Following advise here, I ordered the 1660 Pelican case to carry my two housings, strobes and ports. Here is the problem the case weighs 48 lbs. but the weight limit per case for commerical airlines is 50 lbs. This allows for two pounds of camera equipment in a very large case! How do people deal with this?

Regards,
Tom

Send it back and get a Storm Case, they are the same and weigh a lot less. www.stormcase.com

Cheers
James

Agree with James about the Storms. Also more comfortable to carry!
Hope you can send it back :?

I have had an aluminium (bought it in England) case for a number of years. It is great. Strong and light too. The problem I have been having with it recently is that it gets far two much attention from security going through airports. I have to open it everytime I go through customs, plus I think that it has missed a few flights because of extra security checks.

It got lost on the way to Egypt in 2003. Then again on the way to Bali in 2004. And on the way to Cayman last week it arrived here with a note from US security inside! In all cases my dive bag arrived fine. Once I know how big my new housing is - I'm getting a new case. The Storm sounds good.

Alex

I have used the storm case 2500 for almost 2 years and I am very pleased with it. It got wheels and is carry-on. It covers a subal housing, 2 strobes, a large WA port and some accessories well protected within the customized foam system. All together it weights some 20 kg (which is no problem to carry because of the wheels) but by definition for carry-on purposes it is too heavy. However, so far various airlines (to Thailand, US, Egypt, etc.) never refused to let me take it as carry-on. But should they once refuse, I will just check it.

I like Storrn cases, too but you need to be realistic. They are lighter than Pelicans for the same size but the difference is usually only a few pounds. If your luggage is taking 48 out your allotted 50 pounds then switching to a Storm case isn't the answer. You need a much smaller case or a different approach to packing.

I don't use Pelicans or Storms most of the time since they're too heavy. I use a Porter case for a carry-on and put as much of my camera/housing/lenses in it as I can and I use lighter weight luggage for the rest. It's all a balancing act and my technique won't be everyone's favorite but you can't use up your entire travel allowances with empty luggage. I typically use plastic containers that I ship in softsided checkin bags.

The Storm case will be reviewed in the equipment sidebar in my column in Scuba Diving next month. There are several significant design advantages relative to wheels, handles, overrelief valve, etc.; but since this post relates specifically to weight, please note that the empty weight of a Pelican 1620 is 9 pounds greater than the same size Storm.

See http://www.stormcase.com/product_info/inde...dexfeature.html for empty weight and dimensions of specific Storm cases.

Ha! I claim credit for this one folks...:-) When Stephen was preparing a camera/housing comparison article a few years ago, I sent him my Aquatica housing in my Storm 2750. Sounds like it was love at first sight...;-)

Just joking of course - I can't claim credit for that one. But I did send him the Storm.

Cheers
James

And it did arrive in fine shape James, thank you. Your cooperation is always appreciated.

Actually, I was not happy because the case actually melted and changed shape Stephen. It's not your fault and I'm not implying that - it's the Houston weather's fault.

What happened is I did not crack the purge valve and the case "inflated" as it heated up. The plastic must have softened, because the top bowed up a lot and it "stuck that way," believe it or not. After a few trips, it's back to normal now, but it was very un-nerving.

Cheers
James

Well I have gotten lots of good advise. My choice was to cancel the Pelican from DigitalFotoClub and order a iM2950 storm case from Cases-Cases. Both companies have been very helpful and I have gained 27 lbs working room while saving a few bucks. Actually, it turns out that the airline has tightened even further their weight limitations (44#) so it looks like I will be paying extra for the flight.

I will follow the advise to use an appropriate case for carry one and to keep the expensive pieces with me.

Thanks for all the advise. I hope to now focus on the original problem of how to use this new equipment to capture the life on the coral reef that I love.

Regards,
Tom

Alex,

I agree that the aluminuim cases get way too much attention at the airport, but don't think that your case had anything to do with getting a TSA hand inspection. I am an American and frequently fly domestic. About half the time my bags get hand checked with the TSA note these days. It doesn't matter weather I fly myself or with the wife and kids. My wife is from Switzerland and her parents get alarmed all the time with the TSA "checking" them. All the bags get inspected one way or another these days. Weather you get a hand inspection just depends how many x-ray machines they have. Relax, its not you its just the screwed up world we live in now.

I guess I am missing something here. We have the Pelican 1650 case and if I compare it to the storm version the difference is 1.3 pounds. Hard to imagine the storm version of the 1660 is so much lighter and in fact it isnt. Changing a Pelican 1660 to a Storm 2950 will save 13 pounds (according to the various websites) but also it is considerably smaller, the Pelican is 2 inches wider and almost 7 inches deeper. There aren't many polymers that are that much lighter for the same strength as ABS, certainly none that are half as light for equivalent strength.

Bill

I do not know the weight for the Pelican 1660 other than the information on their web site which states 49 lbs with the foam. The linear dimension for this case also exceeds airline limits of 60 in. I now have the Hardigg 2950 Storm Case which weighed ~24 lbs with the foam. I have now configured it and packed it with my equipment. The final weight is 60 lbs. Looks like in the end I will pay overage.

Just read the thread and noticed that Craig uses the same system we use. Porter Case for carry-on and platic container in rolling duffel for checked items which are always bigger items such as larger housings, ports etc.

Since the Porter Case doubles as a rolling cart, it comes in handy.

Problem: not watertight and some parts (rivets) are not stainless or aluminum and they corrode.

My $ 0.02

Michel Gilbert

Yes!

The Porter cases are pretty durable but they do have some parts that corrode.

I use a North Face XL duffel for my scuba stuff as well. It's big a tough yet only weighs 6 pounds without wheels.

My experience with the Storm cases is that they weigh 2-3 pounds less than Pelicans in the larger sizes. If you take the wheels off the big ones you get a big savings. That's where the Porter case comes in handy. Carrying 4-5 pounds of wheel hardware on every bag is wasteful of your allotment. Better to do it once and put it on a carryon where it won't get weighed (often).

I went with the wheels on the 2950 Storm Case so that I do not have to carry all that weight through the airport. For carry on, I went with the Tamrac Super Pro 19 case. One reason for this is that it accomodates my laptop computer in a compartment that allows me to take it out every time I go through security. The rest of the case accomodates muliple SLR, lenses and a strobe. The case itself only weighs 5 lbs. I wonder if anyone has experience with this case?