Travelling with DOME ports

What's the best way of travelling with a DOME port (I have a SUBAL FE-2 dome). There seem to two schools of thought - although both involve checking in the DOME port:

1. Carry on all underwater housing gear (but not the DOME port because it is too big but put it into the usual pelican case and check that in).

Are there any carry on bags which could accomodate a DOME port and a full set of underwater housing gear (assuming you have a compact Ikelite or SUBAL D70/350 housing setup - total gear includes housing, Dome, two Innon strobes, one straight port 60mm and a couple of arms/cables plus camera and two/three lens - not talking about the huge Seacams or Aquaticas)

2. Carry on the camera/lens only and check in all underwater housing gear (including DOME port)

Are there any check in cases which can house the DOME port upright rather than having is rest on flat on its back (which takes up just too much space)?

Thoughts appreciated.

Paul NG

In use a conventonal wheeled carry on bag for 1 Ike D70 housing, 1 macro port 1 dome port and 2 * DS125 strobes, plus clothes to pad the whole thing.

The camera itself is in a conventional camera bag.

The carry on is well outside the weight limit for carry on and can lead to interesting fun during check in.

Bottom line traveling with all of this gear is a PITA.

Paul C

My domes always go in the checked luggage. The subal FE domes (old and new) fit perfectly in a plastic cake tin! I wrap dome in bubble wrap, put it in cake tin and then put that in hard suitcase.

I no longer use Pelican or similar cases. As they attract too much attention. Just a simple suitcase - with no dive destination stickers on it.

Alex

I always check the dome in. Like Alex I use a plastic cake box to store it, and surround the dome with polystyrene packing chips. A good quality plastic tub will be strong enough to stand on, so I never worry about it being crushed.

When I started using the Seacam superdome, I initially struggled to get a box big enough, so carried it as hand luggage. But now I've found a rectangluar cake box that will take it and a few other "breakables" as well.

It's bulky, but bulk isn't such an issue with checked baggage. I'd rather use the space in hand baggage for smaller but more expensive items like lenses and bodies

Cheers

Steve

I'd rather use the space in hand baggage for smaller but more expensive items like lenses and bodies

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You have more expensive items than a seacam dome, Steve?

Alex

ha, good point, they did cost me a kidney

I suscribe to option 2. I only check in the underwater stuff, and carry on the cameras and lenses. I use a regular hard plastic suitcase in which I've placed a custom-cut foam block that fits the shape of my housings, ports, strobes, etc.

I've used this setup for numerous dive trips and never had a problem...

I carry on my rig.

I use a large soft cooler from wetpixel sponsor underwater photo-tech, the larger of their two bags.

http://www.uwphoto.com/shop/customer/produ...4&cat=18&page=1

it fits well in the overhead and has been up there on at least a half dozen trips, no problem. It helps, I think, that it has the UW camera silkscreen on the side, I put that side up on the x ray belt. Even the TSA guys can understand a picture of a camera.

It also makes a great rinse tank and I use it to carry my assembled rig on every size boat.

On my last trip, it held an Ike housing for an oly E1, with tray and 8" dome on. Plus a 6" dome on the side, 2 Ike DS125 strobes, my sync cables, my ike EV sensors, and my ULCS arms, 12" and 16" floatation arms. My whole rig, and it is a pretty large system, though there are larger.

I padded it with some optech wraps and some t-shirts, and had room left for some small trinkets and an extcernal hard drive, cirtical chargers, etc.

Camera and lenses went into my smaller under-seat bag.

Like Alex (and others), I always pack my dome port in checked luggage. (Good idea about the cake/hat box for packing the Superdome; I'll have to try that!) Unlike many people, however, I don't pack just cameras/lenses in carry-ons, and most of my UW stuff in the checked bags.

Being a firm believer in the "sh*t happens" principle, my philosophy is that I want to be sure I have in my carry-ons enough gear to do "some" type of photography for a whole trip if my checked bags never show up (or are broken into and robbed). Since dome ports are just too damned bulky, what I typically carry-on is: macro port (and extension ring), 100mm macro lens, 50mm macro lens, at least one strobe with cords, and the housing (with camera inside). I then pack everything else (2nd strobe, wide angle lenses and dome port, etc.) in my checked bags.

BTW, I too have gotten rid of all my Pelican cases and opted for bags that do not scream "Camera Gear Inside!" For example: No camera gear here!

Anyway, part of my reasoning is that I at least want a macro lens, together with a mid-range lens (for my full frame camera, the Sigma 50mm macro lens is perfect for the latter; for cropped sensors, I'd probably take a mid-range prime like a 35mm) that can be used for fish and reef shots without a dome port. Such lenses are not terribly expensive, take up very little space, and would work really well as all-purpose lenses if your dome port and wide angle stuff was all lost/stolen en route. Frankly, some of my better photos (schools of barracuda, individual fish, etc.) have been taken with that Sigma 50mm lens (two of the photos on the Inon "Featured Artist" page here were shot with it).

The point is to take just enough stuff in carry-ons that -- in a pinch -- you could shoot macro, fish, and some reef shots the entire trip with just that gear, and the trip would not be a waste. I still pray that my checked bags will reach the destination intact just like everybody else does, but if they ever don't, I'll still have something to do...

I think I'm with the mainstream view here as well.

I can fit all my gear in a Lowepro AW Trekker Pro backpack except for the dome ports. Camera inside housing, 4-5 lenses, 2 DS125s, cords, chargers, Macro port and Canon S300 housing, wet lenses, manual controler etc. If I were travelling without kids I would use the roller version instead. But with kids its better to have my arms free. I pack my reg and logbook+magazines in the attached daypack.

I pack the dome ports (15mm FE, 12-24mm and 105mm focus port we're talking Ikelite here) in my hardsided suitcase with the clothes. I just leave them in their sturdy ikelite cardboard boxes and pack them between clothes. This is less conspicious and it doesn't take up a whole other suitcase. My divegear (wetsuit, fins, mask, BC, + snorkelling gear for wife and 2 kids etc.) needs my second suitcase already.

I've ordered the Da Bigga Doma so It'll only be one dome port now and the 105 port. I was planning to find a Tupperware that fits the port. I'll have to investigate cake tins (thanks Alex). I always travel with the 60mm port on the housing. That way no matter what I can at least shoot the 60mm. Its my most successful lens anyhow.

Perhaps when Ikelite releases the flat ports for the Da Bigga Doma, I can simplify further.

Thanks for all your replies - much appreciated. Got to go look for a cake tin box .... thanks Alex. Paul

I just returned from Bonaire and I used a Plastic Tupperware cake bowl to ship my dome port. I wrapped the dome in a large micro fiber cloth inside the bowl, I purchased both at Target.

Marc

I was just wondering which kind of cake tin works best? Rich fruit cake? Shortbread maybe?? Metal or plastic? Decisions, decisions.

I have the same dome port. It fits perfectly in the small pelican 1400 case. Along with the extension ring and a +2 diopter.

I then put that case inside my larger luggage. The dome port is surrounded by foam. I had the predecessor of the large subal port fracture on me at depth in the middle of a trip. It looked like a stress fracture and Subal replaced it. But I wonder if fracture wasn't started in in flight. For that reason I would never check my dome unless it was in a strong case of it's own and surrounded by foam or similar cushioning. A properly arrange wetsuit might do the job. However; it might be rearranged by the TSA with considerably less care. Hence I use the pelican case.

Alternatively I carry it in my carryon luggage.

My dome is always in my carry-on luggage, together with my flat port and housing. The only thing that I check are the strobes and strobe arms. I am packing for a trip next week and will send photos of my setup when I pack it.

Luiz

I've managed to get my entire rig into a Pelican 1550 (with lots of dive stickers and the padded dividers) that I carry on with me. In the case goes the Aquatica housing for the 20D, dome port, macro port, focus/zoom gears, 2 S&S YS-90DXs, synch chords, and 2 sets of arms. I've even got enough extra room for the housing/tray/fiber optic cable for the Canon P&S camera. You just have to be creative on how you pack it.

The 1550 only exceeds the acceptable carry-on size in one dimension by two inches. So far, I haven't been hassled about it. Yet.

I personally hate to carry heavy carry-on unless I have wheels. I've had to run from one terminal to another too many times ;-)

I pack both my macro and dome ports in a pelican case with all the arms, sync cords and gears. I then put that inside a big gear back with my housing wrapped in my wetsuit, strobes and my clothing and scuba gear. This is checked.

I carry on my camera, lenses, computer in a backpack and my regulator and dive computers in a smaller carry-on.

I know I risk getting hosed if it's ever lost or stolen but I find carrying the Aquatica housing and ports too heavy. I guess I must be a wimp ;-)

My solution is to buy insurance and pack all my dive gear and my DSLR setup (camera, lenses, housing and ports) in checked luggage. In my carry-on, I take my laptop, my prescription dive mask, dive computer, entertainment items and a Sony DSC-W3 inside its plastic Sony housing. Very small. Also a backup DSLR body, lens and accessories. If the luggage goes haywire -- and it did once -- I can rent dive gear and still have a play-around UW camera for my trip, plus a competent DSLR land setup.

I've made lots of trips with very few problems. Here are some things I've learned to do. Always double check that the routing tag on each bag is correct to the proper destination. Always try to use the computer-printed tags with the self-sticking adhesive. The only time I lost a bag was when the agent made a paper tag for 5 segments and then tied it with string on the bag. It fell off somewhere between Houston and LAX and my bag with sitting in the CO bag area in LAX because they knew not where to send it. Now, I also put duct tape "patches" on the exterior of the bag. I use one at each check-in and write the routing with a Sharpie on the duct tape. If the bag gets mis-routed, the needed info is on the duct-tape "patch." (Tear the old ones off after each flight is completed). I figure my luggage has a good a chance of getting to the destination as I do.

Well, having had a hood snapped off a fisheye port and a control rod bent on a Seacam housing - both in Pelicases (1620) - booked in as hold baggage and thoroughly packed, I am baffled as to how to carry gear with any certainty that it will arrive intact. All I can think is that in both cases the cases had been dropped (despite being booked in as 'fragile' at check-in). I try to carry as much as possible in hand luggage (17Kg is my max so far) but some airlines are awkward and insist on 5kg or 7kg max hand luggage. Given that I also carry a laptop and above water cameras/lenses, this is becoming completely untenable! I wonder if a lightweight but REALLY BIG case full of bubble wrap and with the ports right in the middle would be an answer?

I can fit two camera bodies, Nexus housing, 160mm dome, lens, chargers and one strobe with a short arm into a LowePro "Dryzone" backpack that (just) fits into a "carry-on" guide, so it comes with me. If I can only shoot one system, then I want it to be flexible, so I have evolved this way of keeping the dome with me. Nexus have also two small, glass domes for the Nikon 10.5 and 12-24mm lenses, either of which are no problem in hand luggage, as they are no bigger than a macro port.

Tim

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