I recently purchased a housing and flash system for my Canon 10d. I am now in the market for a box to put it all in. I am considering the pelican boxes 1550 and 1600 with padded dividers and photo lid accessory.

Can all of you that haul your systems around help me with what seems to work best and what doesn't. I am looking for something that obviously holds everything I have now (and will eventually hold a second strobe) but that doesn't take up more room than necessary. (What is the smallest box I can get away with)

Does anyone know what the airline max size restrictions are for carry on in regard to pelican case model numbers? Do those of you who fly with your gear check it or carry it on board with you? If you check it...any problems now that we can't lock anything going into checked baggage?

Thanks for all your help.

My opinion is that you won't be able to fit housing, ports, strobes, and arms into a hard-sided case that will fit in carryon.

I use a Storm 1750 for all of the above. It rolls and has a retractable handle. It also has a nice foam "tray" that fits inside to hold all of the "fiddley bits"

HTH
James

Pelican 1520 is the largest carryon size. I've got one, but the hard case versus the same size soft case makes it hard to carry it on because the gate agents don't like the way it looks. You could probably fit a very consolidated system in it, in fact I have, but the reality is it should probably get checked. And since you're checking it anyway, get something with wheels, these things are HEAVY when loaded up.

One other thing, even if you can fit your housing, ports, and strobes in as a carryon, I'd put your strobe arms in a checked bag. You may not have any issues, but an 8" ULCS arm could be used as a weapon in the eyes of a TSA agent.

There is no way (IMHO) that you can get a housed system into a carry on sized case. I have an Aquatica S2 housing with 2 ports and 3 strobes plus the usual accessories. I pack all this in a Pelican 1620 which is a double depth case with wheels and internal padded dividers. I have space to pack my regulator and dive computer in there as well. The camera body, lenses and laptop computer go in my carry on bag.

As for locking checked bags, the simple answer nowadays is Insurance. I asked the DAN equipment Insurance people specifically about theft during transportation and they confirmed that the equipment is insured for any risk at any time.

Bruce

Ah yes, locking. If you get some nice big zip ties from the electrical department at Home Depot, you can use those. If TSA wants to inspect the bag, they'll cut them, check the bag, then re-seal it with zip ties.

This won't stop a determined thief from breaking into the bag and stealing whatever they want, but neither will your standard luggage lock. All it will do is slow someone down slightly, give them a reason to look at another bag instead, and finally, the zip tie will help keep the bag sealed during handling so it's less likely that it will spill open.

Bruce is correct though, the best idea is insurance.

Not quite a true answer to the question but I have sought the "ideal case" for sometime. I now truely believe its does not exist. I even got to the point whereby my whole port range cannot fit with my U/W gear (excluding arms and camera/lens') into a pelican 1600.

I find I am more concerned, these days, about avoiding excess baggage charges and if travelling oversea I usually:

1) cut clothing to an absolute minimim
2) cut dive gear to the min - including moving over to a harness and travel wing.
3) Move all arms and hard to damage gear into my dive gear bag.
4) Fit as much as I can into a "carry on" Lowepro rucksac (and I use a second camera bag if not tarvelling on any "small regional" airlines)
5) Fit anything that does not go into the Lowepro between teeshirts and shorts in my clothing bag.

If I am travelling locally (ie. weekender I use the Peli 1600 plus a camera bag for camera and lens' and ensure that any ports I don't think I will use (i.e. super macro if I am going to "WA" site) are just left at home.

My situation is LESS than ideal but after spending a lot of money on various bags I still do not have an anwser. The nearest i came was the Peli 1600 until you travel and then you are at the mercy of ground staff and excess charges (I suppose if I could just get used to paying I would not have such a problem ).

I took Eric's suggestion of a StormCase 2500 for camera gear and added a backpack style computer case for my laptop, logbook, dive computer and a day's change of clothes in case my checked bags gets lost. I also keep my prescription mask in my backpack. For checked bags I used zip ties instead of locks. My dive gear bag was opend for inspecting and resealed by TSA every time, but my clothing bag wasn't opened once.

Insurance is also a really good idea. Airlines will only pay you a fraction of what your gear is worth if anything happens to it. I actually read one of their baggage info sites recently that told you not to travel with items worth more than $2500 period. That pretty much rules out most camera rigs and, for me, the rebreather. I had the Dan insurance through H2O insurance last year, it's a bit on the pricy side. I sent the same list of gear to my homeowner's agent and their quote was less then half for world wide, all-loss coverage for any reason. If you're a homeowner, check with your insurance agent before signing up for dedicated dive insurance. I didn't renew with H2O this year and switched everything over to my homeowners.

I have the H2O Insurance through DAN as well, and was considering switching it to my homeowner's and found some interesting information. For some companies, claiming a loss on your camera gear (or any other items tagged onto your homeowner's) can put you at risk for non-renewal of homeowner's.

I'd hate to flood my camera, file a claim, and then have to find a new homeowner's policy, potentially labelled as a "high risk" candidate. Might be worth looking into, although I doubt that the insurance company would admit that filing a claim will get you booted.

I recently used a new roller type carry-on Lowepro Pro Roller 1 and was very pleased. As stated, you will not be able to carry on a complete housed system so I resorted to carrying all the delicate stuff. I was able to fit S2, 3 strobes, 3 lenses, container of AA's, and 1 charger. It has 4 large, see through zipper pockets for incidental items. The laptop case, also very heavy, attaches to the piggy-back strap, placing all the weight on the rollers, making it virtually effortless to pull.

I previusly used the Photo Trekker AW backpack and loved it's function but found it to be very heavy on long travel days. This combined with the necessity of a laptop caused me to change to the roller. I will be selling the backpack now if anyone is interested.