I, like most photo/video people, am in a constant state of evaluating if I'm using the best option for something. When I saw Trek Pack for the first time, I thought I'd found the perfect thing for my Pelican 1510 video case. I waited a while but didn't see many reviews so I figured, what the heck let's give it a go.
First off, my case holds a LOT of stuff. This is my one "if everything else goes missing I can still do the job with this case" case. It's got my video camera, lavs, media, monitors, batteries, a lens, adapters, audio cables, HDMI cables, tripod plates, and many many odds and ends. It's the last case to get loaded and the first one to come off. And it's always within my site. I went with the Pelican 1510 for this because it's small enough to carry on and around but big enough to hold all my stuff. I LOVED the case with my Canon C100 mark II. It's okay with the Sony FS7 I switched to. But that's not the case's fault. That's the fact that the FS7 is quite large when fully assembled. I used to strip the camera totally down and it fit the case great. Now I leave the top handle and cheese plate on so it's not as good. But that's where the dividers/foam come in.
FOAM - $19 w/ the case (basically free when it comes with the case, $50 or so otherwise)
This is how everyone starts out. You get your fresh new case with its unspoiled foam and can't wait to pluck it and shape out your gear. For big cases, I still think this is the best option. You can customize it to exactly what you need it to be without worrying about anything shifting. And because each space is customized to your piece of equipment, it's really easy to see if you have everything in the case.
The downside to foam is if you are more than one or two of those little squares away from the next opening, in 6 months it WILL rip and your nicely formed spaces become a jumbled mess. For my 1510, I want to put a lot of stuff in there and there's not going to be enough support with foam.
DIVIDERS - $53 w/ the case, $60 on its own
When the foam wasn't an option, I went with dividers. They were good, but as you can see above, I had to mix and match from different kits to fit the FS7 on the bottom of the case. Not the best option and I felt like there had to be a better one.
TREK PAK - $115
Enter Trek Pack. All the images I saw made it look really clean and like everything had its place. It's expensive. You can buy 2 sets of the other options for the same price. And, like foam, once you cut it you cut it. It comes in a flat box and basically no directions. It would have been helpful to have some "best practices" for just how everything fit together. For example, I ended up bending the top piece trying to fit the outer walls into the case. And it's extremely difficult to get the middle pieces attached to the outside walls with the U holder things.
Here's a timelapse of the process...
Whoops... the camera lens zoomed in on it's own due to the weight of the lens, but you get the point.
So all that said, was it worth it? I don't think so. Which I'm a little annoyed about given the cost. I didn't factor how much I relied on the soft nature of the dividers I had been using. The top of my case has an organizer in it for cables and stuff, and I lay my shotgun mic on top of the dividers. Because they're soft they just get pushed down and it closes snug. This took a couple tries to get it right. Also, given the nature of how I pack my stuff, I probably should have just found the right sized center divider and made it work. I will say, it looks cleaner and things fit a little snugger in places. But was that worth the investment? Probably not.