Traveling With Your DLSR---What's Best??

[annnewjerz]

After my recent post about whether to carry-on, ship or check your tripod...it got me thinking the same about your camera, lenses and other junk.

Obviously you would carry these things on the plane with you, but how do you store them during the flight?

My initial thought would be to put the gear I plan to take in my shoot-bag, and keep it with me on the flight (like I would with my purse). However, I have seen a lot of talk on other websites about ThinkTank and Pelican bags that seem to be designed specifically for the safe transport of your equipment.

For those of you that keep it in a bag with them at their seat---do you feel like this is a secure way to travel with your stuff? For those of you that pack the stuff into a bag like the Pelican, my guess would be the bag is too large to keep with you in your seat---so do you store it in the overhead and if so, don't you worry about it getting banged during the flight?

What do YOU do?

 

[oogieboogieman]

Tripod in my checked bag. All other with me at all times . I store it underneath my seat or my sons seat. I feel this works best for me. My camera never leaves my side, you would have to pry it from my cold, dead hand.

 

[RCDisneyFan]

I keep my camera in the carryon I wedge under the seat in front of me - usually the camera bag is inside said carryon. (My bags are all about the size of the Crumpler 5 Million Dollar Home. I travel light.) If I had a hard case camera bag, I would consider putting it in the overhead bin. If I had a tripod, I'd just pack it in my suitcase..

On the other hand, if it's easily accessible and something happens on the plane - assuming I don't die from whatever happens - I have a shot at saving my camera. Wouldn't if it was overhead...and I don't have any children to watch out for. These are the things I think about.

 

[Todd_H]

I usually carry a backpack with just my gear and definitely store it under the seat in front of me. If you store it above, you never know how heavy some of those other carryons might be and they could slide around and damage your gear (and I've never seen an airline weigh a carry on).

 

[Chikabowa]

This is both my regular and travel camera case:
Pelican Roller Case

It usually put the bag up in the overhead, but I do have to remove the front zippered part, which stores my laptop and everyday office type stuff, and I put that at my feet. I usually put my wallet/ID/money, my iPod and a book inside that, so it makes it simple to access during flight.

Two weeks ago, when flying home from Las Vegas, the flight was super full and I was one of the last people on board. So the flight attendants put my bag inside the coat closet between first class and coach. That was super handy! I was sitting one row back from the bulkhead, so it didn't really bother me much.

 

[NostalgicDad]

The Think Tank Acceleration is my main bag for all my gear. I have a Kata backpack for outings, etc. The Acceleration is very well made and I also am able to put my laptop in the removable sleeve which makes it easy to put through the x-ray going through security. The tripod goes wrapped in a thick towel in my checked bag.

 

[deletedpenguin]

Everyone is going to give you a different idea when it comes to storing and travelling bag. The only thing that seems to be common among everyone is, keep your gear with you, and check your tripod.

I use a Tamrac Adventure 9 backpack. It's big enough to fit the gear I normally travel with, but anything more and I'd need a case. I like having the backpack, and the area at the top to throw other stuff, like an Ipod etc.

 

[boBQuincy]

My camera goes in the $4M Crumpler.
Everything else goes in

This Eagle Creek roller fits underneath the seats of almost any plane.
http://eaglecreek.com/bags_luggage/wheeled_luggage/Wheeled-Underseat-Tote-20193/

My lenses (70-200 and 10-22) are in LowePro lens cases and the laptop is in an REI padded PC sleeve, all in the Eagle Creek bag. A lot more goes in there too!

Once I get to the destination my camera comes out and the lenses go in the $4M home.

This system has been refined through more than 30 WDW trips and it works well for me. If you *have to* put your camera bag in the overhead bin it might be best to put it to the rear of the compartment, the worst bumps are probably on landing when everything gets pushed toward the front.

 

[My2Girls66]

Camera and lenses with me in camera bag or backpack under seat- tripod in checked bag. I like to keep the camera handy in case there is something cool to shoot from the window. Last week, coming home from Florida I gave my camera bag to DD to carry on since I had 2 other bags. I had to remind her to get it when we got off. She almost left it under her seat!

 

[WillCAD]

I have a rolling backpack that I use for my laptop and all my camera gear. It's too large to fit under the seat, so I usually put my MP3 player and a few odds and ends that I need during the flight into a smaller bag that I can remove from the backpack before takeoff.

The backpack is not as padded as a Pelican case, but it's padded enough to protect my gear reasonably well, and it's just the right size that nobody can put their bag on top of it in the overhead bin. It also doesn't look like a computer or laptop bag, so I think it's less likely to be targeted by theives as I roll it through the airport.

My tripod doesn't always go to WDW with me, but when it does, it's in my checked bag.

 

[spinetnglr]

I just returned from Ft. Bragg yesterday on a short flight from Philadelphia to Raleigh-Durham. I have the Kata467 bag which had all my gear in the camera compartment and the laptop sleeve in the back so it is a fairly large bag. It fit under the seat in front of me with a little room to spare. I wasnt comfortable with putting it up in the overhead just because both flights were really full and I didnt want people moving it around and trying to jam bags into the same compartment. Even though its got very good padding i wasnt chancing it.

 

[Groucho]

Like most others, my camera bag goes under the seat. We also have a large laptop bag that goes in the overhead.

For the tripod, I pack it in the middle of our clothes in one of our suitcases. Last trip, I also put all of my Takumar lenses with the tripod (they pretty much all have fairly sturdy old leather cases.)

 

[MarkBarbieri]

I pitch my stuff in the overhead. I've never had a problem with it getting crushed. It's usually so packed in there that things don't move that much.

 

[Quicklabs]

I have my stuff in my Kata 465 backpack. The backpack fits perfectly into my carry on rolling bag which fits perfectly into the overhead on even a small plane. That way, I can put a couple of other things into my carry on (eg. one change of clothing, medications, that sort of stuff) and not have to deal with the weight of my backpack.

 

[YesDear]

I am like Mark. My stuff goes in the overhead. I use the lowepro comutrekker plus

I trust the backpack to keep it safe and I have never had a problem.

 

[annnewjerz]

Thanks for all of the great responses everyone! I'm glad to see that if I decide I want to keep my camera stuff with me while I'm in the seat I can...or just stick it in the overhead if I decide to purchase something secure enough.

What I'd really like is to find a bag that has enough room to hold the camera stuff I plan to travel with, room for a few odds and ends so I don't need a purse and room to store a laptop if we end up bringing one. It looks like John and Karyl's will hold all of that stuff just fine...so I guess I'll have to do some shopping before we go.

A decent bag to store all of my stuff in is something I haven't looked into yet...I have a dresser with drawers dedicated to my stuff right now or I just keep it in my shoot bag.

 

[spinetnglr]

Thanks for all of the great responses everyone! I'm glad to see that if I decide I want to keep my camera stuff with me while I'm in the seat I can...or just stick it in the overhead if I decide to purchase something secure enough.

What I'd really like is to find a bag that has enough room to hold the camera stuff I plan to travel with, room for a few odds and ends so I don't need a purse and room to store a laptop if we end up bringing one. It looks like John and Karyl's will hold all of that stuff just fine...so I guess I'll have to do some shopping before we go.

A decent bag to store all of my stuff in is something I haven't looked into yet...I have a dresser with drawers dedicated to my stuff right now or I just keep it in my shoot bag.

I bought the Kata 467 not long after I got the D300. I had all my personal stuff in the top part of the bag. The laptop was in the laptop sleeve in the back. The camera body, SB600 and 4 lenses were in the lower compartmented part of the bag. When you have all that in it is pretty heavy but the way the straps and bag is designed its still very comfortable when its on your back. I didnt want to check any baggage this trip bc there were 9 of us traveling together and no one was checking bags. Normally I would put the tripod in checked baggage but since I had to have everything in a carry on I went with laptop and camera and small personals in the Kata and everything else in my carry on and no tripod this trip.

 

[annnewjerz]

I bought the Kata 467 not long after I got the D300. I had all my personal stuff in the top part of the bag. The laptop was in the laptop sleeve in the back. The camera body, SB600 and 4 lenses were in the lower compartmented part of the bag. When you have all that in it is pretty heavy but the way the straps and bag is designed its still very comfortable when its on your back. I didnt want to check any baggage this trip bc there were 9 of us traveling together and no one was checking bags. Normally I would put the tripod in checked baggage but since I had to have everything in a carry on I went with laptop and camera and small personals in the Kata and everything else in my carry on and no tripod this trip.

Were you able to carry on the Kata AND the carry-on bag that had your clothes and stuff?

Usually I carry on my purse with all of my stuff (iPOD, magazines, etc.) and then have a carry-on with clothes and whatnot. This time around, I was planning to carry on my purse and some sort of camera bag as my carry-on and then would have to just put a few clothing items in DH's carry-on. That being said, if I would be allowed to carry on the Kata AND a carry-on, I would definitely skip the purse and shove all of my personal items into the Kata and clothes/shoes in a real carry-on....that would be GREAT.

 

[handicap18]

For traveling I use a Tarmac Adventure 9. This goes with me on the plane, mostly in the overhead as is kinda large to go under the seat in front of me. It weighs a ton when fully loaded, but it keeps everything together and with me. It also holds my laptop and external hard drive and will also hold the camcorder if I happen to take it.

 

[spinetnglr]

Were you able to carry on the Kata AND the carry-on bag that had your clothes and stuff?

Usually I carry on my purse with all of my stuff (iPOD, magazines, etc.) and then have a carry-on with clothes and whatnot. This time around, I was planning to carry on my purse and some sort of camera bag as my carry-on and then would have to just put a few clothing items in DH's carry-on. That being said, if I would be allowed to carry on the Kata AND a carry-on, I would definitely skip the purse and shove all of my personal items into the Kata and clothes/shoes in a real carry-on....that would be GREAT.

I carried on the Kata with all the camera gear and personal items, and an UnderArmor medium duffle with all my clothes and such with no issues whatsoever. We flew Southwest and both flights were full. Full enough that they were asking for volunteers to take later flights for a voucher. When I heard that announcement I was afraid I would be asked to check the duffle. Since we printed our boarding passes beforehand and were part of the A boarding group we had no problems. Some of the late boarders had to have bags checked though because the overhead bins were full.