How do you travel with your DSLR(s)?

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

Fellows, I need a few tips and suggestions about traveling with two, two housings and 2 strobes and 2 lenses. When I had one DSLR, I used to put the camera into the DSLR housing minus the O-rings. It would go into a backpack along with lenses, strobes and synch chords etc. This was small enough to be taken as a hand carry. Now I plan on adding another DSLR and housing along with a few more accessories.

An option I am thinking about is getting a large, heavily foamed pelican case in which all of the photo / film gear would go and that would get checked in. I am unsure if a Pelican case with all its padding would be able to protect my camera equipment from the shock it will get from gear being thrown around. Does anyone here have experience with checking in your fragile camera gear in Pelican cases? Did it get to the other side in one piece?

Any other suggestions / advice will also be appreciated.

 

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

Anyone?

 

[PatW]

Hmmmm two huh? I carry my DSLR, Boatanchor 2.0, in a carry on. For some odd reason, it gets searched over 80% of the time by TSA. They say it is for drugs. Who in the world would try to smuggle anything in a carryon that has such a high search rate? Do they have that many stupid smugglers?

I carry 2 strobes, a housing, and several ports in the carry on. I carry the camera body and several lenses in the personal bag. You could probably get the housing into the right personal bag (the one that goes under the seat in front of you.

Your situation is kind of pushing the envelope. Of course, you could stick things into the checked baggage, but I really do not like doing that.

 

[sea_ledford]

I would say pelican cases (or similar hard case) are the gold standard for fragile equipment. They are just heavy as all get out is the problem. No way you are keeping one under 50 lbs, especially with two cameras and housings. But your gear should be protected from impact damages.

Of course nothing says "hi-tech expensive gear here!" like a pelican case...

-Chris

 

[John A Lewis]

I have long advocated that, where possible, spend the money to ship the gear to yourself (or a trusted recipient) at the destination. Fully insured, no TSA and the like, plus have never suffered a loss of any kind in transit. Even have been able to follow my stuff through the system with the shipping firm's tracking software.

 

[t-mac]

I carry my housing, strobes and accessories in a giant tamron bag. Camera in my backpack. Not sure what I would do adding a housing and another camera. Might consider getting one of the standard sized carry-ons -- the biggest that to up top - and outfit it with foam inserts. Pelican case is a good idea if you can find the right size. I'm lets concerned with it getting thrown around if it's in my hands.

 

[Darnold9999]

Use a smaller pelican for ports (dome and flat ports) in checked baggage. Never any issues with damage, and have had a port cracked when I didn't use a separate case. Camera, housing and strobe goes as carry on.

 

[James R]

Carry on bag(s): Thinktank Airport International 2.0 & Timbuk2 messenger bag with photo insert. I carry on bodies, lenses, cf cards, macbook, external hdd, and anything else fragile. I have faced strict 7kg limits on the last few trips to SE Asia, so no way to carry on the strobes and housing along with everything else.

Checked: "The Green Monster" (SKB case, similar to pelican): Nauticam housing, dome ports, macro port, strobes, arms, clamps, battery chargers, focus light, SMC, SMC multiplier, spares kit (o-rings, grease, tools, etc), and so on. This has foam layers plucked so everything has a place except the arms, clamps, battery chargers and such. Full, it's 68lbs.

I have everything insured, so I feel relatively okay with this, but I don't love it. The reality is that 7kg carry-on bag weight limits what you can carry on board. Yes, sometimes they wont weigh it, but you can't count on it.

Unsurprisingly, when we went to Indonesia in 2014 in economy they weighed our bags every time we checked in. Last year, same airline, we had business class (award tickets) to the Maldives and back and our carry-on bags never touched a scale once.

 

[christ daniel]

check it here for some tips and suggestion for you h**p://***.uwphotographyguide.com/travel-packing-underwater-photography

 

[ozziworld]

I always carry-on a Lowepro Vertex 300 AW. Holds Just about all my DSLR Kit.

Photo as shown (35 pounds) includes:

Canon 7D Body inside the
Nautican 7D Housing
45 degree Viewfinder
2 x Sea and Sea YSD1 Strobes
Strobe Cables
Tokina 10-17 and Focus ring
4'' Dome
4x 8'' ULCS Arms
6x ULCS Large Clamps
6x Six Jumbo Floats
AA Charger, 16 AA Batteries
7D Charger, Extra Batteries
Fisheye NEO 1200dx Focus/Video Light and Charger

Laptop
Laptop Charger
External Drive
Card Reader
CF Cards
Phone and Charger

If I decide to bring an 8 inch dome, I carry that in a shopping bag.

A macro port takes its place in the backpack together with 100mm Macro Lens and Diopter.

As long as you keep it on your back. The airlines mostly don't make a fuss over the weight. When they see it is camera gear, the less they want to take responsibility for it.

So far, I have never been asked to check it in. It helps that I am a fairly big guy and the backpack looks a lot less on me than on a small person. I am 6'-2'' 220lbs. Friend of mine uses the version that has wheels and always gets questioned when he rolls with it. When it is on his back, it draws less attention.