packing and transporting my rig

I recently got a Pelicase 1535 (the newer Air variant of the popular 1510) with the Trek pac inserts and ThinkTank lid organiser to replace my ThinkTank Security V2 as I’ve had a couple of issues in the past with its size (56x35x23) and over zealous gate staff.

But man the 1535 is just too small. Not sure I can use it :-(.

As seen from the photos above you have to almost strip the housings down to to get them to fit.

I need something that is 22cm deep to take the Inferno housing standing up otherwise it takes up almost all the 1535 alone. I’ve had a couple of CineBag camera bags but if I’m honest apart from their newer UW series, their bags are pretty poor compared to ThinkTank or Tenba.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hi

I have Nauticam D500 which is 9.4'' height and 13.7'' width. no hard case or soft case is enough for this.

So when I traveled from Israel to Mexico, I just carried housing with the 9'' heavy glass dome with a weapon strap.

camera in the housing

there are no rules for camera weight when it's on you.

5 flights, Internal and Trans Atlantic. no one ask any question.

I just padded the dome with thick bubbles nylon

it's ok only when you go directly to diving safari. not recommended for long trip

I hate to check my housing so I fit it in a carryon. I used a small cooler bag and padded it with a yoga mat. Nauticam 5D4 housing, macro port, SMC, two Inon Z220 strobes, and a spotter light = 15.0 lb.

I just bought the Cinebags "Lens Smuggler" bag for my camera, lenses, laptop, batteries, and other misc electronics. That one is pushing 17 lb, but I'll put a lens in my pocket if they want to weigh it.

I have used a soft sided cooler with good success. Heavy though, no way around that!

What size pelican cases do you use for your underwater rig? Thanks!

I use a samsonite cosmolite, it’s light,  have wheels, strong (using it every year for at least 10 years) housing camera strobes macro&mini dome, lenses, all fits. I have a multi pockets jacket inside in case I need to settle it to 7kgs.

Brilliant ideas here....

I know it's an old topic but I would like to explain my experience in my last two trips.

Nowadays I am travelling with the diving equipment (drysuit incluided if needed) and the camera rig in this way. For the diving equipment I am using a normal lightweight samsonite suitcase, I adjust the weight between 20-23 kg depending the air companies. And for the camera rig....The housing, big macro port, with the camera, and the lens inside, with 2 clapms and an arm as a handle, and an attached strap hanging from my shoulder like a bag. This way passing the airport filter it's pretty smooth. The rest of the rig goes into a cabin suitcase with me during all the time. There is place for the two strobes, arms, clamps, chargers, batteries, dome port, lenses, laptop.

Only in the Madrid airport I had some issues with the cabin suitcase and I had to empty all the elctronics  and pass the scanner with 4 different trays.

And I had another issue with the weight of the cabin suitcase (16kg) in the Tenerife north airport, I usually hide that suitcase when I go to the airport check- in, just because I don´t want them to weight it, but this time I was distracted talking with a friend. The flight was to El Hierro with a small turbo propeller plane and they only admit a 6 kg cabin suitcase. So they offer me to put for free some of the stuff in the cabin suitcase to the big suitcase, I did it, suffering for my laptop, and the strobes, which arrived with no more issues.

This is why in my next trip I am going to change the cabin suitcase for a big camera backpack, one of my partners use to travel with this bag with no issues untill now, nobody looks at the backpacks hanging for your back and if they do they assume it's not that heavy.

Backpacks are not 100% save either these days. Mine usually weighs about 12kg and most of the time noone even takes a second look, but it's been weighed before. Luckily when I showed all the camera equipment inside the lady at the counter allowed me take it. Other times I've had more trouble, so I now also wear a vest which I could put a bunch of lenses into the pockets, in case someone kicks a fuss.

Great ideas in this thread!

pelican 1535 trekpak system is a good idea, however it weight around 14kg, I afraid get caught at the check in gate every time lol

I've been planning and trying all sorts of configurations to get the main components of my system (camera, housing, lenses, ports, domes and strobes) into my IATA compliant cabin back pack.  It all goes in nicely as long as the camera is in the housing.

Housing manufacturers stress that cameras should not be mounted in the housing for travel.  I'm using a GH5 in Nauticam housing with locking mounting tray. For travel I plan to disengage the dials and power switch controls so any shocks or bumps are not transmitted through the fine machined and delicate components of the housing. I cannot foresee a high risk of the luggage receiving a shock that would shatter the tripod threaded mounting plate with the camera mounted.

What are the risks of traveling with the camera in the housing? How prevalent is the disregard of this manufacturer guidance within the community?

A tricky one.

Initially I went with the recommendation: don't travel with the camera in the housing. But as travel has become increasingly problematic with tons of gear, I now often travel with the camera in the housing, in a roller Pelican case (the 1510), in the cabin. I do though pack the housing out with bubble wrap so minimise any vibration as much as possible.

I would not do this if the housing had to be hold-loaded.

So far, so good....

The primary risk of traveling with the camera in the housing is the stress on the camera mount. It may result in misalignment of the buttons and controls between camera and housing. I experienced this myself on an Ikelite housing in the past. Aperture and shutter speed wheels no longer engaged reliably.

On our recent Revillagigedos trip a few weeks ago, we used a ThinkTank Logistics Manager for my wife's 5Dmk3 rig, and the largest of their carry-on models for my GH5 rig. I ended up checking the GH5 as well. The ThinkTank semi hard cases seem to work very well when checked in, and they don't attract too much attention. I have been harassed at Cabo as well as Cairo with our pelican cases. I also left a GH5 body mounted in the housing. However, there is a difference between the 5 non-stop from Seattle to Cabo and the much longer multiple flights to Cairo or someplace in Asia. My sense is that the bigger, stiffer Logistics manager would be ok, but the smaller carry-on case might be iffy. In some places like the Philippines, some of the in-country travel will have the cases in pickup beds, where they can be exposed to bursts of rain or mud being splattered by other vehicles. Or, they may be stored on the deck of inter-island hydrofoils where they will be soaked with salt water. A Pelican is obviously a lot better for that kind of thing.

I have my EM-1 MkII inside the housing for travel in some configurations.  I use a think tank streetwalker hard drive and it fits the housing, Zen 170mm dome, 100mm dome,  flat port, 12-40, 8mm fisheye and 60mm macro with z Z-240 and the camera is in the housing - it seems pretty secure mounted on the Nauticam locking tray. 

I tried various combinations and didn't find that separating the port from the housing worked any better. Maybe it wouldn't work as well with a larger DSLR housing. I guess that is one advantage of a m4/3 system.
 
I got the ThinkTank dividers and lid organizer, mainly because I couldn't try the Pelican Trek Pak dividers in person and was a bit sceptical that they would bend as I wanted to accommodate the housing and dome port as shown. The lid organizer is excellent, much nicer than the Pelican mesh version, and will hold a laptop or tablet:
 

15 hours ago, imacro said:

Looks nice. Can it be a carry on? Would it fit a Sony A7c Nauticam with WWL-1B, CMC1 and 2 inon z330 with 2 arm floats?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The answer to that question really depends on where you are flying. In the US, carry-on is a bit of free for all and if you can get on early enough and squeeze it into the locker all is good, though if you are flying a commuter jet lockers are tiny and it'll be gate checked quite likely.  In Europe the size and weight limits may be strictly enforced.

The biggest downside to a Pelican is that the case itself is 4.5 kg.  The second downside is that it looks too big and heavy, even if it fits, so airline staff single it out. Anyway, I don’t carry this on, as fully packed it weighs just over 16 kg.  This is only for car trips for me. 

Moreover a Pelicase means valuable goods. I prefer an anonymous padded travel case