Pelican size and foam...

[rob1116]

Quick, boring question that I would really appreciate some help on.

I'm looking to buy a hard Pelican case. I have a D70, 18-70mm, Tamron 70-300, Tamron 180mm macro, SB-800, and some standard accessories (batteries/filters/etc).

No retailer near me keeps Pelican in stock, so I'm forced to buy online. It's hard to tell from the pictures; what size should I get? I'd like room for a little expansion, but I don't need much.

Also, what is this 'pick'n'pluck' foam? I'm guessing it's adjustable somehow, but is it any good? Better than standard foam dividers?

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[Meysha]

Ohhh Pelican Case. I have one of these, well actually my dad bought it originally. And it's about 12 to 15-ish years old I'd guess and it's still perfect. It's been battered around on a boat for most of that time too. (and the precious camera is still 100%!) And so light! But i think you already know all the pros about it.

I dunno where you live, but I live in a really humid climate (north east Australia) and so we bought a bunch of those little crystal ball things that absorb moisture. We sewed up some little very coarse bags and just filled them with the crystals and you leave them in the case so it doesn't get moist. Then when you need to dry the crystals out again you just chuck em in the oven for a while. They even change colour to let you know when they're saturated (purple I think from memory).

If the pick n pull stuff is the same as what's in my bag - and I think it is by the sounds of it, it's great imo. The foam is carved up into a grid and you just rip out the bits where you want to make a hole. It's very snug (or you can make it very loose if you want). I've never actualy tried to replace foam where we've ripped it out but for some reason I dunno if it'd be possible. I remember it was rather a big deal for us when we were ripping it all out - so that might be why. But I can't remember.

To figure out the right size, I'd make a practise box at home first and lay out all your gear. I dunno what sizes they come in now but ideally you'd get the one smalest for your needs. Try different layouts of your gear too in the 'practise box'. Also, what do you really need to keep in thise case? I'd only put stuff in there that you definately need to. But I guess it depends on what you're using it for.

We mainly use our pelican case when we're taking the camera out on the boat and it's for safety. So we only really care about the camera and lens and that's all we put in the case. We just used to keep the filters and batteries and film in our day pack or (permanently on the boat usually coz we'd forget).