Best Gear Bag/Case for sensitive scuba & photo gear when flying to destination?

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uwgreg

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Messages
32
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Location
Montreal, Canada
# of dives
100 - 199
Hey!

I'd love recommendations of the best brands and models of gear bad(s) or case(s) for carrying your scuba diving gear (and/or photo/video gear) when going on trips abroad (taking a flight or many).

I'd love comments on your experience with a specific setup:
- while traveling and the airport/flight portion
- compared to other setups you've used before, whats better/worse (ex: you had duffle, moved to a Pelican case.. why? Whats better/worse?)
- Things to know when traveling with X (ex: traveling with camera and gear in a Pelican wheeled case checked in/carry on and you should know X, Y, Z)

Would you typically going straight for hard cases like Pelican? Wheeled Duffle Bag?

Thanks for all the information!
If I haven't covered a question or topic and you think it's relevant, please provide info!
 
i don't travel with expensive camera gear. but i would think any high quality hard shell case will work. pelican would be the most well known i would think. they are very expensive. the size and whether it is a wheeled case etc depends on the amount of gear you need to put in it. sometimes you can piggy back a hard case on top of your main suitcase with wheels to avoid having to carry it too far.

for general scuba gear when travelling we just use a relatively inexpensive semi hard suit case for most of it. masks are packed in a hard case. computers are packed safe in a small bag and sandwiched between wet suits. then we always put regs in our carry on.
 
I used a backpack bought from Henrys that was made for camera storage. It had velcro dividers in the bag that allowed me to customize the interior into compartments so everything fit nice and snug. Camera, lenses, chargers, housing, domes, etc. Everything fit inside and was comfortable to carry on the plane and to dive destinations. I never liked pelican cases for carry on as they were always annoying to carry. Backpack went with me around the world. If I recall, the brand was Dakine.
 
i don't travel with expensive camera gear. but i would think any high quality hard shell case will work. pelican would be the most well known i would think. they are very expensive. the size and whether it is a wheeled case etc depends on the amount of gear you need to put in it. sometimes you can piggy back a hard case on top of your main suitcase with wheels to avoid having to carry it too far.

for general scuba gear when travelling we just use a relatively inexpensive semi hard suit case for most of it. masks are packed in a hard case. computers are packed safe in a small bag and sandwiched between wet suits. then we always put regs in our carry on.

I used a backpack bought from Henrys that was made for camera storage. It had velcro dividers in the bag that allowed me to customize the interior into compartments so everything fit nice and snug. Camera, lenses, chargers, housing, domes, etc. Everything fit inside and was comfortable to carry on the plane and to dive destinations. I never liked pelican cases for carry on as they were always annoying to carry. Backpack went with me around the world. If I recall, the brand was Dakine.

Thanks!
 
For camera gear, I used to use pelican cases with pick and pluck foam but the non-wheeled size I had was a bit over carry on size in several dimensions. No airline ever gave me a problem though. I used a strap with snap hooks from another bag for over the shoulder carrying (a pain). The pelicans were expensive and heavy but protected camera equipment very well. I switched to a rolling camera case with velcro dividers which was almost as expensive. It was carryon regulation size. Pelican had a regulation carryon size wheeled one when I was looking to replace the old one but I did not get it.
I carried my reg, computer and mask in a padded backpack with everything else.
 
I use a Stahlsac Smuggler for my dive gear. It's compact and light weight, it has a limited lifetime warranty, and it doesn't have SCUBA plastered all over the outside, so you don't know it's full of expensive dive gear. When I first got it, I thought there is no way all my dive gear is going to fit in this bag but there is plenty of room for my dive gear and my wife's snorkeling gear.
Wheeled Dive Bags: The Smuggler from Stahlsac
 
I use a hard-side carry-on suitcase for my camera gear.

The suitcase has to be small enough to fit under the seat in front of me as a carry-on --- but hard enough to protect my gear if I have to check my suitcase.

Sometimes aircraft are so small that I have to check my camera bag, so a hard-shell suitcase is required.

Pelican cases are too heavy and advertise that something expensive is packed within. So I just use a generic hard-side carry-on roller suitcase.

I started flying first class, so now I never have trouble getting my carry-on suitcase aboard the aircraft with me.
 
Pelican 1535 Air for my Nauticam NA6400. I have looked into replacing the pluck foam with this:


To use space more efficiently. Now I carry the arms and my dome port in my suitcase, the strobes and WAL and macro lens CMC2 fit into the Pelican along with the housing and port and other bits.





I also have a more incognito generic Walmart roller hard side suitcase that will take the system with some clothing wrapped around everything.

James
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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