packing and transporting my rig

[TimG 62]

20 minutes ago, sinetwo said:

Here's one for you. You need to be a bit eagle eyed on various groups but good offers do come up. 

 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1898642463684432/permalink/3193598724188793/?sale_post_id=3193598724188793

Good spot!

[Davide DB 362]

19 hours ago, sinetwo said:

Here's one for you. You need to be a bit eagle eyed on various groups but good offers do come up. 

 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1898642463684432/permalink/3193598724188793/?sale_post_id=3193598724188793

Wow thanks,

I'll keep it in mind. I am in negotiations for another one for $100. 

[pbalves 47]

On 12/9/2021 at 9:46 AM, Davide DB said:

Chris I mostly agree with you and currently I use a plastic tub. 
Sometimes it happens that the space in the boat is minimal. We are 3 or more videomakers and all technical divers. Then I would prefer to have a soft cooler bag to optimize space.
 

Hi Davide

This is the main reason why I prefer a plastic box for handling the imaging equipment on the boat over a cooling bag. The more crowded the boat, the bigger the risk. 

With a lot of technical divers, the number of different heavy equipment in the boat is higher.

My advise is you to keep the plastic box, although you can try to find one that might be smaller (although big enough for the equipment)

My box has a lid, which is helpful to protect the equipment from the sun and also from accidental drops of heavy/sharp equipment over my camera rig. But even with the lid you need to be always careful. I had to shout to someone that was preparing himself to use the box as a stepstair or to put something heavy on top of it.

[Davide DB 362]

Thanks Pedro,

I have a plastic box like you that I use 90% of the times.

Sometimes the RIB is so crowded of diving gear that we don't have space for such boxes. Luckily on these occasions we are all friends so maximum attention to delicate equipment.

[Silvana 2]

I am editing this since I can't delete it. Please disregards, I found answers just few pages back on this thread. Thanks.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Apologies if this has been discussed before, newbie here about to get on my first international dive trip with a DSLR ( I traveled before with a smaller setup). The question I have is whether is advisable or not to carry the camera inside the housing for the flight. They would both be in a carry on. I remember vaguely seeing something that this is not a good idea but would like to see some thoughts from the many experienced travelers on this forum.

Thank you!

Edited December 14, 2021 by Silvana

[TimG 62]

Hey Silvana

Yeah two school of thought on that one: a) it's not a good idea as the camera bracket(s)/tray may get damaged if the equipment undergoes a shock. Or, b) yep, it saves space.

If I'm travelling with the camera and housing with me in the aircraft cabin - which is my default - I do install the camera in the housing. I've done dozens of trips/flights and, so far, never had a problem.

Have a great trip!

 

[Silvana 2]

3 hours ago, TimG said:

Hey Silvana

Yeah two school of thought on that one: a) it's not a good idea as the camera bracket(s)/tray may get damaged if the equipment undergoes a shock. Or, b) yep, it saves space.

If I'm travelling with the camera and housing with me in the aircraft cabin - which is my default - I do install the camera in the housing. I've done dozens of trips/flights and, so far, never had a problem.

Have a great trip!

 

Thank you so much, is great to hear there are options! Will see how the space will fill up... Just bought some bubble wrap, and will start packing soon. I can't believe I will be traveling with 4 lenses

[Barmaglot 171]

5 hours ago, Silvana said:

Thank you so much, is great to hear there are options! Will see how the space will fill up... Just bought some bubble wrap, and will start packing soon. I can't believe I will be traveling with 4 lenses

Just four?

I'm about to pack all this into a CB70:

Edit: Almost everything (minus top layer of a few parts) packed into a CB70:

Bag total weight is a hair over twenty kilograms.

Edited December 15, 2021 by Barmaglot

[sinetwo 12]

@Barmaglot @BergamotA

(wetpixel is now allowing me to remove the mistag, sorry!) 

 

That's quite the setup! Blackwater? 

Edited December 15, 2021 by sinetwo

[Barmaglot 171]

6 minutes ago, sinetwo said:

That's quite the setup! Blackwater? 

Week-long liveaboard, south to north Andaman Sea (Koh Lipe to Richelieu Rock), including some blackwater/bonfire dives (weather permitting) and fluorescence, if I can get my dive group to agree.

[TimG 62]

That is an impressive pack!

[Silvana 2]

22 hours ago, Barmaglot said:

Just four?

I'm about to pack all this into a CB70:

Edit: Almost everything (minus top layer of a few parts) packed into a CB70:

Bag total weight is a hair over twenty kilograms.

Of course I will have all the other things you do besides the 4 lenses, will also bring my compact Sony RX100 V and the housing/tray for it just in case... Have a great trip and I would be curios on a feedback on Retra strobes with the extra battery compartment, also how you like the snoot. Thanks!

[TimG 62]

I've moved replies to Silvana's question about using the Retra Superchargers and LSD snoot to the Retra Strobe thread:

 

[Draq 68]

On 12/14/2021 at 6:22 PM, Barmaglot said:

Just four?

I'm about to pack all this into a CB70:

Edit: Almost everything (minus top layer of a few parts) packed into a CB70:

Bag total weight is a hair over twenty kilograms.

I am very confused by this.  Maybe you have your own aircraft?  There is simply no way that any of the airlines I fly would let me carry a packed CB70 weighing 20kg on board the aircraft.  They would make me check it and at the end of the flight I can almost guarantee that at least some things would be broken.

I have had to beg and plead to get a smaller 8kg bag on, and have not always been successful.  

I cannot imagine packing fragile items like a huge and expensive dome, camera body and lenses in a CB70 for transport in the luggage hold.

I also cannot figure out how you could really get all that stuff in the bag, but that is different mystery.

 

 

[TimG 62]

29 minutes ago, Draq said:

I also cannot figure out how you could really get all that stuff in the bag, but that is different mystery.

 

Maybe Barmaglot uses the Airport Charm Technique? Or just flies Business 

[Draq 68]

1 hour ago, TimG said:

Maybe Barmaglot uses the Airport Charm Technique? Or just flies Business 

I have tried the charm thing with mixed success, but there is no way i could charm may way past the airplane door with that...

I guess I am just not worthy.

Business class is a possibility, I guess. 

I check a case that is built like a pelican but does not look like one, a small roller bag to go in the above-seat bin and a shoulder bag that goes under the seat.  That works well, but I always feel much better when I am at the final destination and the checked bag comes around on the belt.  There was a time when I could get everything in the cabin, but those days are gone.

I have just spent 15 minutes looking at my square grouper bag - then over at a pile of gear - then back to the bag, on so on.  I would need a magic wand or something.

But on the other hand: 

 

[Barmaglot 171]

4 hours ago, Draq said:

I am very confused by this.  Maybe you have your own aircraft?  There is simply no way that any of the airlines I fly would let me carry a packed CB70 weighing 20kg on board the aircraft.  They would make me check it and at the end of the flight I can almost guarantee that at least some things would be broken. 

I have had to beg and plead to get a smaller 8kg bag on, and have not always been successful.  

I have never had my carry-on weighed. Not once. The enforcement of carry-on weight and size is, in my experience, only a feature of short domestic flights, and even then mostly in USA - there, I did see United force my boss to gate-check his carry-on when flying from La Guardia to Cleveland Hopkins. Flying domestic in Thailand and Philippines, I see those 'your carry-on must be this big' frames, but nobody actually uses them. Closest I've come to that is an Air Asia check-in agent asking me to move some weight from my checked luggage to my carry-on. I presume that on really small aircraft, like floatplanes used for inter-island travel in places like the Maldives or Micronesia, those limits are enforced more strictly, but I've never been to those. I'm in Thailand right now, and I few here on Etihad - no issues at all with the CB70 (~20kg) and a 25L dry backpack (another 8-10kg or so).

4 hours ago, Draq said:

I also cannot figure out how you could really get all that stuff in the bag, but that is different mystery.

Space-folding magic! Did you know, for example, that the Retra reduction rings and reflectors fit over the Retra LSD barrel?

Edited December 16, 2021 by Barmaglot

[Whiskeyjack 1]

30 minutes ago, Barmaglot said:

I have never had my carry-on weighed. Not once. The enforcement of carry-on weight and size is, in my experience, only a feature of short domestic flights, and even then mostly in USA - there, I did see United force my boss to gate-check his carry-on when flying from La Guardia to Cleveland Hopkins. Flying domestic in Thailand and Philippines, I see those 'your carry-on must be this big' frames, but nobody actually uses them. Closest I've come to that is an Air Asia check-in agent asking me to move some weight from my checked luggage to my carry-on. I presume that on really small aircraft, like floatplanes used for inter-island travel in places like the Maldives or Micronesia, those limits are enforced more strictly, but I've never been to those. I'm in Thailand right now, and I few here on Etihad - no issues at all with the CB70 (~20kg) and a 25L dry backpack (another 8-10kg or so).

Space-folding magic! Did you know, for example, that the Retra reduction rings and reflectors fit over the Retra LSD barrel?

Interesting. Living in the Philippines for around 5 years now, I routinely get my carry-on bag wieghed, and it's almost always over the 7kg limit.  This has happened flying, PAL, Cebu Pacific, and Air Asia. However, after explaining and showing the check-in agent that the bag contains mostly camera gear they have never actually forced me to check the bag, though they often warn me to next time make it lighter.

[Barmaglot 171]

13 minutes ago, Whiskeyjack said:

Interesting. Living in the Philippines for around 5 years now, I routinely get my carry-on bag wieghed, and it's almost always over the 7kg limit.  This has happened flying, PAL, Cebu Pacific, and Air Asia

I guess I must've been lucky. My experience is less extensive than yours - I've only had two round-trip domestic flights in the Philippines; one with Air Asia from Manila to Cebu and back, and the other with Cebu Pacific from Manila to Dumaguete and back, and on neither of those was I hassled about my carry-on backpack - I didn't have the CB70 back then, but it was still 15kg+.

[Davide DB 362]

The problem is that the first time you're unlucky and they force you check your carry-on, you'll inevitably break most of the equipment in your bag.

Looking at how you've packed your gear, there's a danger of damaging it even on a simple road trip.

[Barmaglot 171]

4 hours ago, Davide DB said:

The problem is that the first time you're unlucky and they force you check your carry-on, you'll inevitably break most of the equipment in your bag.

Looking at how you've packed your gear, there's a danger of damaging it even on a simple road trip.

Eh, while it won't survive getting tossed out of an airliner's baggage hold onto tarmac, United-breaks-guitars-style, I have already done a few road trips with it to no ill effect. The lenses that aren't on the camera are inside an airbag, the camera is inside the housing with multiple points of contact all around the body (it's not held on a tray by the tripod socket) and there's plastic or neoprene interleaved between almost all the metal items. If some $15 UV torches get scratched up - meh, I won't cry over it.

[Davide DB 362]

3, 2, 1 ready for the RIB

[TimG 62]

Happy Diving!

[andi_db 3]

On 12/17/2021 at 1:21 AM, Barmaglot said:

I guess I must've been lucky. My experience is less extensive than yours - I've only had two round-trip domestic flights in the Philippines; one with Air Asia from Manila to Cebu and back, and the other with Cebu Pacific from Manila to Dumaguete and back, and on neither of those was I hassled about my carry-on backpack - I didn't have the CB70 back then, but it was still 15kg+.

Last trip to Egypt I split my carry on into three separate bags. So I had one small rolling bag with housing, ports and strobes in it - total of 10kg. Then In backpack I had camera stuff with lenses and my purse with small items. I had no problems with weight as it was distributed in smaller bags and didn't look as chunky but it was at least 15kg heavy 

[Barmaglot 171]

Just now, andi_db said:

Last trip to Egypt I split my carry on into three separate bags

My last trip to Egypt, the customs officers at the Taba crossing demanded that I leave all my underwater photo at the border. I told them no f'ing way and went back home.