Air travel with tripod

I'm planning to travel to San Francisco via Southwest Air in July

and I'd like to bring my Gitzo carbon fiber 1227. Is it safe to pack

it in a suitcase without fear of theft or can it be carried on the

plane with the rest of my gear?

Nobody knows what is in your suitcas and I doubt that tripods are a vauled highly as theft items. And you are allowed one carry-on bag and one "personal item". I travel with United and take my standard carry-on luggage piece and my camera bag.

 

PS. Southwest is known as the "cattle car" airline so storage store in the cabin will be a premium.Stow it in your suticase and if it doesn't fit, check it in as a 2nd piece of lugguge in check-in.

As the previous poster stated, tripods are not high-risk items in terms of theft. I carry mine in my suitcase frequently. I do think, however, that its image in an x-ray screening increases the likelihood that the federal inspectors will look through your baggage, an unfortunate but apparently inescapable part of the travel experience in the twenty-first century.

I flew there recently on Southwest with a bogen tripod in the checked luggage. No troubles were encountered. I wouldn't count on being able to take the tripod as part of carry on materials for security reasons. Even a carbon fiber tripod can carry a wallop.

 

That things worked out well for me doesn't really provide you with an answer. My view was that a tripod lost is not nearly as devastating as losing the remaining gear, which I did carry on. It was a cost benefit analysis. The only casualty of the trip was losing the tripod strap which was my fault.

Alan,

 

I have carried my Gitzo G1227 with my Kirk BH-3 ball head as carry-on luggage thrice. I have never been questioned. I also carry a camera bag.

Packing it in the suitcase has always been the easiest for me. I have also checked a

tripod by itself without the expensive ball head, but I did have to wait for the airline

to page me to pick it up while flying Delta to Las Vegas. Have not tried carry-on

lately.

I traveled to California in March with my wife carrying our Nikon N80 kit and I with a Large format and rangefinder. I packed my Bogen Tripod in our large luggage, under our clothes. The trip there we made it through with no problem, however our bag was searched on the return trip. Its no big deal. They put a note in your bags notifiying you that they were hand searched. I'm not sure if it was the Tripod in there or a random search. Besides only us photo dorks know how much you spent on your Gitzo.

Put it in the bag, for heaven's sake.

 

Noone but photogs will so obsess about their $5oo tripod, but us ourselves. Who would want to steal a tripod, on the airplane? 99% of the populace do not even know what a tripod is, nor a prime lens ... There are drugs regularly sent on planes worth millions on the street ...

 

Lighten up! The fear is in you alone, Alan. Can you leave your tripod safely in your hotel room, or will you need to carry it with you to the Opera House? Can you fall asleep without the fear that someone might enter your room and snatch your prized tripod from you; but not your Rolex, lying on the night stand, mind you; just that darn $500 tripod, the apple of your eye?

 

Materialism, the hanging onto possessions like you seem to do, is an addiction of sorts. can you realize this, overcome it? Sorry that you have this fear.

 

 

Incidentally, do you carry your $600 ski boots by hand in all your air travel as well?

I've flown numerous times with my Bogen. I take the head off, and the legs fit diagonally in my carry-on sized suitcase. The suitcase goes through the x-ray machine, and I've never had anyone even mention it.

 

I've had more trouble with the lenses in my camera bag. Perhaps they just can't scan through them, but I've been stopped several times and had the bag gone through. They tend to take the caps off lenses and look through them. Seems a little rediculous - I could see the tripod as a 'weapon threat', but a lens? I can't fathom how they think anyone could be hurt with a lens...

You could pack the lens' interior with Semtex, I suppose. . . .not to give anyone ideas.

 

I typically put my tripod in my luggage, with no hassles, ever.

I've had no issues traveling with the tripod in checked luggage.

I've travelled the world for 30 years with on avaerage ?250,000 worth of motion picture equipment, anything from 50 to a 100 cases.

 

Never lost one.

 

I think your tripod is probably safe......

<i>They tend to take the caps off lenses and look through them. Seems a little rediculous - I could see the tripod as a 'weapon threat', but a lens? I can't fathom how they think anyone could be hurt with a lens...</i><p>When I was leaving Vancouver International one time, the lady at security commented that they recently found a half dozen lenses PACKED SOLID with drugs. You'd think it wouldn't be hard to buy a dozen, cheap manual focus optics from the 1960's/70's and do this for little outlay.

my dad's been flying with a major airline for over 25 years, so having grown up taking the security entrance at airports, i'll throw my three cents in on your question.

 

tony has a point that in checking a bag, i wouldn't be terribly worried about theft or loss. on the other hand, his checked items fall into another category, whereas people trying to sneak bombs onto planes don't generally travel under a company name and take 100 cases with them; and to actually take that much gear with you, you have to have it cleared ahead of time. what airlines are more worried about is the incidental luggage, i.e., whatever you bring with you without prior warning: the stuff that 99 percent of people travel with, which is impossible to know about until the actual moment when it's scanned. in your case, i would be more worried that your bags might get bumped to a later flight, to facilitate a longer inspection of your suitcase. if you're on assigment, or if you have a specific appointment to see the last supper at the duomo, this can be catastrophic. additionally, there's just the inconvenience of having a stranger rifle through your personal items -having your bag "tossed," as it's called. if your checked bags contain something which is fairly large, tubular and has machined-looking parts attached to it, you can fairly sure that they'll be gone-through. better to just carry the tripod on with you, because you can explain the situation and demonstrate that it is indeed only a tripod. most times, a situation can be quickly diffused if they can "match" an item to its owner (example: some ambulatory medical devices, when packed in one's bags, will raise suspicion at the x-ray booth, especially if the owner is a young healthy woman. but if the owner happens to be a 65 year old man who is at the time clearly wearing a medical device of the same kind, it can be quickly and quietly deduced that they are most likely backup or replacement devices).

 

sorry for the length. if you have doubts, make it known to the counter representative when you check in that you have a tripod in your bag; or just carry it on and get there early enough to get some overhead compartment space. cheers.

I've carried a Gitzo 1228CF with the head un-screwed in my checked luggage many times. At Chicago, O'Hare, my suitcase is always opened by security. Coming back from Las Vegas, Reno, and Washington DC all of my checked luggage has never been opened!

 

It all depends on who's watching the checked luggage X-ray.

 

Just put it in your suitcase and forget about it. I wouldn't take it on board as carry on....security might think you could use it as a weapon (like a mono-pod with a spiked foot). Take your camera, lenses, and film with you.

I have travelled to europe with my heavy a*s bogen tripiod in a soft bag and checked it and it was fine. I emphasize the weight because I'm actually surprised I did not have a problem (the fear was in me alone) because in the bag the damn thing feels like it could be a 12 gauge shotgun. You could always bag it and tag it and pad lock the zipper just don't lose the key or combo!