Seperate Camera Bag for Flying?

<p>Next week I will be flying for the first time in four years and this will be my first time traveling with actual camera gear. I will be flying Southwest from New Orleans to Phoenix (later returning) and am planning on bringing my 40D, a couple lenses and some accessories. I have Lowepro SlingShot 200 AW which I am very fond of and holds everything. However I was just going to put what I wanted in my main carry-on bag, each lens and body in its won little case. I just read on TSA's website that passengers must "Remove all electronic devices from carryons for screening." That sounds like a nightmare since I'll be traveling with a small laptop and some other toys.</p>

<p>Apparently I am permitted a camera bag in addition to be precious one carry-on. Is there any reason I wouldn't want to take my camera bag in addition to a carry on or what my original plan better?</p>

<p>Sure, if the airline won't allow it. Just because TSA allows the extra bag doesn't mean the airline has to. It says this on the TSA site.</p>

<p>From my experience, it's pretty much touch and go and the whole situation depends on a number of things: how big your main carry-on is. Some airlines may allow you to push the envelope with that, but if you show up with a medium camera bag AND a laptop bag, they will not let you through!</p>

<p>I have flown more than 10 times a year since the more strident regulations and the usual situation is: your Slingshot should be okay almost everywhere if you DONT take anything else up. If you take another bag - like the small ones with the pull-out handle and the wheels - chances are they will balk. You WILL be asked to remove the laptop and maybe even show that it works (boot it etc), but out of ALL the airlines I've flown, only bloody ELAL (the Israeli airline) made me empty my whole camera bag (every single little item) and scanned each and every one FIVE times - I'm telling you, the worst experience EVER! No other airline or airport made me even remove my camera from the bag!</p>

<p>So...I would call the airline and ask...and THEN call the airport and ask there too....</p>

<p>Good news, bad news. The bad news is that you will be flying for the first time in many years and will be shocked at how badly the airlines treat passengers these days. The good news is that you will be on Southwest, where they abuse passengers with a smile.</p>

<p>Southwest doesn't charge to check luggage, so you aren't absolutely forced to use carryon. And while they have rules about what you can take into the cabin, they are pretty generous. And their planes are large enough that you aren't forced into a last-minute gate-check.</p>

<p>Wife and I use Southwest when we visit our son, and I've been schlepping a LowePro backpack with 4x5 gear as my 'carryon' (goes into the overhead bin), and a small camera bag with accessories and an SLR as my 'personal item' (under the seat next to my feet). I check the luggage (fresh underwear is overrated) and a tripod bag. Haven't had a problem in ten trips to California.</p>

<p>The laptop bag is a "personal item" allowed in addition to the carryon bag. Put the camera with one lens around your neck then put it in a plastic bin along with your laptop, which you'll have removed from its bag. The rest of the lenses in the carryon bag are fine. Repack the camera in the waiting area.</p>

<p>Or just save some misery by checking the bag with your clothes and stuff, and carry on the laptop and camera bag. Remember - toiletries are fine in checked baggage but some jerkwad decided that people can blow up planes using bottles of shampoo but only if they're larger than 3 oz, so you need tiny bottles of all that if you carry on. (Nobody ever explained to me why a 6 oz bottle of shampoo can blow up an airplane but two 3 oz bottles can't.)</p>

<p>Your least risky plan is to carry on your camera equipment in your slingshot bag which will go thru the machine unopened unless TSA decides to open it and hand check it. Your laptop is your electronic device that is in a separate bag and will have to be taken out for separate screening as it goes thru the machine in a plastic tray. Your clothes are in a third case that you have checked for free. An alternative is to buy another camera bag that holds your camera gear and laptop. This is what I do. Kata has very nice backpack models not too large or expensive. At screening, just take out the laptop and put it in the plastic bin. After screening put it back in your camera bag. Either carry on or check your other bag. The good news about SW is that it is easy to gate check the clothes carry on if the overheads are full or if the flight attendants will not let you carry on the clothes bag. Also, spend the money and get an A boarding pass so you are in the first group on the plane. One last piece of advice. I find the Phoenix airport one of the least forgiving when it comes to the screening process. Get there early and be prepared for anything and everything. Joe Smith</p>

<p>It really isn't difficult. I travel frequently with the Slingshot and a carry-on bag with clothes, etc. and my laptop. Just make sure the laptop is easy to get out of your carry-on bag to run through the x-ray machine separately at Security. If yours is small enough, the rules have changed so "netbooks" shouldn't need to be taken out, but this is subject to the whims of the TSA folks who sometimes aren't up on their own rules and I haven't tested it. The Slingshot (my "personal item") will go on the floor, at your feet; the carry-on bag in the overhead. I have never been challenged on this.</p>

<p>I carry my camera gear (DSLR, several lenses, filters, step up/down rings, cable release, memory cards, that sort of thing) in an ordinary (and rather small) Kiplinger backpack. For the last couple of years, the person at the X-ray would always (and I do mean always, no matter what airport or airline) ask me to unpack it so they could see what it was they were looking at. I've gotten to the point where I place everything into a couple of oversized ziplock bags and remove these from the backpack before putting everything through the machine.<br>

This is probably just my dumb luck, and I only very rarely see it happen to others, but don't be terribly surprised if it does happen. Which I hope it doesn't. And it probably won't.</p>

<blockquote>I carry my camera gear (DSLR, several lenses, filters, step up/down rings, cable release, memory cards, that sort of thing) in an ordinary (and rather small) Kiplinger backpack. For the last couple of years, the person at the X-ray would always (and I do mean always, no matter what airport or airline) ask me to unpack it so they could see what it was they were looking at. I've gotten to the point where I place everything into a couple of oversized ziplock bags and remove these from the backpack before putting everything through the machine.</blockquote>

<p>Wow. Maybe the cable release looks suspicious? I've been OK with an old manual-focus film SLR with an extra lens plus minor accessories, carried in a Lowepro Nova or a Tamrac Velocity bag as my "personal item". Maybe I've been lucky at the checkpoints or perhaps the relative paucity of electronics in this gear has failed to get TSA's interest. I think I'll carry extra plastic bags in the future, though, just in case.</p>

<p>I was caught one time, though, by the airline's rules. I was so accustomed to the ubiquitous "one carry-on plus one personal item" rule that I failed to check the airline's rules before packing, and found out at the check-in counter line that I could not take two items onto the plane even if one was small. Fortunately, I was able to juggle items between my bags so my two cameras could come on the plane with me inside my small backpack; due to its bulk I had to put the camera bag itself inside another bag to be checked.</p>

<p>I have traveled frequently with a camera/gear bag (usually a backpack or waistpack) and a carry-on-size suitcase and been fine. This is the standard one carry on and one personal item allowance. You are technically allowed one additional camera bag, but never count on that, as others have said--it is subject to TSA and airline whim/moodiness. If you get into bigger backpack territory (DryZone) you can sometimes have issue with the personal item classification, but briefcase, purse, small backpack size is fine. Keep it slung over your shoulder as you board the plane, too... looks smaller. :) (In this scenario I am assuming you only have two bags; not camera bag + laptop bag + clothes bag. Put your laptop in the clothes bag and take it out for screening). In the event you do have to check or gate-check the clothes bag, be sure you have easily accessible the laptop + anything else you don't want in the hands of the baggage throwers. <br>

At security, you will most likely only have to take out your laptop (DVD player too if you have that; ipods, iphones, whatever get through no problem). I have had one very cranky TSA person make me take out every single lens & body and put them into the little bin. Only once though. Sometimes they double screen it--if you have only one layer of gear they have to look through with the x-ray, i think you are less likely to have to unpack it. I like the idea of the ziploc baggies so you can pull them out if need be. Careful of any liquids (lens cleaner) you might have stashed in your camera bag without thinking about it. I'd personally never want to travel with my camera gear stuffed deep in a suitcase; at that point Murphy's Law will dictate you'll have to take it all out. </p>

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<p>Thanks for all the responses. I was able to carry my Lowepro camera bag and wheeled carry on with no problem. I just hope the return trip is as smooth.</p>

<p>Times sure have changed.</p>

<p>I used to carry complete 35mm and 645 systems with a Gitzo and RRS BH-55 on my carry on.</p>

<p>Travel used to be fun, but I'm glad to give up my 80,000 air miles a year in exchange for less stress in my life.</p>