Traveling with equipment gear oversease

[raf2379]

Anyone ever travelled to europe or anywhere outside of Canada with their camera gear?

did you take in as carry on or check baggage. and what about tripods, anyone know if they are allowed on airplanes as carry on?

the reason i'm asking is because I have $8000 or more in camera gear and i'm a bit scared to check it in as check baggage. Or should I just take it as carry on.

anyone have any sugestions or experiance traveling out of canada with camera gear?

[alexe]

check the cheaper less breakable stuff and carry on the more valuable/ more breakable stuff thats my advice i took my stuff to england and that worked, put me at ease but i didnt have to carry it all through the airport. just be careful once your there people will jack that shit from right next to you if your looking right they will be comming from the left.

[Fire_chickin]

I took my gear to Honduras in December and my advice is to absolutely carry on if you can pack your gear in a small enough bag. Usually a backpack style bag is no problem providing it fits in the little baskets they give you to measure your carry ons. A tripod is no problem as long as it's strapped securely to your pack.

If you have too much gear to fit in carry on size bags then invest in some hardcover cases. They're not cheap but they're worth it.

[AccentAE86]

My suggestion is to get a bag that can hold all your crap, is small enough for legal carryon, AND, if for some reason they won't let you carry on, is tough enough to endure being checked, dropped, thrown, kicked and still protect your gear.

The best solution I've found for this is the Think tank Airport Security. It's fricken awesome. Rollerbag designed just for photographers. If it's got more space than you need, just throw some clothes in there too.

I won't get into the features... there's wayyyyy too many to list.

http://www.thecamerastore.com/Produc...roductID=32001

It fits all my junk quite nicely...

[msommers]

I'll be in the same predicament in a few months. I'll probably carry on all my electronics and throw the tripod in check luggage.

[lint]

tripods are not allowed as carry on, so you'll have to check that. Everything else I carry on. The amount of damaged checked baggage you see should be enough to tell you that checking in is not a good thing.

[raf2379]

yeah i guess the tripod will have to be checked in with the check inbagage. thanks for the info. i got a backpack from the camerastore where everything fits in nicely except the tripod.

[turboMiata]

Originally posted by AccentAE86
The best solution I've found for this is the Think tank Airport Security. It's fricken awesome. Rollerbag designed just for photographers. If it's got more space than you need, just throw some clothes in there too.

ditto, the airport security rocks. i was going to start blabbing about shoulder bags until i saw your photo. you did a great job cramming all that gear in there!

[BerserkerCatSplat]

Yeah, that roller bag looks great. I wouldn't check in my equipment unless I absolutely had to, and even then it'd have to be in a Pelican.

[Mitsu3000gt]

I took my slingshot 200AW as a carry on, as well as a lap top bag, and I didn't have any trouble anywhere. However the Canadian airport security swabbed the outside of the nylon SB-600 case for explosives haha.

[msommers]

So carrying on two separate bags wasn't a issue?

[raf2379]

well I made it to Algeria no problems. I Had to put the tripod in the checked beggage tho, but its all good. And I too found out that you can carry on two bags if you need to.

[Melinda]

I've taken my gear overseas before, they did make me take it all out so they could swab it for explosives lol, but no real problems other than that. I'm heading to the UK for my honeymoon next month and I've bought a crumpler bag (it's a great little camera bag that doesnt actually look like one) and their site actually tells you which are carry on friendly. I'll check my tripod into my luggage, but all the gear is going with me on the plane.

[3g4me]

I have taken my gear on multiple trips and never had a problem, i allways take all the delicate gear with me on the plane and tripod in the checked luggage. I believe there are green forms you can get too so that you dont have any problems with them thinking you bought the camera there. I cant remember what they are called but you might want to check into that as well.

[Mitsu3000gt]

Originally posted by msommers
So carrying on two separate bags wasn't a issue?

Nope, not at the Calgary or Cuban airports. I was worried it would be too but they didn't care. It seemed pretty slack, because women are allowed a carry on + purse, so I sort of had a similar arrangement.

[3g4me]

I know that in london heathrow in December 06 they wouldnt let you on with 2 carry ons. Not even a purse.