Exactly why is it a bad idea to travel with your camera in the housing?

As I bang my head, day after day trying to figure out how to cram all my camera gear into a viable carryon for my trip to the Maldives in 10 days, I am starting to consider all possibilities.

If I put my camera body in the Ikelite housing for transport, it actually saves a substantial amount of much needed space. However, everything I read says that I'm not supposed to do that, but no one seems to explain why. I dont get it. The housing is purpose-made for the camera to go inside it, so whats so bad about putting it inside for transport? Its not like the camera is loosely jostling and bouncing around inside the housing. Certainly, i'm not going to be sealing the thing up airtight since the dome port won't be installed.

Any thoughts?

As I bang my head, day after day trying to figure out how to cram all my camera gear into a viable carryon for my trip to the Maldives in 10 days, I am starting to consider all possibilities.

 

If I put my camera body in the Ikelite housing for transport, it actually saves a substantial amount of much needed space. However, everything I read says that I'm not supposed to do that, but no one seems to explain why. I dont get it. The housing is purpose-made for the camera to go inside it, so whats so bad about putting it inside for transport? Its not like the camera is loosely jostling and bouncing around inside the housing. Certainly, i'm not going to be sealing the thing up airtight since the dome port won't be installed.

 

Any thoughts?

F = MA. Force equals mass times acceleration. When the baggage monkeys drop your luggage, your plexy shelf for the camera is going to break. Constant vibration will also test the camera support.

I pack my housing solid with other stuff; no wasted space. Do not seal the housing. It is not made to withstand internal pressure.

Take two aspirin, have a beer, and stop banging your head.

Bob

Consider where there are resting spots in the housing for the camera to align it (usuallly the front of the housing) Unless you are going ski jumping with your backpack, the force exerted on the screw when you walk around isn't that much. I've been carrying my housing with camera inside for years, and with video rigs, there's often NO support braces other than the base screw. How strong are the base screws? Have you been to a sport event where there are many big telephoto lenses around? Many just lug their cameras with 8+lbs lenses on a tripod or monopod using that one screw.

plexy shelf? i usually pack a body in the housing (20D in Aquatica) in a rolling carryon, sometimes with a lens and port. i remove an O-ring if port attached, or use a vented port cover so there are no pressure issues. if small planes are involved i carry the cameras and lenses and check the housing - would not put the body, and certainly not with a lens attached in a checked bag -- but i really want to carry the housing, lenses, bodies, and one flash with me even if the other stuff is checked.

have almost always gotten carryon on board and no problems with equipment

As I bang my head, day after day trying to figure out how to cram all my camera gear into a viable carryon for my trip to the Maldives in 10 days, I am starting to consider all possibilities.

 

If I put my camera body in the Ikelite housing for transport, it actually saves a substantial amount of much needed space. However, everything I read says that I'm not supposed to do that, but no one seems to explain why. I dont get it. The housing is purpose-made for the camera to go inside it, so whats so bad about putting it inside for transport? Its not like the camera is loosely jostling and bouncing around inside the housing. Certainly, i'm not going to be sealing the thing up airtight since the dome port won't be installed.

 

Any thoughts?

I always put my camera and one lens in the housing, then put the housing in a wheeled carry-on. No problems. Camera is better protected, as well as the housing. With checked luggage, anything that can be broken eventually will be. Besides, even if nothing else shows up, the camera system does, and that's the most difficult item to replace on a trip.

I recommend not to, when the camera is inside the housing it is tighly fitted, that mean any impact is directly to the camera body and trust me a camera is way more fragile than a housing, the other thing is that in this scenario, should TSA drop your luggage (and they will) if something external is in contact with a push button or lever , it might push this button or lever and internally the impact will be transmitted straigh to the controls. now theses controls are meant to be pushed gently with finger, not impacted by a metal shaft... I do like Deep6, stuff it with gidzillion stuff like batteries, charger, close up lens, sync cords, denture, fake eyeball and spare kidney (I do like to party).

I have been in this industry since 1990 and have seen my share of housings, not only as a underwater photographer, but as part of my work at Aquatica, and yes I have seen this kind of damage, and yes that is why this is mentionned in the owner manual of the housing. BTW, A lot of the stuff that eventually end up in the owners manual of a product is based on actual event, such as little gems in the Nikonos manual that said something like, do not open back door of camera while camera is submerged and my favorite about not changing lens underwater on the Nikonos. Both likely would put a wry smile on most of us, but I actually had both situation show up at my camera repair shop in the 80's, the worst is that both still tought that Nikon should have written << DO NOT OPEN UNDERWATER >> on the door or /and the lens and therefore were the party fully responsible for their predicament. Man did I ever learn a lot of thing about the low side of human nature in thoses 10 years as a camera repair technician .

As a rule, If I travel any distance I won't even transport the camera body with a lens attached to it, been there already, pulling out a camera body with out any front and its innard exposed is a sobering experience, the longer the lens the more leverage it has.

Too funny. In this day and age of warnings I am amazed housing don't have a warning plastered on them not to open underwater. LOL

I never travel with it in the housing for reasons Jean has stated. I put sync cords and softer things like that in the housing in ziplocks to protect them.

Cheers

Todd

Too funny. In this day and age of warnings I am amazed housing don't have a warning plastered on them not to open underwater. LOL

 

I never travel with it in the housing for reasons Jean has stated. I put sync cords and softer things like that in the housing in ziplocks to protect them.

 

Cheers

 

Todd

Todd, it’s mainly because the Nikonos were marketed as underwater camera, not really by Nikon, but by countless salesman whereas housings for camera are sold as just that, a housing to protect the camera from water, given that the user knowingly realize (or so we hope) that the camera inside is sensitive to water, there is no incentive to change port of memory card underwater nor any misguided hint whatsoever that the whole thing is meant to be completely accessible underwater, unlike what a specialized underwater camera might be interpreted to be. Heck I had a bloke (who did a perfectly normal dive and had reasonable result to show for it) show up who sincerely thought he did everything by the book including the rinsing procedure for underwater specialized camera, he thought not so cleverly that the best way to thoroughly rinse the camera was to remove the lens and open the door and then proceed to flush it with tap water… in these instance I kind of looked around to see if there was no hidden TV camera from these gag shows and then had to concentrate on some sad memories of morbid origin to prevent me for laughing out loud in the face of the poor sap!

BTW, A lot of the stuff that eventually end up in the owners manual of a product is based on actual event, such as little gems in the Nikonos manual that said something like, do not open back door of camera while camera is submerged and my favorite about not changing lens underwater on the Nikonos.

Everytime someone does something outlandish that no one could think is possible, rounds of paragraphs and pages get added to laws and contracts the same way. You do how to wonder just a bit how someone who would open the back of a Nikonos underwater was able to actually dive without hurting themselves somehow

in these instance I kind of looked around to see if there was no hidden TV camera from these gag shows and then had to concentrate on some sad memories of morbid origin to prevent me for laughing out loud in the face of the poor sap!

I suggest thinking of the last time an expensive piece of equipment drowned. It stops you from laughing and the tears that well up in your eyes shows you really are empathizing with the person.

plexy shelf? i usually pack a body in the housing (20D in Aquatica) in a rolling carryon, sometimes with a lens and port. i remove an O-ring if port attached, or use a vented port cover so there are no pressure issues.

have almost always gotten carryon on board and no problems with equipment

Let's tally up the people who do pack the camera in the housing for travel: ALL respondants have an Al housing not an Ikelite like Marv800 has. That plexy shelf. How many people pack their camera in an Ikelite housing for travel?

Bob

I've always traveled with one of my camera bodies in the housing (no lens, no port), not just with my Nauticams but with Subal and Nexus too. But my housing with camera always rides in a nice cushy carry-on pelican case that I generally am able to get in the overhead. Every once in a while they nail me and make me gate check it. My second body rides in a camera backpack that I cram under the seat in front of me.

Once I dropped my 5D which was inside a Subal... dropped it from the camera table onto a bare steel deck on the Nautilus Explorer as we did a big roll. My dome did not fare well, but no problem with the camera body.

We've all seen how the baggage guys love to throw luggage, actually going out of their way to drop it rather than set it down. Jean mentions he's seen damage from this, and I believe it, perhaps I have just been lucky (so far).

Cheers,

Cp

I suggest thinking of the last time an expensive piece of equipment drowned. It stops you from laughing and the tears that well up in your eyes shows you really are empathizing with the person.

Nowadays I would think of my just purchased a week prior sailboat going down with all my day to day cameras, lenses, flashes and gears, laptop etc.. and getting told the insurance covers the boat and related damages only if its on my property, folks get a written commitments when you add something to your insurrance policy, spoken words are just that when it comes to insurrance company. anyway I'm drifting here (again), so back to the post.

Nowadays I would think of my just purchased a week prior sailboat going down with all my day to day cameras, lenses, flashes and gears, laptop etc.. and getting told the insurance covers the boat and related damages only if its on my property, folks get a written commitments when you add something to your insurrance policy, spoken words are just that when it comes to insurrance company. anyway I'm drifting here (again), so back to the post.

Don't say that!!!!!! Ughhh! It's hurricane season!

Don't say that!!!!!! Ughhh! It's hurricane season!

That's the good things about being in Canada, no hurricane, but then again we have maybe 3 months of good sailing weather, ah crap! maybe hurricane aren't so bad!

I've packed one camera body in the Ike housing (front lens cover on the body vs. a lens, ditto the non-waterproof cap on the lens port of the housing, with the housing clamped shut but NO rear main o-ring in place) with both in the carry-on I try to lug most of my camera gear in. The only worry I've had is the controls impacting camera buttons if the bag gets somewhat squashed in the overhead bin...

The Ike TTL circuitry block that screw-mounts the camera to it does so via the tripod screw, so I really don't think that's a breakage concern. As for all the 'fitting pins' in the housing that hold the camera in alignment transferring impacts from the housing into the body...that's true...but no different than worrying about impacting the camera body directly, which is why both are in a padded compartment.

Aside from the control issue against buttons, treat the housed camera the same way you'd treat the camera itself in terms of packing. And some of those control shafts can be extended/rotated out of the way, while pushbuttons do have springs that help moderate any impact against them from the outside.

Wouldn't consider it in checked luggage though...but then again, I haven't been willing to check the camera body or housing in the first place regardless of how they're packed. And I've had a sum total of 3 vacations with my rig, so perhaps I've simply been lucky.

I also am on the team that thinks there is no problem. And I can attest to that from experience, I've had (and carried in more that 100 trips by land air and sea) the following housings: 2x Ikelite (for Nikon D90 and F100), Sea&Sea (for Nikon F100) and Subal (for Nikon D2X). I've used each of these cameras for more than 5 years and I have always carried them (as others did too) inside the housing. I always put my camera (inside its housing) in the CARRY-ON bag, which I know won't be dropped.

But let's use some logic here, this is an aluminum housing with the camera snugly fit inside, if you drop your carry-on bag with enough force to damage the housing and the camera inside of it, wouldn't it be safe to assume that the same impact would break the camera even if it was outside the housing? And that probably together with all your lenses too?

I did ten years of traveling with my Nikon F5's inside their Seacam housings - with the housings, along with my strobes, packed in my check-in baggage. No damage to cameras or housings or ports, or strobes or any other gear packed that way, ever. My check-in containers were, and still are, Coleman coolers with a layer of high quality closed-cell foam inside the cooler walls and with additional pieces of foam between the pieces of equipment. The coolers cost $28 each years ago at Walmart. The foam cost more but adds a lot of extra protection. And a cooler isn't such an attention grabber to miscreants as a big pelican case. The cooler/foam combo also weighs less than most other check-in options, so more of the check-in weight allowance goes to contents, not the packaging.

My new D700 housings are a bit smaller and I have carried one or both of them, with camera bodies inside, in my carry-on backpack on the two trips I've done with them so far. But eventually they'll start traveling in the coolers.

Fred

My cameras travel in their housings.

My cameras travel in their housings.

Same here. Using a Hugy I close the back of the housing but I don´t tighten the screws as I don´t like the o-ring being strongly compressed too long.

Since I always carry my camera bags and do not check them I see no reason why I shouldn't carry one camera in the housing....chances are if I or TSA drop my bag(s) my laptop and spare 7D will be the first casualties. I did ship my camera inside the housing for repair to Backscatter once and was reprimanded....won't do that again!

Happy travels!

Mike