One Less Pelican

Hi Guys,

Having a break in Milan airport so thought I would share in this little gem of gear I recently picked up. A friend who has recently taken stock of two RED cameras was looking for a way to carry them on aircraft as hand carry as opposed to checking them in. He found the following; sorry the internet computers here block me from entering a written standard wetpixel style link so click this:

http://www.tamrac.com/5258.htm

I recently got one as my friend was raving about them. Cost me £125 sterling. I am currently traveling with it and one check in bag. In the Tamrac I have the Z1, wide sony lens, three NP-F970, battery charger, head phones, assorted lenses and polarizers etc and the 17 inch MacBookPro. I need to do some work on a small project while on this trip so this bag is great. It has a front pouch for all your passport and travel documents so is pretty much self contained. It looks a bit bulky but it fits perfectly in the overheads and I have only flown on a small airline with it, bigger airlines = bigger overheads.

Just thought I would share that.

Cheers,

Mark.

I have one of these. Used it as a carry on for a trip to Sipidan. The Laptop pushes against your back when you where it. This resulted in my laptop being busted. Specifically it wouldn't eject CDs

It was very heavy when loaded. I really got to dislike carrying it around.

I would look for a similar model that also has roller wheels. Would make a great difference. For me I bought the small pelican roller carry on. Fits in the overhead of even many small commuter planes. You can get as much in it as the above shown photo-back pack. Also if you are forced to check it, it is a hard case that can be locked. (Very useful if you have to gate check.

The downside to the pelican is that you can't wear it when you need to. I rigged a sling though it is not an ideal solution.

I should add this backpack is fat when fully loaded and I have had trouble with some airline overhead compartments.

Actually I've found I can pack more into my Lowepro Computrekker Plus than I can into my Pelican 1510 roller carryon.

But Dave does have a good point about these photo backpacks getting heavy. Think I screwed up one of my shoulders during my travels to Cocos Island from HK (had packed my entire Gates HC7 housing, WA port, light heads, laptop, etc in it). Transiting through various airports, I had a bad habit of not using both shoulder straps and would carry the 15kg+ pack over one shoulder. I should have gotten the wheeled version .

And fully bloated, the pack wouldn't squeeze into Boeing 747/ 737 overhead bins (had to remove a few thiings to slim it down - the padded waist strap would always snag). No problems on the newer 777's or airbus's which have wider openings for the overhead bins.

Would have been nice if I had the roller version.

Pak, how do you pack your housing in? And where do you pack your dome/flat ports? Just curious. If I can reduce the bags I carry to each trip by 1, it would really help.

I have just bought this so my experience thus far is limited. Thanks for the pointers though. Whilst I like to reduce the weight of check in I will not be loading, or trying to load this bag with as much as possible. I can understand that is would be then that with no room for flexing that the rigidity would have a negative effect on a laptop. It also depends on how tight you have the shoulder straps pulled in. Either way it will be something I will be very aware of.

Thanks again,

Mark.

I have a Lowepro roller, that is about the same size as the Computrekker, and I would much prefer a Computrekker. I can't seem to find my bag on the Lowepro site anymore, and maybe its for a good reason.

Here are a couple of problems I have had with the roller bag:

1) The excess from the shoulder straps always gets stuck under the wheels when rolling.

2) The collapsible handle and wheel wells 'wasted' space inside the bag.

3) The wheels sometimes made it impossible to get it into overhead compartments.

4) It was not very stable when rolling. It was like a SUV on ice going around a corner.

Just some food for thought for anyone considering a roller.

However, I must state that I also take a 1510 as my carry-on. The camera bag is my 'personal' item. This combination has been working very well for me for my past few trips.

After checking in, since the camera bag does end up getting heavy, I just take it off my back and put it on top of the 1510. I have never had a problem carrying both of them on a plane.

I use a lowepro computrekker plus, agree with above and would like to add the following: I carry my laptop+ charger, passport, pen tickets plus Aquatica housing, 8" dome port with shade , Macro port and extension ring, 2 inon strobes, focus light. D200 & a lens either the 10-17 or the 105, other lenses go into roller carryon with regulator and dive computer, batteries and charger. and any other needed camera gear. Backpack weighs around 40+/- 4 pounds loaded. wish there is a better way.

Pak, how do you pack your housing in? And where do you pack your dome/flat ports? Just curious. If I can reduce the bags I carry to each trip by 1, it would really help.

Mark - sorry for the threadjack...

Tim remember my dome and overall setup is TINY compared to that monster Aquatica dome and equally monster hood.

On my last dive trip to Bali, I was able to carry the following in my LowePro CompuTrekker Plus.

S&S 350D housing w/ Canon 400D body inside (handles detached)

2 x Inon Z-240 strobes

Athena 17cm dome+15mm extension

TTL Converter

100mm macro port

8 battery charger, plus 16 batteries

Fisheye focus light

12" laptop

(handles and arms go in my dive bag)

In a separate Lowepro Stealthreporter 200 camera bag (Canon 40D, 100mm macro lens, 10-17 fisheye, 24-105mm L lens, and 50mm 1.4)

On my Cocos trip, I had the entire video setup in the backpack and the above in my Pelican 1510.

Mark - sorry for the threadjack...

Best,

Mark.

I forgot to add that I use a Tamrac Velocity 8 as my "personal item". I carry my D2X, 17-55, either 12-24 or 10-17, either 60 mm micro or 18-200, and Jobo Giga Vue pro in it. It does get heavy but has a very good sling strap. I then use my pelican roller as my carry on. I sometimes gate check it.