Taking my camera on a long-haul flight, anything i should know?

bomberman

bomberman

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I'm taking a 60+20 litre backpack with loads of stuff in to Thailand tomorrow and wondered if there were any special precautions i needed to take. I'll take the 20L removable daysack on the plane with me as hand luggage. I'm just trying to decide what to take on the plane with me as it won't all fit in. I have the following gear:

gripped 400d
sigma 17-70
sigma 10-20 (soft case)
Nifty fifty (hard case)
sigma 28-300
Hard drive
filters etc..

Are there any issues with the x-ray machine? regarding memory cards/batteries?
 
No issues with x ray machines but plenty of issues with baggage handlers, I wouldn't put any of my camera gear in the hold, it gets chucked about a lot before you'll see it again.

Buy a bag that's suitable for hand luggage and take what you can fit in it would be my advice, the limit when I flew to the US was 6kg , my hand luggage weighed 15kg but nobody checked
 
I would never check in any camera equipment and all my luggagae is hard case as mentioned baggage handlers are the problem and the airline will not compensate you for damage and if its lost they pay by weight not value of the objects.

I fly every couple of months and all my kit goes in one bag as hand luggage and I take more than you have listed above. I'm probably over the hand luggage weight limit but the bag fits the hand lugguage size and the overhead lockers easily.

I have on a couple of occassions carried extra kit (two flashguns) in my jacket pockets rather than put them in check in luggage.
 
cheers for the advice, as i said i'm taking a 60L backpack with a removable 20L daysack. I am tempted to just shove it all in the 20L daysack and take it on the plane with me but it'll be a squeeze and it's not a camera-specific bag.

Do you think if a lens is in the centre of the main luggage in a soft case surrounded by clothes it will be protected enough to go in the hold of the plane? Its a very sturdy rucksack with a rigid plastic backboard and its quite deep set. I could take my best lenses on the plane with me and leave the nifty fifty (which is in a hard case) the 28-300 (which has a broken AF and is a dead weight) and a flashgun in the main luggage...
 
I'm with the others - err on the side of caution and fit as much as you can into your hand luggage and pockets. Your 50mm will fit in your jacket or shorts pockets, as will the flashgun. Broken 28-300 in the big case - everything else in hand luggage - you should be ok ;)
 
bomberman said:
Do you think if a lens is in the centre of the main luggage in a soft case surrounded by clothes it will be protected enough to go in the hold of the plane?
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Dear life are you insane? You have obviously never seen baggage handlers in action. They are ruthless, nothing survives !!
 
Personally, I would try to get as much in your hand luggage as possible. Put anything like filters and cables etc in the hold securely packed.

As for hand luggage, it depends on who you are flying with - if it is Emirates especially out of Manchester, it will get weighed, and from past experience, they strictly enforce the 7kg limit.
 
gembobs said:
As for hand luggage, it depends on who you are flying with - if it is Emirates especially out of Manchester, it will get weighed, and from past experience, they strictly enforce the 7kg limit.
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I regularly travel with a fully loaded (about 17kg) roller bag and one way around the problem is, if you are with someone, is to get to the airport early and check in separately. While you check in, your partner/friend/collegue can hang on to the heavy hand luggage out of site.
The cabin crew don't care as long as you board briskly and get your bag in the locker before the space runs out.
I've done this many times without any issues.

If you are going with BA then no need to do this.
 
Oh my god! Just went to take the batteries out to charge them and the knob fell off the battery grip - both batteries stuck inside!:'(

Edit: Panic over, have superglued it back on :)
 
Depending on who you fly with, it can be difficult to get hand luggage over the stated requirements through the departure gate - doesn't matter that you 'fooled' the guys on the check in desk and they seem to be getting more militant about it these days. Also, beware that flying out from one airport does not mean you have the same allowance on the way back, as I found out when coming home from Hong Kong!

I take a bag to the limit - be aware, though, that especially on the long hauls, some ignorant selfish little, er, person, will more than likely shove his/her bag above your seat as they walk through - I see this more and more and it irritates me beyond belief. So, you may have to store your equipment away from where you are sitting and hope no-one else bashes their duty free on top of it. Personally, if the bag doesn't belong to me, I ask whose it is a couple of times and then put it on an empty seat. That's me, though, and I still believe that it I pay for seat 19C I get the area above 19C and don't give it up to some git in 37A :nono:
 
Eurgh am seriously thinking i've got too much stuff..

My bag weighs in at 12.2 kilos! maybe i should ditch the suncream :lol:
 
~Sam~ said:
Depending on who you fly with, it can be difficult to get hand luggage over the stated requirements through the departure gate - doesn't matter that you 'fooled' the guys on the check in desk and they seem to be getting more militant about it these days. Also, beware that flying out from one airport does not mean you have the same allowance on the way back, as I found out when coming home from Hong Kong!
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Maybe if you exceed the size of your luggage rather than the weight, but how often have you seen weighing scales at the gate? I do 50+ flights every year, including long hauls and sometimes on stricter airlines like Emirates and Etihad, and have never had a problem - except once at Stansted for a Ryanair flight (no surprises there).

True about the airport though. Melbourne being particularly bad unless you can blag a fast track through to security. Didn't have an issue in Hong Kong this year.
 
bomberman said:
Eurgh am seriously thinking i've got too much stuff..

My bag weighs in at 12.2 kilos! maybe i should ditch the suncream :lol:
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Ditch all the suncream and other stuff you can buy in the duty free area you may pay a little more to buy it there but it comes after all the checks etc so doesn't count towards your allowances.:thumbs:
 
Just watch the trollies with luggage going out to an aircraft. Then can carry luggage at least ten deep. If your rucsack is at the bottom, it could have ten times 40/50 lbs on top of it.
Do the math and if you have to ingest it, if it's at all fragile keep it with you and insure.
 
i took a tenor saxaphone on one of el-al's planes...they laughed at me as i went through to their security lounge but let me take it on
it was in a bass guitar gig bag...

you could load your camera gear into a gig bag suitable padded and see if you can get it onboard that way...

mind you that was around 12 years ago..
 
bomberman said:
Do you think if a lens is in the centre of the main luggage in a soft case surrounded by clothes it will be protected enough to go in the hold of the plane?
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Test it beforehand, it's quite simple.
  1. Pack your bag as you would for travel.
  2. Throw it out of a second-story window.
  3. Throw it out of the window again.
  4. Put it on your drive and run it over with a large truck.
  5. Reverse the truck back over it.
  6. Leave the bag in the seediest part of town, unattended, overnight.
If it passes those tests then it'll probably be OK to put it in the hold.
 
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