Originally Posted by
ruff00
I am a professional cameraman. I travel a fair bit, often with camera equipment. (The camera equipment that I use is usually Full HD Sony Camera... about $100,000 worth - and that's just the lens and the camera body). There is no way it would survive being checked in. It just cannot stand up to the baggage handlers. Cameramen and companies all over the world have tried all kinds of cases and protection... the gear still gets damaged. Carry on is the only way.
Personally I hate having to lug a camera through the airport, on the plane and so on. It sucks. But there is no other option.
When I board I try to get on up the front and board early, I pad the camera with a jacket and I keep my carry-on bag to regulation size and weight. This is made difficult as there are some very clear rules about batteries and how they must be packaged and that they must be in your carry on. (Most airline staff that I have come across have zero understanding of these rules. For that reason I keep a print out of the airlines policies and FAA policy and a few other industry related documents with me).
I check in the rest of my equipment - which is usually substantial. There is always the risk of theft, but not a lot you can do about that. I also have to check in a few delicate and semi delicate bits of kit so that my carry on is at a reasonable weight... lots of this gear gets broken. It sucks and costs money to fix, to me thats the cost of flying. It's when bags are delayed or deliberately offloaded that problems really occur. (This still happens even with gold tags and priority stickers). I find that when packaged the bulk of my equipment can be checked. I only carry on what I must and I try to be as considerate as possible to other passengers using the bins. Fortunately a lot of the flyers at the front of the plane have very minimal carry-on. Most flight crew are very understanding (except in the USA on United where it can be a real pain).
I fly a lot within NZ, but with the changing of the baggage rules to the USA (which we used to do 3 times a year) we will no longer fly there.
www.ruff.co.nz/blog
I stand corrected on my assertion that theft is the main problem. While I have had lots of things broken by the TSA (for which there is no recourse or insurance) and by careless baggage handlers, I thought that cameras/video equipment would stand-up better to the baggage abuse than my stuff, especially in special padded containers. It is obvious to me that the deeply-ingrained culture of corruption and carelessness on the part of TSA/airline security personnel and baggage handlers, precludes the checking of anything valuable or fragile, and is an excellent reason for taking one's business away from NZ and QF unless they change these pitiful carry-on allowances.