What do you carry your camera rig in?

[Lewis88]

After years of heavy backpacks, I switched to a pelican style case. Wheeled and fits in all international carry on limits (except weight). 
 

in it goes:

- housing with camera and fisheye lens and port installed

- macro and standard zoom port (same port with extension rings)

- macro lens

- standard lens

- diopter

- 2x strobes with dome diffusers and snoot

- focus light

- shearwater wrist unit

- vacuum pump

- all camera batteries, dive light battery, and 16x AA batteries

in my checked bag goes all my wife and I’s other gear: 2x sets of fins, 2 wetsuits, 2 bcd’s, 4 masks, chargers, camera arms and clamps. 
 

regs go in our backpacks, and we use one checked and one carry on suitcase for all our clothes. 

Edited April 29 by Lewis88

[Kamaros]

I have a Cinebags Grouper XL that I use for transporting my rig when diving locally. I also found it useful last year when I was on a photo workshop in La Paz where we were schlepping our gear between a hotel and our boat every day, and where the boat's camera table was too small to fit everyone's gear.

 

I used to carry a "minimum viable setup" (camera, housing, viewfinder, vacuum system, one lens + port, strobes and cables, a pair of clamps to mount the strobes directly onto the housing, batteries and chargers for all the above) in a ThinkTank Airport Commuter backpack which I could just barely squeeze under airplane seats if I took out my laptop and headphones and shoved them in my seat pocket. It wasn't very comfortable and always felt like I had a brick pressed against the small of my back, so I've decided to try switching over to a hiking bag with a camera insert. I haven't tried flying with it yet, but I've picked up a Decathlon Quechua MH500 40L backpack (based on recommendations from this megathread) and a Lowepro Gearup Camera Box XXL II which seems to fit snuggly.

 

Here's a sample loadout for the A7RV + Nikon 60mm macro on Monster adapter as an example. I'm waiting on Backscatter to get the FCP and 10mm extension ring back in-stock to see if other lens + port combinations will fit the insert.

 

 Here's the backpack with the insert loaded.

 

I don't actually know if this would fit under and airplane seat, but in the worst case I could probably take the insert out and use it as my personal item, then try to shove the empty backpack (which flattens down reasonably well) into an overhead bin like you might do with a jacket. I also didn't bother to unscrew the mounting balls on the housing here, which could be removed to decrease the required depth by another inch or so.

 

Aside from the backpack with the minimum viable rig, I like the Tenba Roadie Air Case Roller 21 as a carry-on roller for all the other gear that doesn't fit in my bag - it's rugged like a hard case, but looks like a normal roller bag instead of screaming "STEAL ME" like a Pelican case. I'm also a fan of the internal organizer pockets, which I stash things like my remaining arm clamps, spare cables/batteries, etc into.

[Jim Laurel]

Karin and I each use these ThinkTank Logistics Manager rolling cases. They're alot lighter than our old Pelican cases, and they attract alot less attention. We pack all the underwater parts of our kit in these. Karin has to carry her WACP in a carry-on because it puts the ThinkTank over 50lbs.

https://www.thinktankphoto.com/products/logistics-manager-30-v2

 

We'll have all the dive gear in large duffle bags, and carry both those and the Thinktanks on Porter cases. Inside the Porters, we have our regs, camera bodies, lenses, lithium batteries, etc. Those get hand carried. They're the maximum size allowable for carry-ons to/from the US, and they're heavy. Often airline staff will ask us to check them, and we just say they've got a lot of lithium batteries in them and that's the end of discussion.

The Porters aren't made any more, but you can still find them on eBay if you watch for them. Best travel product ever made!

[RomiK]

My wife and I cabin luggage. 2x10ish kg 50x40x20 + 2 personal items

 

Laptop bag carries 

- camera body

- 28-60 + 90mm lenses

- EMWL

- laptop duh 😂

 

Housing by itself as a personal item my wife carries

 

Blue suitcase

- WWL-1B

- Shinobi monitor and housing

- 2 flat ports for the lenses

- 2 Retra Pro X + superchargers

- Retra LSD

- dive computer

- batteries

 

Red suitcase

- 3x Weefine Smartfocus 10000

- Divevolk Seatouch 4Max with floats

- 4000 lumens dive light

- 2x Nauticam 200/70 and 300/50 float arms

 

The rest like clamps and hardware and floats goes into dive bags checked. 
 

The idea is that should the shxx hit the fan whether at check in of gate we could have Red suitcase or it’s content checked and split electronics and optics among ourselves. 
 

If I would travel myself I would have had extra checked bag for hardware, video lights and monitor as I dive sidemount and my bare dive bag is 18kg. But if I would go on single cylinder the bag would be 15kg (one reg and lighter wing) and the rest of my photo gear would fit in. 

[aeweems12]

Oh boy, here goes:

 

Pelican Air 1615:

• Aquatica AD7000 housings (x2)
• Aquatica 8 inch glass dome port
• Aquatica Mini Macro Port
• Inon Z-330 strobes (x2)
• Aquatica +5 diopter
• Aquatica +10 diopter
• Kraken +23 diopter
• Kraken Hydra 8000 lights (x2)
• Kraken Hydra snoot & aperture cards
• Dive Rite CX2 lights (x2)
• Ultramax Helium buoyancy arms (x5)
• Muck sticks (x2)
• Remote lighting stick
• Atomics T3 regs
• Olympus TG-6 housing
• Tray/handles for TG-6
• Tons of tools, handles, extra o-rings, fiber optic connectors, ball mounts, etc

Samsonite hard sided case:

• Fins
• Booties & socks
• Mask
• Spool
• DSMB
• Wetsuit
• Hood
• BCD
• Rash guards
• Personal stuff & any extra camera stuff that didn't fit in the Pelican (clamps, battery chargers, etc)

LowePro Pro Trekker RLX450:

• Nikon D7000 bodies (x2)
• Nikon 105mm lens
• Nikon 60mm lens
• Nikon 18-300mm lens
• Tokina 10-17 lens
• Olympus TG-6
• ALL THE BATTERIES, so many batteries....
• Extra memory cards, jump drives, usb cables, etc
• Shearwater Perdix computers (x2)
• Personal stuff (sunglasses, portable phone charger, etc)

Samonsite oversized purse:

• Computer, mouse, charger
• Kindle
• Phone, wallet, passport
• Water bottle
• Pajamas for long haul trips
• Dive logbook

 

Should have gotten a picture of my bags on my last trip. Both checked bags came in right under 70lbs. Lowepro bag was about 40lbs & shoulder bag about 15lbs. I do not know, nor do I understand, the concept of travel light lol

[Troporobo]

Ashley, I think you win the abundance of caution sweepstakes.  I’ve seen many people with a backup camera body.  But three complete bodies and housings may be a record for multiple redundancy. Good on you!

[aeweems12]

1 hour ago, Troporobo said:

Ashley, I think you win the abundance of caution sweepstakes.  I’ve seen many people with a backup camera body.  But three complete bodies and housings may be a record for multiple redundancy. Good on you!

By no means am I saying that level of redundancy is necessary, but I just know that I'm going to do something stupid when I am on the other side of the world & I refuse to end a vacation because I kill a camera/housing 😂

 

Though I will say I don't tend to take the TG out a lot. I much prefer my D7000s. But I've been indoctrinated by my tech diving community that two is one & one is none. Hence the backups to the backups!

 

Oh & I just landed a backup set of Z-330s. Can hardly wait to figure out where they're going to go 🤔🤣

[TimG]

Airport porters must love Ashley. 🤣

[aeweems12]

10 hours ago, TimG said:

Airport porters must love Ashley. 🤣

 Probably not as much I love them! 🤣

[ChrisH]

I have found my perfect solution for me in two ThinkTank items: a Airport Advantage XT roller and a Retrospective bag. I use them as Carry on Luggage and my personal item. 
 

For my trip to Anilao (macro) I have the following items:
 

in the roller bag fits my Nikon Z8, Seacam Housing, Seacam Fisheye Macro port, two Seacam 150d strobes, my Nikon 8-18 Fisheye with FTZ Adapter and Zoom Gear, the 105mm Z Macro lens, the 60mm Macro lens, the 1.4 Teleconverter, Weefine +13 diopter, Seacam 45 viewfinder, 4x power pack for the strobes, some batteries, cables, adapters and my Laptop. 

 

the Retrospective holds the Seacam Macro Port, my Trioplan copy, Tablet, headphones, 2xdive computers,  and some personal stuff but has plenty of space left. 
 

The rest of the equipment is in the check-in luggage (strobe arms, extension rings). But even if my check-in luggage would not arrive, I could start shooting with the gear that is in my carry-on. 
 

Now lets hope they will not check the weight 😬 (16-17 kg) at check in. But usually if they do, I just show them whats inside and how fragile and expensive it is and had never had a problem. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited Friday at 05:11 PM by Davide DB
Missing photos

[ChrisH]

Somehow the pictures don‘t load/show?

 

Next try…

 

 

[canislupus]

On 12/27/2023 at 7:43 PM, atus said:

What I do for travelling is to put the camera inside the housing with the macro lens and its port and I carry it with a lanyard hanging from my shoulder. The rest of the equipment, strobes, arms, batteries, dome, lenses, laptop...in a cabin suitcase with me all the time. Since  I do that I have a less problems in the airport filters and my cabin suitcase is much less heavy so I have less issues with the airline. 

If I’m understanding right, you mount all the housing and camera and put a strap no and simply say that is your camera?

And you don’t have problems at all?

Mmmm I would have to think about it for doing it myself, the image in the cue with the housing on the shoulders must be epic. 😁

By the way, good staff in this post.

[bghazzal]

4 hours ago, canislupus said:

If I’m understanding right, you mount all the housing and camera and put a strap no and simply say that is your camera?

And you don’t have problems at all?

Mmmm I would have to think about it for doing it myself, the image in the cue with the housing on the shoulders must be epic. 😁

By the way, good staff in this post.

This is also something I'm considering for my upcoming heavily-loaded move from Indonesia to Japan...
I've never done it, but the NALX10 is compact enough and would save a few cabin-luggage kilos.
Especially with all the stuff we can fit in two pockets-vests...
 

Back to luggage itself,  thecabin luggage I use is a super lightweight Japanese two-wheel roller that I've has since 2012 or so, combined with a thinktank backpack as a personal item. The roller usually gets weighed on check-in.

This is the roller along with our 3 Decathlon 120/100L dive / life treckking bags mentioned earlier, having traveled from Japan for a season in Maldives, and about to hop from Europe to Japan and then Palau for work
 

2x Cabin luggage + 2x "personal items" leaving Palau in 2023...


 

Edited 14 hours ago by bghazzal

[TimG]

I do like the look of that Think Tank bag. Tempting…..   Time to move on from my Pelican? Hmmmmm……

[fruehaufsteher2]

4 hours ago, canislupus said:

If I’m understanding right, you mount all the housing and camera and put a strap no and simply say that is your camera?

And you don’t have problems at all?

I had a similar experience: Travelling from Malé to Fuvamulah they asked me to put my backpack (14kg, looks quite similar to that of @ChrisH, but is cheap from Rollei) on the scale. „Too heavy“ - „Look, my camera gear. I can take it out, put it together and take it in my hand“ - „Okay, camera….“ and after very short discussion with his colleague it was no problem.