Travel Photography - Airline [Employees] & Travel Photography

Just curious how folks interested in photography manage with their gear on international trips. For instance, I usually travel with two DSLR bodies, either two or three lenses (two of which are teles), plus sundry camera battery chargers, memory cards and so on. Besides, I have a laptop (+ a cable & accessory bag that goes with it) and various other essential odds and ends, all of which add up in weight.

With many carriers strictly enforcing a 7kg (15lb) weight limit for cabin baggage, I have often fallen foul of the bloodhounds. Hence, I am curious how other people handle this...

Tried complying with the limits? Works for me....

After all, you can have a 7kg camera bag.. and a laptop bag....(on the airlines I fly at least) ..surely you can manage with that? Perhaps a smaller lens or two in a pocket as well? Bit of a cheat that but seems to work...

For me it's easy. I make sure what I carry on is hung off my body, camera bag over the shoulder messenger-style and laptop bag in hand or hanging off the other shoulder. I pack them dense as I often travel with two laptops, two bodies and heavy lenses.

I think my success so far has been that I simply make sure not to look over burdened and that the bags themselves are modest in appearance and size.

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I've updated the title of the thread to make it a bit more appropriate to the topic.

Thanks,
sbm12
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It all depends on the airline....

If flying *A (Gold card helps), I typically take a rolling case with a change of clothes and a laptop plus a a small, light rucksack with another change or two of clothes to protect a body with lens attached plus one or two more lenses, batteries, charger, spare CF cards, iPhone, cables and so on.

How lightly I pack the rolling case depends on the airline as some are worse than others (Qatar Airways check in staff at MAN insist on weighing everyones' hand luggage). The *A airlines I've flown with are generally happy if you can lift it yourself without too much effort. US based airlines just allow pretty much anything.

There are times when a DSLR kit plus laptop are not an option. I have a Panasonic G1 for such times but I don't enjoy using it as much as my proper DSLR kit.

For European city breaks, I've started looking for good business class prices as these usually have a two piece limit (i.e. can mean two pieces of hand luggage plus laptop). Add to that the ground services, a better meal and sometimes I arrive at the hotel early evening with no need to eat and I can just run out with the camera and tripod :). I find it frightening I can use my hobby as justification for short haul business class (something I've always been vehemently against).

Tried complying with the limits? Works for me....

After all, you can have a 7kg camera bag.. and a laptop bag....(on the airlines I fly at least) ..surely you can manage with that?

This implies that one flies with NO OTHER carry-on stuff - no change of clothes, no toiletries, no valuables, no books etc. So what happens when your checked bag goes AWOL at your destination? Don't know about you, but it has happened often enough to me :(

Besides my laptop case has no room to accommodate power adapters, cables, mouse and other essentials.

This implies that one flies with NO OTHER carry-on stuff - no change of clothes, no toiletries, no valuables, no books etc. So what happens when your checked bag goes AWOL at your destination? Don't know about you, but it has happened often enough to me :(

Besides my laptop case has no room to accommodate power adapters, cables, mouse and other essentials.

If the rules for carry-on bags say only 7Kg then you aren't going to get all your clothes on board anyways.

I have a backpack that I carry on. It holds my camera and laptop gear. EVERYTHING else can be checked if needed, including the cables, etc. But that bag is always on the plane. Really not a big deal at all.

...EVERYTHING else can be checked if needed, including the cables, etc. But that bag is always on the plane. Really not a big deal at all.

I promise that I will not debate this further, but our travel patterns are obviously quite different. I routinely travel on international trips that require 3 (and sometimes more) transfers to different flights / carriers in one direction. The scope of the axiom "bag is always on the plane" being invalid is quite significant, in my experience.

I promise that I will not debate this further, but our travel patterns are obviously quite different. I routinely travel on international trips that require 3 (and sometimes more) transfers to different flights / carriers in one direction. The scope of the axiom "bag is always on the plane" being invalid is quite significant, in my experience.

That bag that is always on the plane is my one backpack with the camera and computer. Everything else can be checked. And in my case that bag is generally pretty close to in line with the weight requirements. I wasn't referring to gate checked bags in that line of thought.

Are you a pro photographer?

If not, do you really need to carry all of that stuff? I have a decent LowePro FastPack 250 that holds my D90 with a telephoto lens attached. These days I carry a Tamron 18-270 VC lens as my walking around zoom during the day. Takes fine photos. The last trip I took I also packed my little 35mm 1.8 and 50mm 1.8 Nikkors for lower light situations. An extra battery, wireless remote, SD cards, external HDD, my Samsung X360 laptop and power adapter. ANd I took a flash camcorder too. I also haul my mp3 player and noise canceling heaphone but may skip those next time. I just got a 10-24mm lens that I will likely take on my next trip.

I pack the battery charger, filters, and some other small things that are not worth a lot of money in a small pack-it cube in my checked luggage. I also put my small tripod in my checked bag.

I have not had my luggage lost in a long time. But I know it does happen.

Do you need two bodies and two telephoto lenses? Maybe get small point and shoot in case your SLR body has a problem so you still can take pictures. How heavy is your laptop? You may want to consider a smaller/lighter one.

If you are having issues with weight I think I would look for ways to lighten the load. Are you actually using all of the stuff you bring? More than once a trip? Perhaps you need more versatile tools.

OK..so just WHAT answers were you looking for?

The secret handshake that allows you to take on an unlimited amount of carry on?

As you clearly feel you NEED to carry so much camera gear, something has to "give".... in this case I (we?) assumed you were prepared to make some sacrifices with other carry on items... Clearly not.

I doubt if anyone can advise you how to achieve what you seem to want.

The TSA regulations actually allow you to have _3_ bags if one of them is a camera bag. The camera bag is excluded from the regular "2 bags" rules.

I've done this multiple times without any issues, normally carrying a standard roller, a shoulder bag/backpack (Timbuk2) and a Lowepro Nova 3. Several times I've had people (especially TSA) ask something like "is that a camera bag?" and the moment I say yes they move on.

I haven't done it with a larger camera bag - in the cases I've been carrying a full camera backpack I've always checked the roller, although more due to the effort involved in carrying the thee larger bags all the way to the plane.

The TSA does not define carry-on rules so one doesn't really need to worry too much about what they think.

The TSA does not define carry-on rules so one doesn't really need to worry too much about what they think.

Exactly. Does the airline you're flying allow three bags if 1 is a camera bag? I would be very surprised.

Exactly. Does the airline you're flying allow three bags if 1 is a camera bag? I would be very surprised.

That used to be NW's policy. I believe that the Deltafication of the carrier killed that however.

Normally my travel would consist of a Canon 5DII and a bag full of L glass (awesome quality but heavy) or a canon G10 (light but not super responsive and anything over ISO 200 is noisy).

I have my first trip coming up with a GF1, 20mm pancake, 14-45 and maybe a 45-200 (haven't decided on that yet). All will go into a small Domke F-6 Ruggedwear bag. Have to say I'm really looking forward to this kit on vacation. I know it doesn't have the high ISO capability of my 5D but up to ISO800 it's not bad - and I could never do that with my G10.

Doesnt what you carry onto the plane depend on the airline and route ?

Anyway, lately I ve had to unload all my equipment to show at the airports...

When I have to carry a lot of equipment I use the lowepro computrekker plus, even packed it fits without a problem in the test bins (at leas they can't argue with that).

Never had anyone stop me because of the weight. But to help reduce weight in general, I also put sutff like cables, step up rings, grip etc.. in the luggage.

If it's still a no go put some primes on your person ( I travel with a scottevest jacket and cargo pants so I can stuff a lot of other equipment and have it nearby).

On small trips or when I am limited in some way, I use the kata 3n1 (which I usually try to bring in anycase, otherwise i the computrekker + slingshot) and pick my lens wisely (although I can put almost all the lens and 1 body that I would put in the bigger pack). With a smaller backpack they are even less likely to question its weight.

I can put in the kata:
body + grip+ 10-20 + 16-50 + 50-135 + 100-300 +20mm + 31mm + 40mm pancake + 77mm + fisheye + flash.

and still have some space leftover