How do you carry your camera on a plane?

Cam inside the housing is something I am only considering for carry-on. I always carry on my cam and housing, usually separately. My next trip coming up, my connecting flight is on a puddle jumper that only allows 1 carry-on with max dimensions of 16x12x7.

Prepare for those weight charges....where you going?

Steve B)

Long weekend trip to St. Vincent, which is suppossed to be the best muck and macro diving in the Caribbean.

Probably a very poor comparison to what you guys dive over in the Pacific, but coming from NY, the Caribbean is much easier and cheaper to get to.

I always carry the camera in my hand luggage but my housing is usually too big for that.

Last time I was worried about the dreaded Pelican case theft so just put all the foam out of my Gates (Pelican) case into a larger standard plastic suitcase so as not to attract attention. There was room around the foam for my other stuff i.e one pair of shorts and half a toothbrush

I quite like the idea of just walking one with a naked housing (complete with camera) as hand luggage. I think Drew does this(?). But if they're strict on the usual 7kg limit then what happens next?

For the first time I took my BW Outdoor case etc. I was checked in with almost 90 kgs...

Later I put my cam into the housing and took the whole stuff on board. It is very havey indeed but safe and the Phenom housing without the carry handle fits to the overhead compartment of the bigger aircrafts.

I always carry the camera in my hand luggage but my housing is usually too big for that.

 

Last time I was worried about the dreaded Pelican case theft so just put all the foam out of my Gates (Pelican) case into a larger standard plastic suitcase so as not to attract attention. There was room around the foam for my other stuff i.e one pair of shorts and half a toothbrush

 

I quite like the idea of just walking one with a naked housing (complete with camera) as hand luggage. I think Drew does this(?). But if they're strict on the usual 7kg limit then what happens next?

Ah, then you go... "sure you can check this...it's only $20k, I'm sure the airline will appreciate the loss." When they see equipment like that, they won't mess with you. The idea is to make it look like it's lighter than 7kg. Hence the muscle training.

Only place that makes life difficult I know is Australia and even they didn't want the responsibility. Just get the airline station manager to ok it. They are very accomodating to working pros when it comes to equipment. Oh having a frequent flyer higher status helps a lot too.

Cam inside the housing is something I am only considering for carry-on. I always carry on my cam and housing, usually separately. My next trip coming up, my connecting flight is on a puddle jumper that only allows 1 carry-on with max dimensions of 16x12x7.

Didn't dawn on me until about a week later that I never took the camera out to run it through the x-ray separately.

In the Hi-8 80's, I carried the cam as carry on and shipped the housing in a pelican case. Then with pelican case thefts I switched everything to a large cooler with straps and locks. I put almost everything in that cooler, housing, lights, chargers, batteries, clothes and lots of stuff all wrapped in bubble wrap. Then this summer, tired of hauling a large cooler around, I bought a real ratty dive bag at a garage sale. I mean ratty, all the zippers were stuck on open except the zipper for the main compartment. I put the housing in a pelican case inside and used a TSA lock for that compartment. I did this for 2 trips this summer, one to the Philippines and the other to Kauii and it worked perfectly. No one in their right mind would want to go into this old bag, it looks as much as a derelict as you can get.

Steve B)

Ah, then you go... "sure you can check this...it's only $20k, I'm sure the airline will appreciate the loss." When they see equipment like that, they won't mess with you. The idea is to make it look like it's lighter than 7kg. Hence the muscle training.

Only place that makes life difficult I know is Australia and even they didn't want the responsibility. Just get the airline station manager to ok it. They are very accomodating to working pros when it comes to equipment. Oh having a frequent flyer higher status helps a lot too.

UK can also be a problem. Last year at Manchester they were totally strict with hand baggage. Mine was 8kg and they wouldn't let me go until it was down to 7kg. They were weighing everyone's. And this wasn't even BA.

However I may give your method a shot but I think I'd want a bag with me that's at least big enough to take the housing if they absolutely forced me to part with it at the gate.

I heard the worst place for Pelican thefts was S America, and maybe Heathrow (but who would go there anyhow?). Is it a big problem elsewhere? Now I have my new LMI in its supplied Pelican, I am having to consider these issues which I didn't have to do with my smaller 950 Pelican which I always carried on board.

Main question for me (as I will not carry on the camera+housing in a modded biking rucksack like shawnh) is whether I just stow the big black supplied Pelican and make sure I have adequate insurance, or go to the trouble of lining a hard case with foam and 'pretending' it's worthless. Surely any self respecting luggage thief will have access to a scanner and your cover is blown! Is it really worth the trouble of the 'camo'?

I don't see any real options other than trying to avoid the worse offending ports. I am flying through Jakarta December, Miami in January and Durban in June - am I asking for trouble?

Has anyone recently traveled internationally, from the US, with the video gear in the carry-on? I would imagine that the new restrictions size wise makes it difficult to carry the stuff on-board, but hopefully I am wrong...

Is the only other "safer" option to send the gear with shipping companies like Fed Ex?

Anders

Has anyone recently traveled internationally, from the US, with the video gear in the carry-on?

Yes my wife had hers from ny/Bali. I had my still in th ehousing and 5 other s lens. Neither of us had any problems. We both use a bag fron TravelSmith that looks like a small briefcase .

You know , here is what I find funny.

Two people. ones weighs like 130 KG and the other only 80kg so that means the heavier person gets a cheaper ticket as the luggage amount is still the same.

I think there should be a total limit, person included then us little people can cart more luggage.

Hmm wags are you part of the crew that banned waifs on the runway? That's discriminatory!

They actually do that for puddle jumpers and charters. We chartered a plane in Africa once, being told it could take 11 people plus luggage and equipment.

Then the co-pilot started weighing all of us and the equipment and said, 250kg has to stay behind. So the producer said, ok 3 big guys you're off... go take a bus ... in Malawi!

As often, planes make more money with cargo than people in cattle class. That's why bags sometimes don't fly with you, they get off loaded for more cargo on some airlines.

Nick, I think many airports have theft. I've lost 000s in LAX but never in Costa Rica, Guatemala or any Central and South American countries. Look at Puerto Rico, we've had numerous housing thefts there, and many ending up on Ebay.

I figure if I travel with all the imaging gear, all else can be bought at destination.

To pseudoparaphrase Brooke Shields(under the influence of anti-depressants or coke) said, nothing gets between me and my cameras.

I always carry the housings and cam's in pelican 1510's...

I get to carry one on and the wife gets to carry the other one on....

Virgin sent me an email the other day to say the size limit for hand baggage is back to what it was before the UK terrorist scares. It's still only 6kg for economy though.

http://s3.e-srv.net/start/ShowHtml.asp?mi=...4416685%2D30034

Hi there,

I handcarry all my housings in very heavy duty softsided cooler bags that are very inexpensive, padded and built very well with great webbing handles, just bought another one a few days ago. The 48 quart one is the one and you can also fill them up with water for a fresh water rinse if need be. Very well padded also. Hand carried this bag wtih several of my housings on various planes, from American Eagle puddle jumpers to the larger jets.

If you're interested in taking a look, go to www.polarbearcoolers.com, I'm in no way connected to the company but they make a great bag for carrying underwater camera gear around. I use mine daily to haul my gear in.

They're relatively inexpensive and work well for handcarrying both video systems and still camera systems.

Frazier Nivens, Ocean Imaging

Has anyone tried the Ikelite case? It's actually a Pelican 1600, but seem to fit 2 strobes and housing. Does anyone know if it's allowed as carry-on luggage? In American Airlines website they say carry-ons shouldn't exceed 45 linear inches (lenght + width + height), and that's 0.8 inches less than the size of this case (21.43 + 16.50 + 7.87 = 45.8).

http://www.ikelite.com/web_pages/digi_case.html

http://www.pelican.com/cases_detail.php?Case=1600

http://www.aa.com/content/travelInformatio...chorEvent=false

If it's allowed, it would be the perfect case IMO. You can take all your equipment with you, no risk of Pelican thiefs...

I use a cooler bag similar to Frazier's bag.

I highly recommend it. It works as a rinse tank when needed and is padded very well. It also fits very nicely in the overhead compartment on a flight .

The only drawback was, it didn't come with a shoulder strap. To make a shoulder strap, I got a little more than a yard/meter of webbing for weight belt use and put a plastic weight belt clip(for airport security reasons) on each end after I looped them through the grab handles at the side. Works perfectly.

Cooler bags are stealthy, nobody gives them a second look besides the security personnel. They are also very inexpensive and easily replaced when diving away from large urban centers.

I use the cooler bag too for the same reasons as Paul.