Luggage Suggestions

It seems like a lot of people advise against a checked Storm or Pelican case but I'm curious how many have actually had thefts as a result of this approach. I've used a backpack to transport my rig as a carry on but these days I've been traveling with family and kids and it has been much easier to just check my housing in a storm case. In the past couple of years I've done this on multiple trips to Hawaii as well as Eleuthera and GrandCayman. I've had no problems checking my underwater gear. Am I really just tempting fate?

Try a trip to Africa some time. In SA, I'd give it about a 25% chance of getting your check-in rummaged just for having international stickers on it.

You'd consider yourself unlucky to lose your gear to theft on the way to Hawaii, but travelling like that to poorer nations, especially the more corrupt ones, is an invitation to get rumbled. It's all about where your're going.

I've used a pelican case and have travelled in the US, the Bahamas, ams Costa Rica. So far so good ... knock on wood, knock on wood, knock on wood. I stood by the TSA screening area and after my bag made it through inspection, I handed the TSA agents some of those tie lock things which they put on the case and sealed it. I just cut them off when I got to my destination. After reading these posts I have a couple of questions 1) would a tie locked pelican case attract more attentino, and 2) would and actual combination lock work better. Thoughts?

I got so sick of security people making me unpack my housing, I have now carried in my hand for the last couple of years. No questions asked. If you have a Hugycheck pump be very careful how you say the word 'pump' to someone who doesn't speak English as a first language (often in America) because it can easily sound like the 'b' word. I nearly got arrested in Zagreb!

I use a LowePro carry-on, and put a housing and a general-purpose lens/dome with one strobe and enough grease, chargers etc into that.

My Pelican was opened by TSA, and stuff removed, in Guam. It now lives permanently in my study.

I use a North Face haul sack, with other photographic pieces surrounded by clothes and reinforced by fins, as check-in. When its compression straps are done up, it seems a pretty robust package. There is a wheelie version for the physically challenged, too. I put cable ties through the zipper: so far (several years) it has not been opened after check-in.

Tim

I've been really happy with my LowePro Roller 3. Quite inconspicuous and holds my Subal D200 housing, Dome, Macro port, 2x YS350, canister light, loads of batteries and chargers, etc. very securely. I also like that the way the partitions work most of the big items just drop in and it's really obvious where to replace them. So I've found that even if TSA opens it up and examines things everything tends to get put back where it belongs.

 

Clinton

How are you able to take that onboard as that bag is over sized for a carryon by most airlines (in the US at least) standards.