How Do You Pack It?!

[BrendanLeahy]

I'm curious to see photos of everyone's "minimum" and "maximum" number of cases/gear they bring on a shoot.

I'm headed overseas this summer to film, and given the lovely restrictions of weight and number of carry-ons (unless I want to fly business or first class!), I'm trying to figure out who has the savviest packaging setup. Lenses, camera body, and batteries are all essentials that I see as needing to be carried on for bare minimum, but some of you may show me otherwise!

Hopefully, this will become a good reference thread for the RED Community!

 

[Ira Edelman]

Would it be economical to pack it and ship it insured UPS?

 

[Gavin Greenwalt]

I can pack 3 bricks, body, redvolts, a photo zoom and a base handheld kit in a carry-on. Everything else gets worked into my checked luggage. Depending on the airline, luck and the phase of the moon if you check right before leaving or even at the ticket counter you can sometimes get upgraded to first class for very little. If you're planning on checking a lot of bags I've found it almost saves money sometimes. I even got an upgrade on Alaska once for $40 which was less than the checked bag fee.

 

[Mark Andersen]

I start by making my kit small, but versatile. I don't like to give up the Matt box and ff, so I go with Canon glass ( I like the 24-70 mk2, 70-200 and the 17 TS), 15mm carbon fiber rods with the slim 15mm Red accessories, small but versatile mat box (I have the Vocas) and 5" touch screen. I can get most of this stuff in one back pack, but usually check stuff in my luggage too. What gets heavy and bulky is HDs card readers and laptops but with the MacBook Pro, and USB3 the data ranging can also get pretty compact too, at least more than it used to. I love the USB3 Red mag reader.

 

[Robino_J]

The clutch looks like a tactical weapon! Be careful at customs

 

[Neil Dearman]

I roll with 2 pelican 1540 cases

 

[BrendanLeahy]

Have you guys flown overseas with the amount you're speaking of? I know most places have a maximum of 8kg (about 18lbs) in one carry-on + personal laptop-style bag. If you go business, you can do two of these 8kg bags, but that's a hefty additional expense :/

 

[Mark Andersen]

I have never had my carry on weighed, I guess I'm lucky. I have heard the Austrailia weighs carry on luggage on a regular basis. Sometimes you can get a production exception with an airline and they will allow more checked baggage or larger cases. Of course carry on issues are a security thing and not an airline thing.

 

[Joachim Hoge]

Australia is the only place I had real problems flying out of. The weighed every carry on.
Normally the ground crew in different countries are quite understandable when it comes to camera gear in my experience.
I usually carry 2 V-lock batteries, body with 5 LCD, redvolts and charger, cards and very importantly IMHO the card reader, laptop and charger, RED ZOOM 17-50, (or canon 70-200 and 24-105,) some tools.
Im always making sure that I have everything I need to shoot as soon as I land even if the checked in luggage gets delayed or lost.
If we need sound and don't have a sound person with us I make sure someone in the team carries some basic sound gear just in case

 

[Daniel Stilling]

I would get in big trouble in Australia...
i have a Think Tank carry on. There I stick: 3 Scarlet bodies, a RED 15-50, a RED 18-85!, a GL 11-16, some cables and such. It weighs in the 60+ pound category. A good arm workout to get it in the overhead bin!

 

[BrendanLeahy]

I'm now very interested to see if anyone has images of how their camera lays in their Pelican 1510 case! Currently, with the top, bottom, and side cheese plates I have on, I have to lay the camera on its back (with a protective plate, of course) - otherwise, the damn thing is too tall!

 

[Owen Rennie]

I've become a master of smuggling weight on flights.

Here are my tricks.

*Overload carry on backpack- maximum is usually 7-10kg.. i go up to 15kg, never been weighed, touch wood. This carries all glass & filters etc
*Red Scarlet goes in a handbag looking bag which i also carry on..
*Head phones around my neck, laptop in my hand, lenses and other gadgets in my pockets if need be.. I bought a slim bag that i can wear under jacket.
*Billabong travel suitcase carries all rigs, lights etc
*Tripod bag with 3ft slider taped on top with bubble wrap..
*When i travel to Indo garuda allows an extra 15kg for surf boards so i have also slid tripods in a surf board bag
After weighing my oversize "surfboard" on the way to the oversize bag drop i fill it with other goodies my friend had waiting for me.....

In total i smuggled over 30kg. At $25 a kg excess thats a saving of $750 each way....

Just hope i don't end up on Banged up abroad for weight smuggling

 

[Owen Rennie]

I have never had my carry on weighed, I guess I'm lucky. I have heard the Austrailia weighs carry on luggage on a regular basis. Sometimes you can get a production exception with an airline and they will allow more checked baggage or larger cases. Of course carry on issues are a security thing and not an airline thing.

I've never been weighed leaving Australia as mentioned above... Maybe i'm just lucky Touch wood!

 

[Lewis-M Soucy]

I carry my Epic pelicase with basica accessories (I extensively recut it left and right to accomodate accessories and a fully mounted Epic body for speed of use) and I purcahsed a second pelicase, the same model as the Epic one, to pack all the rest of my accessories and batteries, whic includes a Mattebox, a Follow Focus, 2 Red Pro chargers, 12 batteries, a video assist monitor, etc… Pretty well packed! These pelicases usually travel as carry-ons as I rarely travel alone for a shoot, and the rest flies checked, like the tripod, etc… What usually happens too on bigger gigs, is I fly with the 2 main pelis and rent out the rest of the gear on location… I'll try and post pictures as soon as I can...

 

[Rob Anderson]

My light-weight package is this:

Pelican 1600 case with the Epic + Pro I/O module, 8 lenses, 6 RED Brick batteries, 3 rail supports and RED handles, 1 cleaning kit, 4 REDMAGs, 2 battery plates, assorted screws and multi-tools, 5" RED Pro touch screen, USB 3.0 REDMAG reader. I drag the 1600 using a Belkin wheeled dolly with luggage strap. It's usually a tight fit, but I have always managed to get the 1600 inside of the overhead bins. Incredibly, I have never once been forced to check this case.

Backpack with 9" RED Pro touch screen, Apple MacBook Pro Retina 15", G-Raid drive, 19" rod assembly with Gunner shoulder, Gitzo CF monopod.

 

[Dane Henry]

Typicall I use the LowePro Pro roller as my carry on. With Epic, 10 Redvolts, 70-200, 50, 16 -35, 11-16, RED EVF, smallHD DP4, 5 REDMAGS & little aks. I like to be able to have a kit that can actually shoot for a day if my checked baggage does not make it.

- Never been hassled on the weight of it internationally UNTIL last week when flying AIR France from LAX to Corsica, France to shoot some sponsor inserts for the Tour de France broadcast.
- Air France in LAX will weigh your carry on AND your "personal item" together!...and you only get 26lbs.
- The Air France employee was super hard core and would not let it slide. I ended up having to take half of the gear out of the Pro Roller and stick it in my Pelican cases I was checking...luckily that didn't end up over 70lbs.
- Next time on Air France I will not use the Pro Roller...it weighs 13lbs by itself! fully loaded I was at 37lbs

So be aware some air carriers are way more stringent than others. I have never had the issue flying international on Lufthansa, KLM or AA.

-dane