What type of sand should you put in sandbags for lighting?

So you're new to the exciting world of Sandbags...

There's a few options for what type of sand to put in sandbags for lighting (this is not advise for sandbags for flood prevention). Arri, Mathews, Kupo and Neewer all make sandbags - cheaper bags are also available. Calumet, Manfrotto, LuxS, Portabrace all make sandbags too...Some of them with wild pricer tags.

But they all come empty so what do you fill them with?

What to fill Sandbags with?

Sharp sand, builders sand, Kiln dried sand, play sand, pebbles and pea gravel? We did our research and have made the mistakes so you don't have to.

Don't buy builders sand as it holds moisture, we have found sharp sand is a better option. Kiln dried would be great but it's very expensive, and sharp sand - sufficiently dried our will do. Sharp sand is better than building sand as it hold less moisture and the grains mean it keeps it shape better. Avoid beach sand as it contains salt. I think small pebbles / pea gravel would also be good, but without sharp edges to not cut or damage the bags.

We've tried lots of brands of sandbags, cheap ones from Amazon and ebay through to top branded ones. We now only use 7kg Arri Sandbags and 15kg Arri Sandbags for our Edinburgh rental house - as they're the most robust for being hired out. That being said I think there's a few decent quality ones you could use (maybe not if you're hiring them out all the time like we are). We've tried EMART sandbags and they're only about £6 per bag versus £24 for the Arri Bags but i'd suggest under filling them a bit, as they just are not as robust.

Sandbag weight

Whatever you do make sure the sand is dry and we like to put it into ziplock bag / large sandwich bags as a liner bag to double bag the sand- and make sure it's weight accurately to be 7kg or 15kg - just ensure consistency. You might want to make your bags different weights but for us, our bags should match what they've ordered.

Alternatives to Sandbag

I also like 4.3kg Manfrotto weights and 1.3kg Manfrotto weights which are great too for use on boom arms too and unlike shot bags can't fall off if locked correctly. Calumet sells a cheap 4kg weight that is worth looking at.

If you have deep pockets you can buy metal shot bags which are great. You can even buy specialist Mathews water repellent sandbags which cost like £60 a bag!

Sandbags on tour

When travelling I take x2 sandbags and fill them with whatever is available - stones, heavy metal things or even bottles of water.