Flying with airplane with a red camera and gear

[Joel Arvidsson]

How do you travel with your gear when you have to use airplane? What can you bring in the plane with you and what needs to go to the storage room? Can I bring redbricks on a airplane?
Im thinking very light kit. Camera, lcd, sidehandle, some bricks. Sholder rig, tripod. A couple of canon lenses.

I know there is a old thread about batteries but what is the rules 2013.

http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?4798-RED-Batteries-and-Airplanes/page3


Also I have no clue what the price is for renting a small kit like this would cost in london? What should you expect?

 

[Peter Stelzhammer]

there should should be a few topics covering this issue already...

short answer;
camera stripped down as hand-luggage
flight-safe batteries as hand-luggage
tripod most likely has to be storage (because of size/length-restrictions for hand-luggage)

flight-safe would mean up to 160WH (over here in EU)...

 

[Jon Carr]

Any battery over 100wh you can only bring 2 as carry on per person.

 

[Jonathan Stevenson]

Any battery over 100wh you can only bring 2 as carry on per person.

To expand further on this, you CANNOT pack large batteries in your checked bag. If they find batteries in your checked luggage during an x-ray or inspection, you'll likely lose the batteries or your entire bag will be held back. I assume the thinking is that a battery left "unattended" in the belly of a plane could cause a fire or some kind of damage because it's not being baby-sat. If you're carrying it with you and it malfunctions, you'll know about it quickly enough to do something before it takes the plane down.

When I travel (usually 3-5 times a month), I carry everything in my backpack, including 2 Red Bricks. I give a third one to my business partner and he carries that in his carry-on bag as well. Everything else (tripod, shoulder rig, cables, other stuff that wont break easily) gets checked in a hard-shell suitcase with lots of padding. Basically, anything that you don't want thrown around by the luggage guys needs to be carried on. I use a LowePro 450 backpack and it carries everything I need, including body, canon lenses, filters, LCD, blah blah blah. The bag feels bottomless if you configure it right.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/672940-REG/Lowepro_LP36147_PEU_Pro_Runner_x450_Rolling.html

(I don't have the rolly-version, but I highly recommend it. Putting everything into the backpack gets heavy very quickly!)

 

[Patrick Tresch]

Good info here:

http://idxtek.com/lithium-ion-transportation/
and
http://idxtek.com/sites/default/files/Lithium-Battery-Guidance-2013-V1.1.pdf


I've travellend with 4x190wh around the world in carry on and showed to the security check the batteries and camera. They where more interested in the camera than the batteries. I never had any problem because, I think, due to lack of knowledge of the personel.

But I think the rools are:

- cover the connectors with gaffer tape

- <100wh without problems
- up to 2 160wh per person
- 190wh risking of loosing your batteries at security check.




There is also provision, with the approval of the airline, for larger lithium ion batteries
with a watt-hour rating in excess of 100 Wh, but not more than 160 Wh in equipment
and no more than two spare lithium ion batteries as set out in subparagraph 2.3.3.2
as follows:
IATA Lithium Battery Guidance Document
-
2013
IDFS/Cargo
Page
13
04/10/2012
2.3.3.2
Lithium ion batteries exceeding a watt-hour rating of 100 Wh but not
exceeding 160 Wh may be carried as spare batteries in carry-on baggage, or in
equipment in either checked or carry-on baggage.
Batteries must be of a type that
meets the requirements of the UN Manual of Tests and Criteria
, Part III, subsection
38.3.
No more than two individually protected spare batteries per person may be carried.
Although the text provided above does not impose a limit on the number of lithium
metal and lithium ion batteries that fall under the 2 g or 100 Wh limitation (See
2.3.5.9) being carried as spares within a passenger’s carry-on
baggage it must be emphasized that the number of spares must be “reasonable” in the context of the
equipment used by the passenger and his or her itinerary. Furthermore, these must
be intended to power portable electronic devices (including, but not limited to,
cameras and professional film equipment, laptop computers, MP3 players, cell
phones, Personal Digital Assistants (PDA’s), pocket calculators etc).

 

[Nick Gardner]

I believe the letter of the law is that you can not have batteries in checked luggage UNLESS they are "attached to a device". I usually put 6 AB style batteries on chargers in checked baggage, and take 2 more in the body case for carry on. I take the body, 2 batts, and media (with the 5"lcd) in a pelican rollaboard, and my AC takes a second one with a set of primes and a duclos 11-16, and a 25-80 compact zoom. The 300mm, and bigger zooms get checked in their own cases. Everything else gets checked. I did a shoot in the EU last week. I only had 8 checked bags, and that included 3 1x1 leds, 2 mini leds, a 7 jib, sound gear, etc.

The main thing to think about is can you shoot if they lose all your checked bags. That's why I keep a couple of batts and media with the body. Worst case scenario I have enough stuff to muddle through until the bags catch up with me, or if the other stuff is totally gone I can just rent sticks and some batts and be good to go.

Nick

 

[Peter Stelzhammer]

we always keep one battery attached to the camera and never had any problem; just make sure to unplug the power-cable! Because: on an airport or on a plane everybody will freak out if they see some "active" LED on a technical looking unit they have never seen before (doesn't matter if the LED shines green, orange or red)...

 

[John DeBoer]

Here are the rules:
http://www.iata.org/whatwedo/cargo/dgr/Pages/lithium-batteries.aspx
There is no "I always get a way with it so it must be okay". The rules are pretty precise, and self explanatory.

This site is more self explanatory
http://safetravel.dot.gov/larger_batt.html

Do NOT disregard these rules as security screeners in NA are currently being trained........the fine for breaking these rules is massive, and can land you on a no fly list, and/or being banned from specific airlines.

 

[Joel Arvidsson]

Im sure every one on reduser will agree that there is no risk of harm from xray or metalscanners.

But there is quite alot of storys around the net from malfunctioning cameras and lost media after xray or metal scan. Some of this storys can of course be coinsident but I belive there is still a risk. Some say its better to use the exray than metalscanner.

 

[Mark Whatmore]

I've travelled much of the globe: Europe, US, Africa and the Middle East, with a my Epic kit and had no problems. But yesterday I transited through Zurich airport, travelling between South Africa and the UK. When I unpacked at home my 12 Redvolts had been replaced by a little note from Zurich 'Statepolice' letting me know that they had to remove them.

I called them and they said I could come by and pick them up (I think I'll get a courier to do that), but just a little warning to anyone else putting Redvolts in checked luggage - the Swiss obviously have excellent sniffer dogs.

 

[Jarek Zabczynski]

I was almost denied my flight home from Italy because some of my accessories were deemed useable as weapons. Kinda nonsense since you can call pretty much anything a weapon if you want. They gave me crap about some rail accessories and mounts and stuff, though I could do much more damage with a pen if I wanted to.