Airline Packing

[Scubalens]

Suggestions for packing UW camera gear for airline travel. Nikon z camera/Ikelite housing/Dual strobes/wide angle and micro ports and extensions. Is a Pelican style case the only option? Size recommendations? I am a very visual person so any pictures of your travel organization is appreciated. Guess there is no way to avoid paying for 2 checked bags 1- camera and 1-dive equipment.

 

[jgardner04]

I keep my camera and lenses with me in my carry-on. I use a Pelican Air 1605 with the Trekpack dividers for my housing, strobes, and ports. I lock it and then put it inside a North Face Base Camp Duffle (XXL, I think) surrounded by clothes, so it looks much less like expensive camera gear.

 

[AirintheOcean]

At first, I feel like I overdid it a bit over with a pelican case 1615 with yellow padded dividers but now that i carry 5K worth of photography equipment with me on my vacations. spending the extra 400-500 on the a quality case that will protect from all elements seemed like a no brainer. It even has a little extra room to take some chargers are heavier flashlights out of my regular dive bag. I never thought I would be a 2 checked suitcase vacation diver but look at me now.

 

[TNEngineer]

If it's expensive (like camera gear), sensitive (like regs), or personalized (like prescription masks) it stays in carry-on where we can protect it.

 

[jmark18]

I use the dividers from my Nanuk case in a PVC roller bag and pack my wetsuit and other soft items around the housing ,ports and strobes. The Nanuk even though it is lighter than a Pelican is still pretty heavy

 

[happy-diver]

sensitive (like regs)

Do you have someone that can talk to them about that

 

[TostitoBandito]

I travel with the following:

Canon R5 + at least 3 lenses, batteries, etc...
Ikelite housing & ports (including 8" dome)
2x Ikelite DS230 strobes plus 2 spare battery packs
Arms, clamps, sync cables, spare parts, etc...
Collapsible boat bag for the camera rig

I have a nice camera backpack (WANDRD PRVKE 21 liter) that easily holds my camera body with a lens on it, 2 other large lenses, plus my laptop, batteries, cables, portable hard drive, and any other electronic stuff I may need. That gets carried on and goes under my seat. It's heavy, likely over many carry on weight limits, but explaining that it's like $10K worth of camera gear usually gets rid of any pressure. Or sometimes I'll throw my laptop in my checked bag if they're being a pain about it.

Then as one of my checked bags I have a Pelican case, specifically a 1620. It's got the foam inserts you can cut out to securely hold whatever, and it easily holds my camera housing, all ports/extensions, strobes, strobe batteries, sync cords, and a couple small plastic boxes full of o rings, lube, spare parts, and other small housing accessories. The whole thing weighs in at around 45 pounds packed, so no issues checking it anywhere. It's also basically indestructible and they could play rugby with it on the tarmac and it wouldn't hurt anything inside.

Then I put my big mesh bag full of clamps and strobe arms along with the boat bag in with my dive gear in whatever bag or suitcase I'm checking to carry my BCD, fins, wetsuit, etc...

But yeah, no way to avoid two checked bags when travelling with a substantial camera rig. I've heard of people carrying on fully assembled rigs in boat/cooler bags and putting them in the overhead bin as a carryon, but I'd never risk that. That's like $10-15K worth of hardware that people can bang, drop or whatever. Not to mention it'd be way over any carry on weight limit especially internationally. I just pay a little extra to check the pelican case. It's a drop in the bucket compared to the cost of all the gear. I haven't had any problems going wherever I need to go with 2 checked bags so far, even on tiny little twin otters to remote islands.

 

[Nemrod]

I carry my Nauticam NA6400, two strobes, ports and WWL and CMC macro lenses in a Pelican Air carry on size. In my backpack go the camera lenses and the camera itself and a change of cloths if a long airline trip and an old MAC computer and my two dive computers. In my suitcase I have cloths, some neoprene, batteries, chargers, and my float arms that will not go in the Pelican, spare parts and a small tool kit for maintenance and an extra set of hoses. And in my roller dive bag is my wing/BP, fins, two masks, two regulators, neoprene and all of that sort of stuff. So, yes, a backpack, a Pelican Air carry-on, a standard size suitcase and a roller dive bag. The suitcase and dive bag end up weighing right at 50 pounds each. And people wonder why I obsess over weight of my fins or regulators or whatever.