Hard case and travel suggestions please

[sothoth]

I've never had nice enough camera equipment that I was too worried about traveling with before, but now that I've invested in a dSLR and a few reasonably expensive lenses, I'd like to take travel considerations more seriously.

Does anyone have any suggestions on buying a hard case? Or is this just a "get what your stuff fits in" question? There are pretty expensive aluminum body cases and plastic ones. Plastic seems OK to me.]

Also, when any of you take flights with your camera equipment, do you take them on the plane with you as a carry-on or do you check it? I'm paranoid about checking it, but then again I can see a TSA agent poking through my stuff at the security checkpoint and getting crud on my sensor, my lenses, or worse...

 

[TomHuck-wa]

I made my own gear case from an old samsonite suitcase and a foam mattress cover, inletted the foam with a hotwire in a soldering gun. I have room for two cameras and 4 lenses, along with filters, spare battery, flash attachment, and extra cards, etc. Mark or paint the case clearly, but dont label it as photo gear. I had it taken from the airport luggage rack by a young kid, it looked like his suitcase, he was in a hurry. I got all my gear back the next day,but nearly had a coronary till it was returned.

 

[shoedumas]

I strongly recommend Pelican cases, because they are very durable, and they guarantee what you put in them. You can check them out at www.pelican.com, and I even found a good one for a DSLR that you might want. http://pelican.com/cases_detail.php?Case=1200 Try some of those out for starters.
-Drew

 

[firemedic0135]

I know for a fact that the pelican cases are tough as hell and worth the money.We use them at the Fire Dept for drug boxes and even we cant tear them up or break the contents.Little thin glass vials of meds getting beat to hell and they make it out ok,so I cant seem to think that they are perfect for cameras(thats were they got there start anyway).

For cheap you can go down to Lowes,Home depot,Mabye wal-mart and look in the tool box section and you should find a nice alluminum case that will work nicely.It comes with a ton of foam you can cut and make a custom fit for your gear.I got one for my paintball gear for 20 bux.

 

[Alex_B]

Does anyone have any suggestions on buying a hard case? Or is this just a "get what your stuff fits in" question? There are pretty expensive aluminum body cases and plastic ones. Plastic seems OK to me.]

Also, when any of you take flights with your camera equipment, do you take them on the plane with you as a carry-on or do you check it? I'm paranoid about checking it, but then again I can see a TSA agent poking through my stuff at the security checkpoint and getting crud on my sensor, my lenses, or worse...

well, I have the same problem as you more or less. I also started a thread on this not too long ago

I came to the comclusion that you need a hard case once your gear does not go throough as hand luggage anymore. Here in Europe, handluggage is very restricted in size and weight, in particular on shorter intra-European flights. I am quite at the limit at the moment, only my tripod and a charger go into the checked in luggage, the camera plus 4 lenses (including a 300mm), lots of filters and a small laptop go into the cabin luggage (in a bagpack) ... that leave no space for any other handluggage though.

My idea is , to avoid checking in any pieces of lugggage which contain glass, like filters, lenses, or sensors, like camera bodies, or harddrives.

 

[dewey]

I agree - if it doesn't all fit go with the hard case. I would think you would need a whole lot of gear to need a hard case though. I use a Tamrac expedition backpack to carry just about all of my photo gear which goes into the overhead bin. (It's tight on the CRJ's). I have my laptop and power supplies in a laptop bag under my seat. This kills my two carry ons so I must check my clothes, but who really needs extra clothes anyway?

So other than the few times a year they do "misplace" my luggage this has worked well.

 

[shingfan]

Also, when any of you take flights with your camera equipment, do you take them on the plane with you as a carry-on or do you check it? I'm paranoid about checking it, but then again I can see a TSA agent poking through my stuff at the security checkpoint and getting crud on my sensor, my lenses, or worse...

i dont think they would be stupid enough to do that....they have X-ray machine.....they only thing that they would do is ask you to take your equpiment out of the bag for scanning.....they wont tear them apart into pieces......and i would keep all my camaera equpiment with me at all time if i can carry it with me....unless you have a case full of equpiment for business purposes....then of course you have no choice but to check it in as a luggage with a case

i'm not sure how many cameras and lense you are carrying with you when you travell...but it takes a lot to fill a camera backpack

 

[sothoth]

i dont think they would be stupid enough to do that....they have X-ray machine.....they only thing that they would do is ask you to take your equpiment out of the bag for scanning

i'm not sure how many cameras and lense you are carrying with you when you travell...but it takes a lot to fill a camera backpack

Thanks for the input. A backpack is a great option in almost every respect except I'm not sure if they provide much protection. I'm assuming stuff gets bumped and smashed on planes if you bring it on the plane as a carryon.

Also, when I traveled with my film SLR, I had a 50mm lens on the body, a 24mm in the bag, and a 75-300 in the bag. They asked me to remove the lens from the body, but they also took the caps off the zoom and looked down the barrel. I guess they know you could store explosives in it or something, if you were very clever. That was pre-9/11, so I'm guessing they're even more invasive now, but maybe that's not the case. If they'd allow me to disassemble anything I don't have much to worry about.

 

[sothoth]

I strongly recommend Pelican cases

I took a look at their web site and I think that's the way to go, those things look bullet proof. I'll also look at a tamrac backpack for hiking with gear, so thanks as well to shingfan for that suggestion.

 

[Alex_B]

Thanks for the input. A backpack is a great option in almost every respect except I'm not sure if they provide much protection. I'm assuming stuff gets bumped and smashed on planes if you bring it on the plane as a carryon.

well, as carron you have almost full control, since YOU carry it yourself. Just keep your eyes on the overhead bin you stuffed your things in so no idiot drops it from above there ... but in principle things are way safer as a carry on luggage than checked in ... if you ever saw how they handle checked in luggage ... even if the word fragile is printed in red bold letters on it ... you would never ever check anything in

Also, when I traveled with my film SLR, I had a 50mm lens on the body, a 24mm in the bag, and a 75-300 in the bag. They asked me to remove the lens from the body, but they also took the caps off the zoom and looked down the barrel. I guess they know you could store explosives in it or something, if you were very clever. That was pre-9/11, so I'm guessing they're even more invasive now, but maybe that's not the case. If they'd allow me to disassemble anything I don't have much to worry about.

Well, I never had to remove any lens from my camera ... and I do fly alot. Once however I had to get to a special inspection since the girl at Charles de Gaulle Airport security did not know what a 300 mm tele lens is ... she wanted me to put the batteries in and switch the "device" (the lens) on .. whcih of course was not possible

 

[dewey]

The advantage of a carry is on you get to protect the bag, and they do have some padding for the equipment. You never have to leave the bag. I am very vocal when somebody starts trying to shove their oversized bag in the compartment with my bag.

I fly almost every other week and I've never had an issue with my carry on, except for the occasional new security screener... but as soon as I let them know it's fragile glass they take it easy.

If you get a pelican case and you check it, you have no control over it. It might be protected from explosions and floods but it isn't protected from the baggage handlers and the pawn shop. Nobody puts dirty laundry in a Pelican case so it sticks out as something expensive no matter what.

If you get a pelican case get a cheap suitcase to put it in! :thumbup:

 

[dewey]

Charles de Gaulle Airport

LOL - You're lucky to have made it out alive.

 

[Jeremy Z]

I just read a book on digital wedding photography, in which the author does a lot of on location weddings on tropical islands.

He recommends the Pelican model 1510, as it was designed around the standard carry-on size. Pelicans are waterproof, and as shockproof as can be made today.

This would be the choice for airline use. The

 

[usayit]

In my opinion, there's only one case that is worth its cost for airline travel. Pelican 1510. Its approved for airline carry on... water proof.. shock proof. Mine is serving my system very well for long term storage as well as travel.

I recommend the 1510 with the padded dividers ~not~ the pluck foam.... Bring along a bicycle chain and lock as well.

btw.. its cheaper than most soft travel cases from tamrac and lowepro.

 

[sothoth]

she wanted me to put the batteries in and switch the "device" (the lens) on .. whcih of course was not possible

When I fly out of SFO, which I do a lot for work, it's hit or miss on inspections.

I once travelled with an engineer from my company who is over 80 years old, and his metal hip (he'd just had it replaced) kept triggering the metal detector, and they had him in his boxers with his pants almost down to his knees so they could run the wand over the area and be sure he wasn't stowing a bomb in his rear end. It was clearly embarrassing for him, and I can't help but think there was a better way for them to have done their job than they did that day.

Once they opened the back of a point and shoot film camera when my wife and I were going to Utah. They exposed the film in doing so, much to my horror. I don't know if it was accidental or not, but either way we weren't happy.

Once they took apart a suitcase full of dirty laundry and set it all out on a table, garment by garment, to look through it. After they did all that they say "hmm, I don't see what looked suspicious on the xray machine." All I could think was that it served them right to have to sort through my underwear, even though I could have killed one of them for handling the situation like they did.

So lets just say I'm a little paranoid about what they'll do with my camera. Most of the time it goes smoothly but about 10% of the time they do something really stupid or offensive.

I guess I'll just have to monitor their inspection and be ready to yell loudly.