How do you carry your camera on a plane?

Greetings from St. Kitts, gang. On my way to the Caribbean Explorer II for a few weeks' shooting, and I'm happy to say my Pelican 1600 - and more importantly my brand new baby Bluefin - made it through the dreaded San Juan airport.

I was scared shitless as I have heard a LOT of bad things about theft through this gateway airport, but I had no problems. Actually, according to the TSA report that they put inside my case (letting you know they opened it), it actually was opened and rooted through about 10 minutes after I checked it in Boston. Honestly, i think a bigger issue than theft is some monkey is a uniform repacking the case wrong and breaking stuff. All my gear made it safely and it only cost me one of my two TSA locks.

Ultimately, I think the smaller the Pelican you check, the easier it is for it to disappear. For all sizes, I think it comes down to a simple law of averages. I've checked Pelicans of varying sizes 6 times this year through about a dozen hot zones from Miami to Queensland and I've had no problems. I also know this is gonna catch up with me eventually....

I use the new Pelican that will fit in the overhead. I put my video

camera inside the housing. I also put my digital camera inside it's

housing. I make sure both housing are well protected using form

and bubble wrap. I use a TSA lock to secure the Pelican case when

I'm on a plane to small to use the overhead and the carry on's need

to go in the cargo hold. I realize this will not work if you have something

large, say a FX-1. However, for my A1U and C-5060 camera, I can fit

both camera and housing into the Pelican for carry on.

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...

Paulo, that's the same case as my Gates VX2000 housing. I think you'd be very lucky indeed to get that on as hand luggage. I've had a Pelican 1550 on regularly as hand luggage but I don't think you could go much bigger than that.

Incidentally I just carried my Bluefin with Z1 inside as hand luggage from Phuket to Manado via Singapore on Silk Air in a Lowepro Computrekker Plus AW. Something like 20kg and no questions asked at any of the 4 boarding gates. Couldn't get the handles off the Bluefin in time so I just left them on and the housing just squeezed in (uncomfortably). With the handles off the housing this bag will be perfect. It's pricey though.