Camera safety while traveling on sun holiday with family

I'm traveling to Rhodes with my family for three weeks this summer (for the first time) and are planning to bring along my dslr (Nikon d750) with a few lenses. My worry is what to do with my gear while at the beach. We are not the type to hang out at the hotel pool/beach all day. We like to travel around to see stuff and then take a few hours at the beach, usually spending a lot of time in the water snorkelling and stuff. We are renting a car to get us around and my question is what to do with my camera gear while at the beach. Do I leave it in the car (hidden from sight) or do I bring it to the beach and try to keep an eye on it?

<p>Have you checked whether they have a safe space to store your eq at the place where you'll stay ? I've stayed at hostels/hotels in China and small safe was provided in the room. Leaving things in a rental car can be OK if visible from the beach, but thieves can often tell what sort of car it is and could take advantage of that. As a heads up, there have been several stories of photographers leaving various types of eq (here in US) in their rental car....often v. close to their room....and were robbed while staying there over night. If it will make you sleep little better, make sure you have adequate insurance for your camera/lenses.</p>

<p>Les</p>

I have carried mine in a small cooler.

<p>It depends. <strong>If</strong> insured: Read their small print! & Act accordingly. - Over here insurances tend to cover gear left non visible in closed cars by day.<br>

A slightly shabby non photo bag at the beach is probably among the better ideas too. - If you have: Why not bring your D70 (or whatever you started with and wrote off by now) to the beach on not sightseeing days? </p>

 

<p>It will be warm at the beach in Rhodes this summer, possibly hot. You can't leave your D750 and lenses in a car, which will get extremely hot, unless the camera and lenses are kept inside a very good cooler, which will take some effort to find during your trip.</p>

<p>Your best bet is to leave it in a safe at your hotel, as Les suggested, so that it would be important to inquire ahead of time what the hotel offers.</p>

 

<p>The old rule is never leave your camera in a place where you wouldn't care stay, e.g. a hot car. Even a cheap cooler will give you some "safe" time, particularly if the gear is in a camera bag as well. To me, the issue is the purpose of the trip. If I am on a Photo Vacation, I bring whatever equipment I will need, most activity revolves around photography, and I always have at least some gear with me. If it is not a photo trip, I simply bring a small, good mirrorless with zoom which goes everywhere -- even the beach in the beach bag, a ziplock bag wrapped in a towel. Though I am careful with it, I don't worry about it. Which kind of fun is most important can direct your choice.</p>

<p>It's not quite what you will want to hear, but on a family holiday I don't think a Nikon D750 dslr is really the kit of choice. If that's the only camera you've got, I suggest you splash out on a point'n'shoot camera for the trip. It could be a used one - doesn't matter. Or if you already have an older, less valuable camera, all the better.<br>

These days, fairly low-spec cameras can take great pictures if handled correctly, whilst not being of much interest to thieves.<br>

So you could leave it among your clothes on the beach and not worry about criminal gangs swooping on your stuff.</p>

<p>Thanks for all advice. The apartment hotel should have a wall safe if I choose to leave the gear back at the hotel. I didn't even think about the heat that might build up in the car. It's a family holiday, but I am planning to spend a few days for photography (landscape/travel) using the D750. I do have a D300s (which I'm planning to leave at home) and a GoPro to get photos/videos on the go with the family. </p>

<p>I don't claim to be an expert on camera storage, but two things I will point out to those who argue against leaving a camera in a hot car -</p>

<p>First - when your camera was shipped over to the US from Japan (or wherever it was manufactured), do you think that the gear was shipped in an air conditioned shipboard container? Seems to me it would have been shipped on a container ship for a couple of weeks locked in a metal container and passed through some tropical zones. </p>

<p>Second - perhaps I lead a charmed life, but once I stopped shooting film (which had little tolerance for extreme heat), I have never worried about leaving my gear in a hot car trunk and I have traveled the world with my gear. <br>

Just saying.......</p>

 

<p>Regarding my post of above, I just looked on the Nikon website and this is what I found.<br>

<strong>Part I - Proper Care and Storage of Equipment</strong><br>

<strong>Storage</strong><br>

<strong><em>Do not store the camera or lens in excessive heat such as the inside of a vehicle during the summer or near a heater. This can result in damage to the sensor or CPU’s internally in the camera or lens.</em></strong><br>

Looks like it is unwise to store in a hot car, but I have been lucky so far. </p>

<p>On one trip, I bought a wire mesh bag to enclose the camera bag, and locked it to a radiator pipe or bed post. It won't stop a determined thief, but resists a snatch and run theft while the room is open for cleaning.</p>

<p>i would think about getting a reasonably inexpensive waterproof P&S for the beach. there's really no reason to bring your expensive DSLR for activities which dont require its use. better safe than sorry.</p>

<p>"It's not quite what you will want to hear, but on a family holiday I don't think a Nikon D750 dslr is really the kit of choice." What is your kit of choice? Like Hillary says "what difference does it make!" What ever camera you choose you still have to figure out a way that it doesn't get swiped.</p>