Traveling with Gear

[Dont_Hold_Your_Breath]

I've read many posts on this forum and online about traveling with gear but wondering if its ok to travel with the camera body locked into the housing and the housing mostly closed up while still allowing for pressure differences to enter an exit the housing. I assume the lenses and ports should always be removed and packed seperately. New to this but have what I would call a large rig, a 5dmIV in a nauticam housing, Inon strobes, and a 7" montior.

 

[Barmaglot]

I do it all the time, haven't had any issues yet, although my housing (SeaFrogs) holds the camera body by multiple points of contact all around it, rather than a mounting plate on the tripod socket.

The pressure difference thing doesn't really matter; it's an artifact of the time when vacuum valves were rare and exotic. Yes, if you seal your housing and take it on a flight, air will leak out, and when you land, it will have ambient pressure pushing it closed, but since you have a vacuum valve, all you have to do is to open that valve to equalize it.

 

[Searcaigh]

Back in the 90s I used to carry two housings hand baggage with cameras in situ (Tussy housing with Nikon F3 and Aquatica with Nikon F801).

I removed the main o-ring to avoid any pressure issues and of course replaced it as soon as I reached my destination. I basically stored each o-ring in a clean sandwich bag inside the housing.

Nowadays I carry my cameras and lenses separately with the housing and ports in another carryon for ease of packing.

 

[AZTinman]

You'll probably get varying opinions about traveling with your camera body locked into your housing.

My camera bodies travel locked into their housings. Most of the major components of my underwater systems travel as carry-on luggage that goes in the overhead storage bins when I fly. The carry-on is packed with everything (housing, camera body, lenses, strobes/battery packs, sync cords, arms/clamps, chargers, port extensions, tools, o-rings, and macro ports) I need to engage in underwater photography. I use soft-sided luggage that Pelican used to make.

I remove handles from my housing when packing it for travel. My large dome port is too big for my carry-on bags and it travels with my clothing in a checked suitcase.

If I were checking my camera equipment luggage and dealing with the potential of baggage handlers tossing my luggage around, I wouldn't lock camera bodies into housings. I mostly use a Nikon D850 and that's a heavy camera.

-AZTinman

 

[hedonist222]

Most camera housings now have vacuum ports, so in the event that a vacuum was created during the flight, it's then only a matter of unplugging the vacuum port to re-introduce air intro the housing. Or am I missing something?

 

[Dont_Hold_Your_Breath]

I've had experiences with underwater housings (not for cameras) where they are closed before flying and then either in flight or once you land at a higher altitude the pressure in the housing increases and the housing burps air which damaged the seal. In those cases you might not know it until later and it could cause a cause a catostrophic failure. This was for housings you'd seal up before shipping out and they would stay sealed for years or forever but lessons still apply.

 

[Nemrod]

Most housing instructions that I have read including my Nauticam warn not to carry the camera in the housing. I do it anyways. I remove the door O-ring and store it in a baggie. I do not fully close or latch the door so as not to preload all of the controls. YRMV.

 

[Jai Bar]

I travel with the camera and strobes in a regular carry on. The camera is in the housing, never bothered with removing the o-ring or having the housing opened.

The only problem I face is that in many security screenings it is picked aside for further inspection- a couple of times I was also asked to switch power on.

Carry on also contains the diving computer, and if the suitcase with gear weighs more than 23kg then I also take the regulator in it.

 

[jgardner04]

I travel with my camera in my carry-on and my housing and strobes in a locked Pelican case that I then put inside a duffle, so it looks a lot less like expensive gear.