Packing for Travel

How do you pack for travel? I have a trip to Ireland coming up in a few months, and I'll be hauling the camera and housing, plus a rebreather and drysuit. I normally carry on the rebreather, but now debating whether to carry the 'breather or the camera and housing (A6500 in Nauticam housing)- it's fairly small. Hard case? All suggestions welcome!

TIA- H

Starting my packing right now actually, as Im leaving fr Indonesia soon. I have prepaid an extra suitcase for check in as one doesnt do. Camera (gh4), housing, external monitor + housing lights, a ton of batteries for everything, lenses and ports (wa and macro) diopters, compact tripod and all extra cables along with miscellaneous all goes in my carry on.

My drone (p4p) goes into checked luggage a long with arms, clamps, chargers, external hard drives, laptop, underwater tripod, toiletries and some clothes goes into one bag and my scuba gear goes into my scuba roller.

Carry on is too heavy (around 16kg) so when I get to the airport I remove some heavy items and place them in my pockets in my pants and jacket before checking in, then they go back into the carry on right after the process is complete.

Hope this helped.

Pick an airline that has reasonable charges for the extra bag(s) you will need. Then decide whether you love your camera rig or your breather more - whichever one wins gets to go as hand luggage. Hard case the other, check it in, and give yourself an extra day at the destination before you plan to start diving so the bags have time to catch you if they get lost.

For reference I normally put the revo in a dive tub with the bailout regs and other small and delicate items wedged down the side wrapped in my undersuit. Second bag for drysuit, fins, lights, clothes and whatever didn't fit in the tub or doesn't need a hard case. Then camera rig fully constructed in a carryon backpack, and a shoulder "purse" with laptop, batteries and other electronics. Be nice to the check in agents and get the credit card ready to pay excess fees if they start getting excited about the weight. Make a "uff" noise when you lift your checked bag onto the scale, to give the impression that the backpack you're carrying doesn't weigh as much as the tub. If it looks like they are routinely weighing carryon at the checkin desk, get someone else to mind your backpack while you checkin (or go the pockets as per the above).

Good luck!

For two divers:

1 All dive gear in two wheeled dive bags

2. All housings, ports, strobes, etc in large plastic tub (brand name "ActionPacker")

3. Camera bodies, lens in carry on.

4. All else in a suit case.

5. Fly business class.

Sounds all amazing apart for 5.

spent all my money on camera equipment to afford biz class! lol

For two divers:

1 All dive gear in two wheeled dive bags

2. All housings, ports, strobes, etc in large plastic tub (brand name "ActionPacker")

3. Camera bodies, lens in carry on.

4. All else in a suit case.

5. Fly business class.

1. Rebreather (complete) in the hold. (23kg Bag #1)
2. Drysuit, Fins, other bits, clothes etc (23kg Bag #2)
3. 'Carry on' 1530 Pelicase wheelie with camera housing, lights etc and as much as I can fit (and do the same at checking as Pajjen to get it within limits)
4. 'Personal Item' - (depending on Airline, I have a lowpro 30ltr backpack or for my next trip a Tenba Cooper 13 DSLR) all the camera, laptop, drives, cables etc etc

Depends on how/with whom you fly and what are the carry-on rules
European usual 8 kilos --> camera has to go as checked luggage
European unusual 20+ Kilo --> get a photo backpack or trolley and bring it in the plane

If you need to send the camera as checked luggage then i suggest a Pelicase for the camera rig, maybe together with delicate Rebreather parts
If you have more than 15 kilo carry on then housing, strobes, hard disks, chargers, laptop in the photo backpack/trolley, alrms, cables, spare parts in one of the luggages

I can store my Poseidon SE7EN in a 1610 Pelicase, wing and backplate, fins, wetsuit, mask go in the same big suitcase (will be more than 23 kilos/50 lbs)
Second suitcase has cloth and other stuff (maybe drysuit) and if carry-on is not possible then the second pelicase for the camera rig

1 Messenger bag (if allowed as 2nd carry-on) for the laptop, noise cancelling headphones, newspaper

The trick is to check first the luggage rules and start to make some math, probably cheaper to pay additional checked suitcase than overweight carry-on
Probably not cheaper, but not much more expensive to fly business with higher luggage/carry-on rules and much more comfortable

I would not recommend a Pelicase carry-on as the heavy trolley will make limited carry-on weight even worse, a photo backpack is lighter.

Guerilla warefare:

Buy trousers with zipped cargo pockets and a photographers/fishermans vest with a lot of pockets. Then store all heavy lenses, the camera, tickets, passport, etc in it to lower carry-on weight

You can also put a cord on your housing and hang it around your neck as a camera is allowed as carry on.
Instead of a expensive photo backpack/trolley you can get also a normal trolley and a roll of bubble wrap to wrap everything well.
However, get prepared to pull everything out of the carry-on during the security check, agents there hate trolleys full with electronic stuff ...

US Ailines usually have no weight limit for carry-on, so a photo trolley will work fine, but if you have a inner-european flight to Ireland then your carry-on will be most likely limited to 8 kilo. Check that in advance!

Chris

Thanks all. I'm flying Delta Honolulu to Dublin and on return, single stop in Atlanta. 2 carryons- no one ever weighs. I've usually carried the Meg on, but will likely check it and carry on the camera and housing and a backpack with clothes, checking the Meg and another bag of stuff, which should keep me within my allowed baggage .