Help Please (flying on Mon w/ C5050 and PT-015)

[flima]

Hi Everyone,
I will be flying out on Monday to Brazil.
I will take my PT-015 and C5050 with me, which BTW have never been used. Yes, I just bought them a couple of weeks ago.
I have just had time to slightly test my C5050 here at home, but just the basics .... have done no testing with the PT015 .... guess just didn't have time 'cause too busy in the office.
Anyway, I know I will have to do some tests with the PT015 down in Brazil before I actually use it w/ the C5050 underwater.

But right now my concern is about 2 things :::
1 - Bag: I am thinking about buying one that would work nicely for my setup, so I can carry both PT015 and C5050.
2 - PT-015: I have heard something in the past about being careful when flying with PT-015 because of its o-rings, etc. Can someone please explain what I should take care of before jumping on the plane ?! So far, I have not even opened the PT-015 case, I see a plastic bag inside the case with a bunch of stuff (is the o-ring there?). Should I be concerned about flying this way?

Any feedback is greatly appreciated ?!

Thanks,
- Fred Lima

 

[Gilligan]

This is what I did when I went to the Yucatan:
1. Get a small soft beverage cooler that the camera and housing fit in (camera loaded in the housing). The cooler is cheap, it's padded, and insulates the housing/camera from heat (or cold) while you are carrying it around. Include a small hand towel in the cooler for added padding and any other use.
2. Don't leave the main O-rings under pressure by locking the housing with them in the grooves. Take them out and put them in a zip-loc bag and lay them on top of the housing in the cooler (that's where the hand towel comes in handy as you can seperate the O-rings from the housing).
3. Your silicone grease, O ring pic, and possibly extra batteries will also fit in the cooler, especially if it is one with a separate pocket on the front.
4. No one will guess a camera is in there as it is not an obvious camera case.
I carried it all over the Yucatan and on the dive boats with no breakage or heat problems. Keep batteries in the camera to save your settings and to satisfy airport security if they make you turn the camera on to prove it's a camera.

 

[Dee]

Annother benefit of Gilligans portable padded cooler is you have your own person rinse tank and don't have to endanger your rig by putting it in the tank with all the others.

You definately need to test the housing before you take the camera down. On your first dive, take the housing down by itself, no camera. To offset the bouyancy of the housing with no camera, you can wrap a 2# soft diving weight in a face cloth so your not fighting it the whole dive. Once you see the housing doesn't leak, you're good to go. Some folks feel you can just dunk it in the bathtub for testing but it's the water pressure on hte housing you need to test.

I's strongly suggest you TAKE the time to have the manual that's on the CD printed and read it on the plane. Either that or leave the camera on P and shoot in auto mode.

 

[IslandHopper]

the housings are designed to have (when closed) higher pressure outside than inside ...

just the opposite happens in an airplane at altitude (though not a huge difference as the cabin never get's above about 8000 feet pressure altitude) ...

the point is, this COULD (very unlikely) cause problems with the o-rings if the camera is sealed up during the flight, so just to be safe, most people travel with the housing cracked, or with the o-rings removed.

Better safe than trying to find an o-ring in some out-of-the-way spot on the earth.