OK...ya'll help me decide....pack it or carry on?

[SwimsWithSharks]

Dee,

You probably already know my thoughts on it.....I am a carry it on kind of guy. I do the pack mule stuff with a Tamrac backpack. Wife has a regular carry-on piece where I put the regs and masks with wetsuits as cushioning. I don't want to trust my camera, strobes, housing or regs to the baggage handlers.

 

[fdog]

Hey there Dee.

I'm in the solidly opposite camp from most.

With housed cameras, quite honestly, all I could carry-on (even with extra first class allowance) would be a camera, housing and dome complete. Which is on the useless side to me without the strobes.

So camera gear goes into Hardigg cases, a complete set per case: camera, housing, ports...strobes. If it doesn't make it there, well, that's what insurance pays for.

If it's late, they can get it to me usually in time to salvage the trip. If the trip is the kind that makes this impossible, I'll schedule a layover just to allow luggage to "catch up", just in case. (which helps with jetlag anyway)

The only stuff I carry on is the irreplacably personal things, like mask, custom wetsuit, reg + computer. And film/memory.

Janet and I travel with two complete camera setups, all our dive gear, and clothes, in four bags at 50 lbs. per bag.

I know it sounds cavalier, but for me, it's a balance of the consequences...arriving with half the system is like arriving with nothing. So I just relax and send it in a bombproof case.

All the best, James

 

[RonFrank]

I'm not sure what all you have, but I carry on as much camera gear as possible (generally all of it) when I travel, non-stop or no.

BTW, Rotan, I'm certainly Jelous!!

At the mimium, I'd consider carrying on at least a complete setup.

I puchased a couple of those TSA locks, however, they are so tiny that anyone could likely break them off. I have not seen anything of reasonable size in a TSA lock, just the tiny luggage locks.

I understand the pain of carrying on gear. I generally carry on my Nature Trekker...loaded!! I also carry on a lowepro reporter AW as well if I can get away with it. I generally travel with wife and kid, so I can do two largish bags, and a small pack with essentials between the three of us.

Ron

Between Beast and I, we have a truckload of camera gear to take on our Roatan trip. I'm most comfortable taking it as carry-on but Beast and I both are tired of being packmules. Usually I pack it all in a couple of backpacks, we have several. But I'm seriously considering packing it all in a large Pelican case this time.

We are on a non-stop flight from Houston to Roatan. My major concern is it actually getting on the plane in Houston, from checkin to loading it's at the mercy of the luggage monkeys. Once on the plane I'll see it come off on the tarmac in Roatan. The one time I packed camera gear in a Pelican going to Coz, pre-9/11, someone had tried to pry the locks off. And now that TSA is in control of locking the case, I'm not very confident in the whole system. Everything is insured but that won't help me take pictures those 2 weeks!

Am I being overly paranoid? I know lots of photographers check eveything with no problems, even with plane changes, but it'e the lost luggage stories that I keep remembering! Beast keeps telling me that they've tightened up security on luggage handling since then but I'm still nervous about it. But it would sure be nice to have only a small carry-on with some essentials.

So what would you do for a non-stop flight?

 

[fdog]

BTW, just for grins, you might take a look here . SS188 is a nice size (less that 62 total inches) and comes "pre-weathered". Or SS110, SS114.

All the best, James

 

[AlaskaDiver]

I wholeheartedly agree with Fdog. With all the little goodies I end up carrying home I want to be able to focus only on carrying my wallet and those goodies. I pack securely everything inside of a smaller suitcase. This goes inside of the larger one with all of my soft stuff like dirty laundry in the area where a 'stray hand' might slip into it. My husband scoffed at me and insisted on carrying his heavy things in his carryon bag. At the security checkpoints where we were in various states of undress, he was basically scrambling to get all of his belongings back together while putting on his shoes. He left his pelican case at a TSA checkpoint and we walked about 50 ft away and returned immediately. His UW housing and his pelican case were of course gone for good.

I travel with an ugly brown-checkered sturdy piece of luggage and took this along with our standard modern wheelie on several trips. Almost all trips someone is fondling that wheelie looking to see if it theirs. No one ever wants to touch at the ugly one. A thief judges luggage by its cover. (i.e. pelican cases say 'Steal me').

 

[fdog]

...This goes inside of the larger one with all of my soft stuff like dirty laundry in the area where a 'stray hand' might slip into it.

Just for those who haven't seen it... an interesting way to keep those small valuables safe .

All the best, James

 

[AlaskaDiver]

Just for those who haven't seen it... an interesting way to keep those small valuables safe .

All the best, James

Seriously twisted! How do you find such things? It's an excellent idea. The 'Doo Drops' had me laughing out loud.

 

[Dee]

I can see advantages for both sides....hence my conundrum!

For several reasons, this may be my only trip to salt water this year and so taking pictures is a huge part of the trip for me. Even though all my gear is insured, that's not my biggest concern. Not being able to take pictures is! Beast doesn't care one way or the other, if he has a camera, fine. If not, it's no biggie.

fdog...cool cases but I need wheels! Besides, we have bags, backpacks and cases out the wazoo so buying another isn't even considered.

I think somewhere in the middle is gonna have to work. I'll take a basic rig...camera, housing, one charger/batteries, tray and strobe...in a backpack along with my RX mask and logbook. Plus the laptop case. Instead of packing clothes in our dive bags, I'll pack those in a non-descript hard suitcase with Beasts camera/housing and the other odds and ends in it. Beast already has a "brief save" so his stuff should be safe! That's less than I usually carry but I'll be functional when/if I get there and luggage doesn't.