What do you carry your camera gear in?

[victor]

If carry on weight is not a problem then a hard case would be my option of choice. Be extra carefull of the measurements INCLUDING the wheels and handles. I have seen some angry passengers when their hand lugage failed the box check at the gate.
I am using a lowpro backpack, looks small and thus light, easily fits in the box and I have never been asked to weigh it YET as it is well over the weight limit for some airlines. Two cameras, housing, topside and diving lenses and laptop + kindle. I put battery chargers, spare batteries, etc in luggage to keep the weight as low as possible.
Another option is a small wheele and build a custom interior to take the gear. Easier to hide the fact that it is heavy when approaching the gates. You may need to be creative to pack everything you need into the space.
Load the camera into the housing for travel. Look at everything from the perspective of "Do I Need This", "Can it be broken", and pack accordingly. If you are traveling as a couple or a family then live becomes easier.

 

[FranzoMCK]

] I use The TENPA SHOOTOUT ROLLING BACKPACK MEDIUM and It works fine for me: oly OMD 5 + nauticam housing + 2 Strobes ysd1+ Arms and clamps +12-50 mm lens + port + sola800+ iPad + IntovaIntova

 

[indiedive]

My photo gears - two strobes INON D2000, Olympus epl 5 and Oly casing, and three Oly lenses. I use backpack from Crumpler, unfortunately my type of bag is no longer in crumpler website. The backpack is so handy, additionally, there is a part of the bag that fit for my laptop (15 inch). By far, the bag still has some space and I am planning to buy Zen dome port. I think it will be fit - well, I hope

It sort of like this one - but the model I have is bit different..

Jackpack Full Photo Backpack - Crumpler

 

[ScubaMarc]

is there any decent bags that do not look like camera backpacks and scream: i have a lot of photo gear here, please steel me!

 

[NautilusCairns]

I just use any small backpack and put the individual components (strobes, ports, housing) into small, zippered, padded, fleece lined protective cells I buy from my local hiking/travel gear store (Kathmandu stores in Australia NZ and the UK). Works well and very lightweight.

 

[BlueDevil]

Most airlines I have flown with allow you to carry a camera as an additional item to your hand luggage (sometimes stated by the airline as a 'small' camera - I would argue my EPL5 is small compared to DSLRs). So I carry my camera in a small camera bag slung over my shoulder in addition to my carry on backpack. This reduces the weight by a little bit and gives me some chance of making the 7kg limit.

 

[PHIL RUDIN]

This is an interesting topic and one of the most frequently ask questions in my U/W photo workshops. After forty+ years as a traveling U/W photographers this is the short version of how I am now traveling and why I do what I do.

First, buy insurance for your equipment for BOTH flood and theft. I have lost more equipment over the years to THEFT than to flood and NONE of the thefts has occurred during the air travel. I carry all housings, strobes, cameras, lenses and ports onto the plain. In my checked luggage to split the dive gear and additional camera equipment between two checked bags, one hard and one soft. In the attached photos you will see a small backpack, I carry all strobe arms, trays, handles and clamps in that bag in the hard case. You will also see a clear ThinkTank bag which came with my ThinkTank shoulder bag. In this bag I have batteries, chargers, cords and my LaCie portable hard-drive. These also go into the hard checked bag. The hard bag has been opened several times by TSA most likely to check the strobe arm bag. It makes it easy for TSA to look at and prevents damage.

In the carry-on bags I have all cameras and lenses in the shoulder bag and everything else in the roller bag. I NEVER carry my cameras in the housings on the advise of ReefPhoto. They handle many service claims and several have been as a result of broken push buttons and other issues related to having the camera in the housing. I also have the housing unassembled to prevent problem. I wrap most of the equipment in bubble wrap or use a beer cozy for smaller items like my focusing light. I also carry a small dry-bag and use it most for carrying my land camera onto the boat.

I always try to keep the tool-on bag to under 35lbs. required by most airlines. I try to avoid small in country transfers on commuter aircraft. These always involve additional baggage fees and it is often cheaper to spend an extra day using some other mode of travel.

I have never had a problem with any airline over the two carryon bags. I always allow extra time going through security because I seem to run about 50/50 on being checked every time I travel. On my most recent trip back from the Philippines I was stopped in Hong Kong and they confiscated four of the Allen wrenches which come with the Nauticam housings because they were to long. From now on they will go in the backpack with the strobe arms, another lesson learned the hard way.

I like strobes that use AA batteries because they are so widely available that you can barrow or buy them about anywhere. If you use proprietary batteries I would always have both extra chargers and batteries.

I carry a Mac laptop in the shoulder bag and that bag was once stolen on the last day of a trip while in transit to my departure hotel. Don't keep all your eggs in one basket. I had all images backed-up on my portable hard-drive which was in the much bigger hard checked case. I got home with a LARGE insurance claim but still had all of the images from the trip.

I won't detail how I pack the equipment because every time I go I have several pieces of test equipment and it is always changing.

My ThinkTank bags and the backpack are older versions which have held up quite well over the years so you can look for current models it you are looking to buy.

Phil Rudin

 

[Tigerman]

I check my uw gear in a pelicase and carry on the camera body and lenses and laptop in a crumpler camera backpack...

 

[RTee]

Well I will have to start thinking about how I go about it for my next trip. At the moment, with only a SeaLife camera, my personal item is a small daypack containing my mask, dive computer, reg, certification cards and logbook and the SeaLife. My carry-on is backpack format but carry-on size that I use solely for my clothing and my check luggage is dedicated to the remainder of my diving equipment.

For my next out of area trip, I will be carrying an E-PL5 with one or two lenses, its nauticam housing with 4 in semi dome, one strobe (YS-D1), one focus/video light, tray and arms.
as well as
I will attempt to split the photography equipment between these three bags as well as see what I can share with my GF who travel in a similar luggage configuration.

 

[KeithG]

Thanks for the pictures Phil!
But as a warning to anyone flying via a "regional jet", your pictured roller bag is allowed as carry on, but will not actually fit inside any of the stowage areas In the plane. So it gets sky checked as you board the plane and will be tossed in on top of the rest of the luggage along with everyone else's large carry on.

This issue is a real problem for us Canadians as many (most?) of our flights to the caribbean involve using an Air Canada Jazz flight in a small plane to a connecting flight from an American hub. Our upcoming trip to Bonaire connects via Houston. The CRJ 705 from Toronto to Houston is a very tight little plane.