From my most recent air travel/TSA encouter, I'd recommend a personal article policy to cover camera gear...zero-deduct, all-perils, new equivalent replacement. My policy is with the same company but entirely separate from my homeowner ins. For about $60 per year I have nearly $4000 worth of gear covered. *** March 2005 I flew from Honolulu to Orlando, FL. Typically I check that noone is stopped at the scanner doorway ahead and I put my photo pack on the conveyor, quickly step through the doorway, and I proivde the TSA attendee a tour of my gear showing them on/off functionality of camera bodies and removing lens caps as requested. This time, I passed through the doorway without a beep but was never-the-less recalled to remove my shoes. When I was let through, the TSA personnel handed me the gear pack unzipped with everything just kind of piled up and not set into their fitted slots. Upon testing I found: The EOS-5 on/off command dial (you must press a lock-release AND rotate the dial simultaneously) had been stripped of its gears. The 17-35mm wideangle lens had a locked down aperature that could neither be opened manually nor electronically and a dent in the side of the barrel, the flash unit was just plain dead and the Mini DV video camera's LCD does not function. My guess is that they forceably rotated the camera command dial to prove it could turn on and also dropped the entire bag on the concrete. How else could they damage so much so quickly? I'm now getting repairs and replacements, over $1000 worth... all covered by the insurance.
Airport security and photography gear
in Travel
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