C300: travel time

[puredrifting]

I use the Airport Advantage. I generally don’t travel internationally, but I do often end up on commuter jets and it’s sized to fit In their tiny bins. It’s only 2.7kg. I can easily load it well past 35 lbs., so I really don’t need more space.

I’ve never had my carry on weighed. As long as you’re not struggling with it, no one cares. The Advantage also has the advantage (ha ha) of fitting neatly under a standard seat in a pinch.

I also gut the bag and use Domke wraps. It fits more and weighs less.

After doing a year of travel using a Streetwalker Hard Drive backpack, my back is MUCH happier putting the heavy stuff in a roller. Especially since ALL batteries have to be carried on.

Consider yourself lucky. My carry on has been weighed on BA, Virgin, Air France, Air Maroc and Scandanvian Airlines. We have it good domestically where they mostly don't care.
We almost were stranded flying out of Paris until an Air France manager took pity on us "because we were artists" and let us on with our cameras and gear even through we were
way over their weight limit.

 

[rob norton]

I’ve never had my carry on weighed. As long as you’re not struggling with it, no one cares.

That used to be the case here but now it's too risky as a plan A. Which is ridiculous because if weighed you're extremely limited in what you can take as carry-on.

I've heard stories of paying people to fly as battery mules etc. just to get equipment to a location then the same on the way back a few weeks later.

Maybe if they could show an improved BTS conveyor belt system minus disgruntled employees playing soccer with cases then more people would pay to check bags?

Unless the person shooting is that good, the local talent is severely lacking, in person pre-production is required, or it's a multi-flight shoot, to me it seems nuts to fly someone in for a small project.

 

[Run&Gun]

I use the Airport Advantage. I generally don’t travel internationally, but I do often end up on commuter jets and it’s sized to fit In their tiny bins. It’s only 2.7kg. I can easily load it well past 35 lbs., so I really don’t need more space.

I’ve never had my carry on weighed. As long as you’re not struggling with it, no one cares. The Advantage also has the advantage (ha ha) of fitting neatly under a standard seat in a pinch.

I also gut the bag and use Domke wraps. It fits more and weighs less.

After doing a year of travel using a Streetwalker Hard Drive backpack, my back is MUCH happier putting the heavy stuff in a roller. Especially since ALL batteries have to be carried on.

Some of the commuter jets have comically small overheads that are a step removed from just being painted on. The last time I had to fly with a cam(F55) on a commuter, I had to take it out of the bag and it still, literally, barely fit.

 

[puredrifting]

That used to be the case here but now it's too risky as a plan A. Which is ridiculous because if weighed you're extremely limited in what you can take as carry-on.

I've heard stories of paying people to fly as battery mules etc. just to get equipment to a location then the same on the way back a few weeks later.

Maybe if they could show an improved BTS conveyor belt system minus disgruntled employees playing soccer with cases then more people would pay to check bags?

Unless the person shooting is that good, the local talent is severely lacking, in person pre-production is required, or it's a multi-flight shoot, to me it seems nuts to fly someone in for a small project.

We flew to Colorado last Fall for a project. My partner and I flew with four cases each and we rented lenses, tripods and a few odds and ends from Lensrentals.com (four camera shoot), I carried the four X-T3s
and a pile of lenses on my back in a Tom Bihn backpack in lens wraps. We paid about $1,500.00 in extra baggage fees and checked two computers, which was a harrowing experience. I don't like flying with ATX
towers in checked luggage but since it was a big live stream, we had no choice, we couldn't have done this one with laptops. This one reminded me of the late 90s when I regularly flew all over the country with a crew
of six and about thirty ATX cases. Crazy times. Flying with a ton of gear is a PITA but when you take grips and PAs, it's not as bad ;-) Back when corporate had real budgets and there was no lensrentals.com

 

[rob norton]

We flew to Colorado last Fall for a project. My partner and I flew with four cases each and we rented lenses, tripods and a few odds and ends from Lensrentals.com (four camera shoot), I carried the four X-T3s
and a pile of lenses on my back in a Tom Bihn backpack in lens wraps. We paid about $1,500.00 in extra baggage fees and checked two computers, which was a harrowing experience. I don't like flying with ATX
towers in checked luggage but since it was a big live stream, we had no choice, we couldn't have done this one with laptops. This one reminded me of the late 90s when I regularly flew all over the country with a crew
of six and about thirty ATX cases. Crazy times. Flying with a ton of gear is a PITA but when you take grips and PAs, it's not as bad ;-) Back when corporate had real budgets and there was no lensrentals.com

Haha yeah I like seeing those old BTS airport photos of camera crews in transit with cases absolutely everywhere.

 

[puredrifting]

Haha yeah I like seeing those old BTS airport photos of camera crews in transit with cases absolutely everywhere.

Yeah, we used to feel like rockstars at the airport because we had as much gear as a touring rock band! We'd take over a check in counter for an hour or two.