How do you travel with your camera?

[Hotpuppy]

I'm curious how others take their camera when they go on dive trips.

Last time I put it in my carry on, which was fine, but I did not have as much "stuff".

My current list of Camera gear is:
Canon G-9
Spare Canon G-9 (I have two, might as well bring it with)
3 batteries
1 battery charger
8 AA Batteries
Sea & Sea YS-120 DUO
Strobe Arm
Ikelite Case and tray
battery charger that accomodates AA batteries and C batteries for dive light.

I'm looking in the next year to start diving my EOS 40D. That of course has it's own Lowe Pro Backpack.

I own a Pelican case, but have not traveled with it.

So I guess my question is... does anyone check any of their gear? If so at what point?

Can you carry on a pelican case? Mid-size? How much of a hassle is TSA with your camera gear?

 

[vondo]

I'm curious how others take their camera when they go on dive trips.

Last time I put it in my carry on, which was fine, but I did not have as much "stuff".

My current list of Camera gear is:
Canon G-9
Spare Canon G-9 (I have two, might as well bring it with)
3 batteries
1 battery charger
8 AA Batteries
Sea & Sea YS-120 DUO
Strobe Arm
Ikelite Case and tray
battery charger that accomodates AA batteries and C batteries for dive light.

I'm looking in the next year to start diving my EOS 40D. That of course has it's own Lowe Pro Backpack.

I own a Pelican case, but have not traveled with it.

So I guess my question is... does anyone check any of their gear? If so at what point?

Can you carry on a pelican case? Mid-size? How much of a hassle is TSA with your camera gear?

I have a setup kind of like yours and I pack that, a couple of lights, regs, and a dive computer into my carryon. Yes, I regularly get pulled aside and we go through what's there. Just be patient and polite and you're fine. I put everything in an overhead sized roller bag.

I mean, what are your options, leaving it all home?

 

[Hotpuppy]

Yea, I think I solved the weight puzzle this time. The strobe, mounting arm, batteries and charger went into the dive bag. I got rid of my regulator bag after the last trip and went through my gear with a fine toothed comb looking for stuff to ditch.

I also switched to a newer laptop... Toshiba Portege 3 pounds, vs. Dell Monstrosity 10 pounds.

 

[muddiver]

I carry the expensive stuff like the camera, dive computer, sometimes my regulators. Everything else is covered by a Farmers Personal Property insurance policy so it gets checked.

 

[Kilili]

With little system like that, put camera in housing, then put all listed, and laptop, in roller bag with whatever else fits. I do this with oversized SLR.

Pelican is overkill.

 

[floridafish]

I don't pack my reg or dive computer in carryon--worst comes to worst, I can rent equipment. In the room saved, I pack bathing suit, and a change of clothes. Again, if my checked bags don't show up, I can still dive and take pictures.

Sitting next to me at dinner after 3 days waiting for checked bags would be a questionable decision!

FF

 

[under water]

I used to pack my camera stuff along with regs into my carry-on. I bought a Tamrac 5788 Evolution 8 Photo/Laptop Sling Backpack Bag last year and now I can put all my camera gear into it and have lots more room in my carry-on.

This qualifies as the 2nd piece that you can take on board in addition to the carry-on. It has room for my laptop as well.
I used to have a similar setup as you do (G9 with Ike housing). I had bulky Ike strobes. I have since moved to a Oly E-Pl1 and a couple of tiny Inon s-2000 strobes, giving me even more room, so that I can fit all my U/W photo gear plus my T2i and 300mm zoom lens into the small backpack.
Amazon.com: Tamrac 5788 Evolution 8 Photo/Laptop Sling Backpack Bag (Black): Camera & Photo

 

[DaveCT]

Until beginning of this year, I had an Oly-SP350 setup with ULCS tray/arms and a single Nikonos SB105 flash. All of this fit into a small Pelican 1450 that I carried on board. Separately, my laptop and dive computer went into my Kata RL-302 backback:


I am travelling next week for the first time with a slightly larger setup: G12 in Fix housing, dual inon strobes, and longer arms. Based on some other threads on this board, I am changing my strategy a bit. I am checking a slightly larger Pelican 1500 that will hold my tray, handles, arms, charger and other non-fragile stuff. It will have room for plenty of other misc heavy junk, such as guidebooks, leatherman, dive knife, etc. to help offload my luggage and dive bag. I am carrying on a larger Kata 3N1-33 photo-laptop bag:


It is more than adequate to hold the G12, housing, the two strobes, my laptop, my dive computer and other necessaries. Once I arrive on island, I will switch everything over to the Pelican case for the shore/boat dives.

 

[franktai]

My girlfriend and I travelled to Lembeh recently, and used a 2-bag strategy where:

Bag 1 > Backpack > Regulators + laptop
Bag 2 > Small duffel bag > Camera in housing, strobe + arms, focus light

In Asia the weight restrictions are a bit harsher than in North America/International, and with this setup I look like i have small bags so i wasn't stopped by Singapore Airlines (who scrutinise about this stuff) to weigh the bags. I figure if the bag looks bigger, they have more intuition to want to weigh it whereas if I have 2 small bags the backpack isn't considered the carry on and if they really wanted to weigh the duffel it would be close to the 7kg mark (with 2 cameras in FIX housings and 3 strobes).

Anyways, i think form factor, weight and carriage style will influence your pick - I was fine to carry around the duffel, easiest when slinged over opposite shoulder properly.

 

[rameus]

I'm curious how others take their camera when they go on dive trips.

Last time I put it in my carry on, which was fine, but I did not have as much "stuff".

My current list of Camera gear is:
Canon G-9
Spare Canon G-9 (I have two, might as well bring it with)
3 batteries
1 battery charger
8 AA Batteries
Sea & Sea YS-120 DUO
Strobe Arm
Ikelite Case and tray
battery charger that accomodates AA batteries and C batteries for dive light.

I own a Pelican case, but have not traveled with it.

Can you carry on a pelican case? Mid-size? How much of a hassle is TSA with your camera gear?

Hey there!
Got nearly the same setup with my G10, the Ikelite housing and an Ikelite DS-160 substrobe with strobe arm. I put it all in my Pelican 1500 case and never had any problems travelling anywhere (US, Central America or Egypt). The things I take in my normal luggage are extra batteries, charger, cables and the spare camera. Of course I also travel with my Nikon D90 in an extra LowePro bag. So with these two items I never had problems (with TSA or similar). They just make me fill out a form every time I leave Switzerland which says that I have disconnected the battery from the lamp so it can not set on fire all of a sudden...

Thomas