Storage for storage and travel

daveco2 wrote:

What bags do you check in? Do you have a problem with carry-on excess weight? Do you have a problem with excess baggage fees?

We all have problems with excess baggage fees...

I am NOT a light traveler. When my wife was alive, we did a lot (LOTS!) of travel, and we typically checked 4 suitcases (50 pounds each), and brought two carryons with, plus a 'personal item'.

In our defense, 75 pounds of that was dive gear.

I usually get one bag checked (per person) free, if I use an airline for which I have the airline's credit card. I then pay for a second bag.

Since my wife died, I've been traveling alone more, and if I am diving I have a lot of gear to pack. Besides my dive gear, I have my dive camera gear, which mostly does not go in checked luggage.

Do you carry a second backup camera and/or housing?

Yes, I usually do. That second camera is an RX100 II with Nauticam housing. It uses the same strobes as the main rig, so mostly I just bring the housing with camera inside it. I put that housing into the middle of my waist bag. The other two internal compartments hold my 105vr macro and 16-35vr lenses that I use in the main rig. Very occasionally I add a small prime (since that is the only thing left that could fit). Maybe a 50F1.4g or 85f1.4g.

Do you carry a laptop?

For work, yes, because I'm an IT guy. But I rarely travel for work. For vacation, no, unless I'm on a dive trip. Unlike my late wife, I have no issues leaving the internet behind for a couple of weeks. If I am on a dive trip, I want to review my shots nightly and correct any issues before the next day. I'm still on a learning curve for underwater photography.

I just got back from a long trip with Philippine Airlines, economy class: a 44 lb duffle filled with some dive gear and two housings (checked), a 35 lb roller bag filled with lenses and strobes (checked), and a carry-on backpack filled with laptop and two camera bodies. There was no room for wetsuit and BCD, so I rented those at the destination.

In my case I would have all my dive gear in a large suitcase. Or almost all. I simply cannot fit my dive gear, my camera gear AND clothes into a single 50 pound suitcase, so now I check a small bag as well. I'll split stuff as needed between the two checked bags.

In those checked bags I have my dive gear (except my dive computer stays in carryon), a 90mm extension tube for the dome port, and the 105mm macro port. Inside the 90mm extension I cram all the clamps for my strobe arms and focus light.

I have lots of neoprene (wetsuit, hood, gloves)  to pad the few camera bits in there, but I also carry a AO 36 quart collapsible cooler to carry the camera rig on and off boats, and to act as a rinse tank in a shower as needed.  The cooler provides a lot of additional padding, and I pack my laptop inside of it.   This suitcase is invariably opened by TSA to check the laptop.  If I travel without the laptop, TSA usually leaves this bag alone.

In the small suitcase, I put virtually all the clothes I need, toiletries, etc.

I use a roller bag instead of a backpack for my dive gear carryon.  Basically I had the bag and needed to find a use for it.  It was originally purchased to replace my backpack, and I thought there were backpack straps hidden in there.  But it had no backpack straps. (I wanted the option to backpack it, especially for those airports that weight rolling carryons. The bag weighs at least 30 pounds packed.

In economy class, for flights to Manila on a large plane, PAL allows you to check two, 50 lb bags and to carry on 15 lbs. For their smaller domestic flights (important if you're going on to a smaller island), they allow 15 lbs for carry-on and one checked 44 lb bag. For their domestic flights, you can get an allowance for a second 44 lb bag for $15 if you purchase it before arriving at the airport. At the airport, that charge is $150.

Ouch!  Better set that up ahead of time.

On my next trip to the Philippines, I plan to check two large duffles, adding a wetsuit and BCD.

Any suggestions?

Not much, other than some common sense stuff:

1. always bring a scale to weight luggage and stay within limits.  I use a simply analog one from Walmart.

2. be prepared to repack things into pockets if getting weighed at the airport

3. if you have a collapsible dive duffel bag, it can be pressed into use as an additional carryon at the end of a trip if you have picked up souvenirs and the like.  My late wife used to pack it full of dirty clothes at the end of a trip.

4. If you have a backpack, and a strong back, you can wear a waist bag at the same time as a backpack by rotating the waist bag to the front.   This is how I typically went through airports before dive trips (before the rolling bag and huge housings).   The problem here is that you cannot use the waist strap on the backpack at the same time as the waist bag, so you get a lot of weight on your shoulders.  But I only do this going through airports, so it's not usually on my back more than an hour at a time.   The benefit is that both hands are completely free.

Ideally I would have a roller bag with backpack straps to be used when it is advantageous to have the backpack instead of the roller.  Or maybe I should get a collapsible luggage cart and just use the backpack instead of the roller.  Thing is, I don't want to redo the insides of my backpack to go from dive trip to non-dive trip, so I keep using my roller.

5. Bring along a luggage strap with a plan on how to use it.   When I went to Roatan the first time alone and had two checked bags, I ran into a problem at the airports.  I now had THREE rolling bags, and only two arms.   I bought a luggage strap at Walmart and set it up to hold my camera roller bag on top of the smaller suitcase.  I only have to get the bags between cars and airport counters, so it's not too bad.

With my system, I have minimal camera gear in checked bags.  The housing (with camera inside) stays in carryon.  The backup housing (RX100) also.   The 230mm dome port definitely goes in carryon.    The lenses go carryon.   The only glass part that goes in checked luggage is the 105 macro port - just no way to fit it anywhere else.   I bet if I had a backpack instead of roller bag I COULD fit it, and probably the 90mm extension as well.   But I would then have about a 40 pound backpack, plus another 15 pounds in my waist bag.

6. Don't be shy to pay a porter to handle your suitcases.  As we get older, this is more and more an attractive option.

I always bring my own dive gear, including wetsuit.   They don't weigh all that much, and they are good padding.  I want to make sure I get something that actually fits me as I am not the average male size.

I'd actually love to bring both my D810 and D850 rigs along, and it wouldn't be a lot of additional stuff, though a D810 inside a Nauticam housing is certainly not that small.  But I would have to check it, or I need a companion traveler to carry it for me.    Would be nice to have one set up with the dome port (D810) and the other set up for macro (D850).  Bring them both on the boat...   Only one would have strobes though.