Show me how you transport your gear...

[3william56]

It very much depends on the size of your housing. For the nice compact Aquatica 5N we now use, a good DSLR shoulder bag (we use a Nikon bag, but any which fits will do). It fits well, has sufficient padding without being too large, and can fit the port, arms and a couple of Light and Motions all in one convenient shoulder bag.

Bonus hint: for air travel, invest in a good carry-on roller bag. Put the housing, regs and all the small, heavy or sensitive gear in that. Most airlines don't weigh carry ons if they don't look heavy. Keep the roller on the floor, and they'll never spot the 10 kilos of gear inside, and you can keep your fragile gear out of the tender "please throw underhand" mercies of airline baggage staff.

For our massive old Amphibico dive buddy, we used a DSLR camera roller bag, the sort with velcro internal partitions. Can make up cosy compartments for all your gear.

 

[tbrady]

Sold my DSLR, housing and 1650 case. Bought Canon G15. Video light strobe, Ikelite camera housing, camera, red filter, wide angle adapter lens, dive computer, chargers, and IPAD all fit into this Quantaray backpack, which easily fits into overhead. Now I take my camera on EVERY dive trip.

 

[Doc]

Some really insightful comments above... it all depends upon your mode of transport as to how you pack it.

The one thing that makes me laugh:

The Pelican case brought as cabin carry-on baggage.



These style cases provide excellent protection. If you were planning on using the cameras in that Pelican after it provided even 1/2 the protection it could afford your gear, maybe you had better get one for your own body- just so you can survive that same crash. For hand carry, this is simply ego-overkill. If your excuse was that you were prepared to hand it off as "gate check"... really?

They are heavy, they offer poor internal capacity when compared to their external dimension, and nothing screams "steal me" more than the James Bond look of these boxes.

For air travel- stick with the soft sided back packs. Either that, if you really are a professional, you're checking your Pelicans through... just as they were designed to withstand.

 

[mwood9]

Just got Lowepro 200 Rollerbag. Love it so far. Not cheap, but neither is what you are carrying in it! 22" and fits in overhead, which is critical. Michael Wood

 

[James R]

I have one of the 24 AO bags on the way from Blue Water, I needed a new one...mine was sacked (cheap from Academy). I will probably not use it as a carry-on though.

 

[ozziworld]

I carry on all photo gear including housing and strobes.

I stuff all of this:
Nauticam 7D
Canon 7D Body
60mm Macro Lens
100mm Macro Lens
Tokina 10-17 Fisheye Lens
Flat Ports/extensions
2x 8 inch ULCS Float Arms
2x 8 inch ULCS Arm w/ STIX Floats
Clamps
Fisheye 1000 LED Focus/Video Light
2x Sea & Sea D1 Strobes and cables
Chargers and Batteries

Into a Lowepro Vertex 300 AW Back Pack.

Camera Body inside the housing.
One Lens inside the Flat port/extension
Two Lens in Pouches
9 inch Dome I carry in a shopping bag that looks like a "personal" item

Weighs in at 34 pounds. Never been asked to weigh it because it is on my back when I enter the cabin.

All my clothes (typically a few t shirts and shorts) go in my dive bag which is checked in.

I am considering a roll on as this is killing my back. I am hoping to get a Pro Roller x300 which is slightly bigger and has rollers.

Only time I wished I had a pelican was when transferring over rough seas from a tiny boat to a small boat. If it fell in. It is all gone.

So far it has worked out great with the airlines.