Bringing your gear on the plane: Should I have any worries?

padrepaul77 · Apr 3, 2013

Going to a bird festival next week in Galveston, and I'm bringing along my gear. The tripod and stuff will be stored in checked bags, but I'm a little concerned about my lenses. I have a long lens along with four others that fit nicely into a backpack; there's an attached velcro holder for the lens hood on the bag. I'd hope that would not be a problem but with Big Sis and the TSA I'm a little worried, as I haven't flown in a while and not with the longer lens I got a little over a year ago. I can't very well check that as I'd be very concerned it would be damaged and also don't want it out of my sight.

Hopefully this will be smooth, but should I call the airport, assuming I could actually talk to a human being?

Thanks!
Fr. P

TATTRAT · Apr 3, 2013

Shouldn't be a problem. Besides a change of cloths, I tend to always carry my gear as carry on. I've never had a problem. There's no liquids involved. They can visually inspect anything thy'd like. . .and besides, I am sure we've all seen how the ground crew load/unload the cargo hold. I would MUCH rather schlep my gear than have it tossed around like a dwarf on $1 beer night at a college bar.

padrepaul77 · Apr 3, 2013

padrepaul77 said:
Going to a bird festival next week in Galveston, and I'm bringing along my gear. The tripod and stuff will be stored in checked bags, but I'm a little concerned about my lenses. I have a long lens along with four others that fit nicely into a backpack; there's an attached velcro holder for the lens hood on the bag. I'd hope that would not be a problem but with Big Sis and the TSA I'm a little worried, as I haven't flown in a while and not with the longer lens I got a little over a year ago. I can't very well check that as I'd be very concerned it would be damaged and also don't want it out of my sight.

Hopefully this will be smooth, but should I call the airport, assuming I could actually talk to a human being?

Thanks!
Fr. P

Thanks. Yes, I do see how they throw stuff around. Hopefully I won't have any issues. Thanks for letting me know.

imagemaker46 · Apr 3, 2013

You shouldn't have any problems. I carry all my gear on board and have never had any problems.

lucadiana · Apr 4, 2013

Hi PadrePaul,
Last year I wrote an article on this subject for Popular Photography titled "Get Your Gear Home Safely." It's in the May 2012 issue. Any chance you can find a copy? It contains a lot of useful info about camera gear and airplanes, drawing from my experience working in the airline industry. If you can't find it I could send you a digital copy. Send me a private mail.

runnah · Apr 4, 2013

I am waiting at a gate now, no problems with gear.

Wozza · Apr 4, 2013

I used to keep a knife in my camera bag and forgot to take it out one time, that's the only time I had issues lol. Apart from that, never had an issue and I always make sure any expensive lenses are on me as opposed to checked in. Tripod seems to do OK as a checked in item, either in a long bag with clothes ect, or by itself.

cgipson1 · Apr 4, 2013

Shouldn't have any problems! I carry mine when I travel... and have never had an issue.

tirediron · Apr 4, 2013

ThinkTank's 'Airport' series of roller bags for the win! Carry-on legal, built like (yep, you guessed it...) a TANK, and worth every penny. Mine have become my new favorite bags; I'd been a shoulder-bag guy for 30 years, but once I got my first Think Tank roller....

kendalltristan · Apr 4, 2013

I always travel with only carry-on baggage and the only issue I've ever had was once when I was flying out of Taiwan and there was some rule against tripods in carry-on bags (odd that they let me fly into Taiwan with the tripod in the carry-on, but whatever) so I had to check my backpack. Aside from that, never a problem. The camera bodies and lenses always stay with me while I'm traveling. I have a small shoulder bag that I typically travel with, but I sometimes take a larger shoulder bag if I need more than my standard travel kit. If I ever had to travel with a large telephoto, I'd skip on an extra pair of pants and put it into my backpack. Pants are cheap and unless you spill something on them, jeans can be worn for many days straight.

dbvirago · Apr 4, 2013

Yeah, I carry on gear all the time. Just got an Ape Case which I really like. Before that, I would usually put my backpack in a small suitcase just to protect it in the overhead cabin. Also, fyi, per the TSA site, tripods are ok to carry on.

MK3Brent · Apr 4, 2013

Never. Ever. Ever... under any circumstances CHECK your camera equipment... EVER.

I fly 100,000mi a year, and ALWAYS bring camera equipment on my carry-on.

X-ray images of your bag will instantly trigger TSA to open your equipment and check them for the use of smuggling drugs, or other items.

Most international flights I have, (Germany being the worst), security will go through every single lens you have making sure they're not fake canisters.

I recommend you bring anything you need (other than tripods, stands, etc) with you on the plane as a carry on.
Divide up the gear with other people traveling with you if you have them or need to.

Big Mike · Apr 4, 2013

I don't see that anyone has mentioned weight. Airlines are getting more strict on the weight limits for luggage. Mostly because they are charging an arm and a leg for overweight bags. Check the airline's website to see what their limits are and check the weight of your bags.

I've heard a few horror stories from photographers having to pay a lot of money to carry on their heavy gear. A pair of photographers that I know, will only fly with Air Canada, which has a 'photographer' policy. They don't charge extra for carrying on photo gear. But most other airlines around here will charge extra (if they decide to weigh your carry-on). Based on what they carry-on for a typical destination wedding, they are saving up to $900 between the two of them. More than makes up for the higher fares charged by Air Canada.

My camera bag, which had most of my photo gear, would have been well over the limit, so I rearranged stuff into other carry-on bags. Pain in the @ss, but I didn't want to get hit with extra charges. Turns out, nobody weighed my carry on.
I even followed a tip I read once. I wore a vest with lots of pockets. That way, if I needed to take gear out of my bag to reduce weight, I could carry it on my person.

As with most airport/security issues....it probably depends on who you run into. If you get someone having a bad day, you might get a full security check and they'll weight all your bags. But it seems this is few and far between...so good luck to you.

The tripod and stuff will be stored in checked bags

At your own risk.

Steve5D · Apr 4, 2013

padrepaul77 said:
Going to a bird festival next week in Galveston, and I'm bringing along my gear. The tripod and stuff will be stored in checked bags, but I'm a little concerned about my lenses. I have a long lens along with four others that fit nicely into a backpack; there's an attached velcro holder for the lens hood on the bag. I'd hope that would not be a problem but with Big Sis and the TSA I'm a little worried, as I haven't flown in a while and not with the longer lens I got a little over a year ago. I can't very well check that as I'd be very concerned it would be damaged and also don't want it out of my sight.

Hopefully this will be smooth, but should I call the airport, assuming I could actually talk to a human being?

Thanks!
Fr. P

Who's "Big Sis"?

I've lost count of the number of flights I've taken with my gear. The only times it gets dicey is if you're flying on a prop-job-puddle-jumper. Even then, I've never had to check my gear...

runnah · Apr 4, 2013

Ironically on the way down and the way back I got a nice note saying they searched my checked luggage. Note sure if it was the tripod and umbrella or because I had my laptop in there. I also had a few clamps and brackets along with my steel toed boots.

Probably the combination of all that.