, this video from YouTube channel Vistek goes through all of the surprising complexity of wrapping up cables and how to make sure yours stand the test of time!

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How to wind up your cables to keep them tangle-free

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Whether you’re a photographer or filmmaker, chances are you’ve got plenty of cables. Not everything is wireless yet. There are long USB tethering cables, microphone cables, power cables and all sorts. Many of them might need replacing fairly regularly if you just shovel them into your bag and don’t take care of them. At best, you’ll waste a lot of time untangling a mess of knotted cables.

The guys over on The Film Look have the perfect solution, and an explanation as to why wrapping your cables properly is important. For a start, it means less wasted time on set untangling them. But it also increases the longevity of those cables so that you don’t have to replace them as often.

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This is the best way to wrap cables and cords to keep them tangle free

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Keeping cables tangle-free can be a nightmare. As photographers we may have quite an array of cables. Long trigger release cables, flash head cables, USB extensions for shooting tethered, for example. If you shoot video as well, you might have to deal with XLR and other cables, too. And when it comes to cables, there’s nothing worse than turning up to shoot with a tangled mess.

Kinked and tangled cords don’t just make life difficult for you, though. They can also lead to reduced life of the cable, which means more cost as you replace them. This video from Oscar nominated director of photography, Mark Vargo, shows us how they do it in Hollywood. It makes production go more smoothly, and helps to make your cables last as long as possible.

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Here’s how to manage cables, chargers and batteries when traveling

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If you enjoy traveling with photo gear, you know how annoying it is to manage all the chargers, cables and batteries. Even the cameras from the same manufacturer have different batteries and chargers, not to mention other electronics like smartphones, laptops and so on. This is why photographer David Bergman gives you a couple of great tips for managing these gear elements when you’re on the road. This is one of the most frustrating parts of packing for me as well, so I’ll also jump in with a couple of tips of my own.

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This little contraption will help you wrangle up all your photography cables and cords

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With as many wireless photography products as there are on the market you’d think you wouldn’t have to deal with cables. But that doesn’t seem to be the case. In fact, it almost seems as though more cords have accumulated since every wireless gadget needs to be charged.

Earlier today though, I stumbled across a simple and quirky product that should help any and every photographer organize the tangled mess of cords that’s very likely hanging behind or beneath their desk.

It’s called the Pocketo Cable Organizer and as its name states, it’s a simple contraption that secures to your wall or your desk to help carefully organize and guide your cords in the right direction.[Read More…]

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