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Hi all, has anyone got any experience of taking their LF gear on a flight?
Bit worried about damage etc. Bit too heavy for hand luggage so I presume it'll go in the hold, where it's liable to meet allsorts of damage.Anyone with any suggestions for easing my fears!!

Hello JC,

I don't have any experience of taking LF gear on flights.

However I recently spend nearly a year at Heathrow (T1 and T4) commissioning equipment in the baggage halls. My experiences there suggest that I would ONLY take fragile items like lenses, meters, as hand baggage. Anything else should be in tough flight cases and insured. They WILL be thrown around by the baggage handlers, slide down chute's into other baggage and bounce around on conveyors. If you need further details please PM me.

Barry

Hi JC, I have flown to Norway a few times with MF and LF gear. I usually take it on as hand luggage, ryanair seem to rarely weigh it!, I use a Lowepro Phototrekker as it is Cabin size. Tripod I usually check as gated luggage.

I am always reluctant to put stuff in the hold for long haul flights, I have been seperated from my luggage a few times and would be disttraught if my LF gear went astray.

If I was to pack it in the hold I would invest in a pelicase of the appropriate size, expesive but well worth the cost. They make a roller that will take a large Photo bag for about >£200.
They take an amazing amount of abuse and are completely watertight when closed properly!!

Gari

I suppose the trick is, the ability to make a 20kg PhotoTrekker bag look like 7kg without developing a double hernia

gari wrote:Hi JC, I have flown to Norway a few times with MF and LF gear. ...

I've flown the other way a few times.

Everything packed in a big heavy Pelicase, and checked in as luggage. Tripod in a light stand bag, wrapped in "dark cloth" and several layers of bubble wrap.

Only film in the hand luggage.

I flew to Las Vegas via Atlanta last year with my Ebony + lightest lens + film as hand lugage and everything else in a LowePro Pro Trekker, padded out with clothes and then put into a larger bag with tripod and further padded with clothes. Also took my MF gear in a Mini Trekker in a smaller bag with more clothes. So, two hold bags containing two camera systems and one carry-on. No problems at all!

I personally wouldn't use a Pelicase as these scream 'steal me!' I just make sure everything is well padded and packed in tightly so it can't move about.

I flew into Las Vegas in Sep 2005 ( and May 2004 and Feb 2003 ) with all my camera gear, and I do mean ALL.

A fully kitted LowePro Nature Trekker, and a Peli 1610 "King" case, plus tripod bag, plus suitcase for less important stuff, like clothes

I only took the LF gear in 2005 though, as I didn't have it before then. The customs official at Las Vegas airport said "are you moving here?", cheeky bugger, I wish!.

I tend to put into the LowePro everything I *need* in order to get some photos, like filters, film, main lens, light meter, cable release, DSLR, etc. Enough that I can still take some shots if the Peli went astray, and I take the LowePro as hand luggage. Last time I put the LF camera in the Peli, and would probably do so again, as it's less of a "nickable" item than say a DSLR.

I also had a laptop in the Peli case the first two trips, no problems. Peli case is great, I'd consider getting another, the "carryon" one, to put the LowePro inside or something. If someone was intent on stealing your gear, they wouldn't steal the Peli imho, but something from inside. A Peli is not exactly the kind of thing you can move about covertly

You can lock the case one way, but not the other ( unless you have TSA locks ). I can't remember now which way is which, I think it's outbound from US you can't lock them. That said, you can have someone check them over when you check them in, and then they let you put the locks on. Customs officials are generally quite approachable.

Only trouble I usually have is with the tripod. Checkin staff in the UK tell you to check it in, as it's not big, and a large hollow metal stick with a weighty lump of cast magnesium at one end is not exactly the sort of thing they should allow as carryon... so you check it in, no problem. When you come to bring it back from the USA, they try to charge you extra for the tripod bag, and when you refuse to pay extra to take home the same luggage you brought out for free, they say take it as hand luggage. Just have to explain things simply to them, and they relent eventually.