Travel essentials vs. airline weight limits

The recent thread on traveling with a Rolleiflex got me thinking. My participation in that discussion had to do with traveling under extreme weight restrictions.

My question is, what are the absolute essentials for that trip of a lifetime where your carry-on luggage is restricted to 22 lbs? Assuming that you're not about to put your cameras or film in your checked baggage, what gear could you not do without? (note: in my own case, I'm cheating by putting my travel tripod in my checked bags, otherwise, I'd be doing hand-held shots with my Chamonix, as my tripod is considered too large for carry-on)

Cheers,
Tom

when it comes down to offloading things to get your carryon down to 7.0Kg...I will whittle down things (transfer to checked bag) and carry on the camera body and the laptop PC, and whatever lenses will fit...as precaution against baggage theft of contents of checked bags. That is, highest value for weight stays with me.

I have had to do that, when I travelled from US to New Zealand on New Zealand Air...they only allowed me 0.5Kg of 'slack'

For one thing, I wouldn't travel with 4x5, but I envy you your dedication and commitment to LF!

frank said:

For one thing, I wouldn't travel with 4x5, but I envy you your dedication and commitment to LF!

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For years I've hated that I could never take my 4x5 along on big trips. The purchase of my Chamonix (known for its light, sturdy build) this spring was specifically for that purpose. The next two weeks will be a test of said dedication and commitment to traveling with LF!

Toffle said:

For years I've hated that I could never take my 4x5 along on big trips. The purchase of my Chamonix (known for its light, sturdy build) this spring was specifically for that purpose. The next two weeks will be a test of said dedication and commitment to traveling with LF!

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Best of luck! Did you say where you are headed?
You live in an interesting area. Excellent for bird watching, I believe.

Tom, this is something I struggle with a lot. Luckily here in Japan they are not strict about carry-ons (unless you are trying to board with rice cookers and toilet seats bought at the duty-free shops, as the Chinese are wont to do), but I've had to do some hard thinking about what to do for other countries/airlines, as regulations are different everywhere - 10kg for carry-on on one airline, 7kg for another.

Because of this issue (weight for carry-on bags, plus weight on my back, as I often suffer from a herniated disc) I recently pared down my Bronica kit to either a Mamiya 6 (with 2 lenses) or my TLR, plus my Nikon FE (with 2 prime lenses) and a Holga. Although the Holga weighs next to nothing, it does take space, so as long as no film is loaded in it, it gets checked, as does any other miscellaneous gear like my tripod, changing bag, filters, cable releases, step-up rings, etc. The only items that go into carry-on now is any non-plastic camera and lenses, and film. In the second bag (i.e. laptop bag/briefcase/purse) I have my other essentials like my laptop and wallet and whatnot. Extra film often goes in there too. That said, if push came to shove, I would (and have) leave my laptop behind to save on space and weight.

For my trip to Japan last May, I packed a Pentax 67 and two lenses in its own carry-on bag. In checked baggage, insured by the airline, I packed a Zero Image 6x9 pinhole and an EOS 1N and two lenses, plus two CF tripods. With credit card and toothbrush, that tipped the scales at 30kg and the carry-on (no film; I bought that in Tokyo), exactly 7kg. On next year's trip only the Pentax 6x7 and pinhole will come -- the 35mm kit only got used once, and was outshone (predictably!) by the image quality of 6x7. We will be flying JAL next time, rather than Qantas, no particular reason other than variety.

The UK short-hail airline, Easjet, has size restrictions for carry-on but no weight restriction. I have found this very useful for holidays around Europe. It doesn't help with long haul though. I think there is some kind of acceptable use policy so you can't fill your carry-on bag with lead bricks.

For a standard bussines trip, I would carry the laptop bag that includes, besides the laptop itself, the power source, cables, iPad mini and some paperwork. I also would carry the camera bag, whichever was at that time. Nowadays it is a Billingham Hadley Pro that would contain the Hasselblad 503CX with the 80/2.8 attached, the shade for that lens, a Sekonic L-398A lightmeter, three filters and a full JCH filmbox. If the trip is longer than that, let's say 2 weeks long, or to a very interesting or once-in-a-life-time place, I would take a LowePro backpack that would be loaded with the same I put in the Billingham plus two more lenses (50/4.5 and 150/4.5), a Pentax Spotmeter V, three more filters, cable releases, close-up rings, a spare film back and all the film I could put in the outside pocket. The tripod would travel in the check-in luggage.

I think I haven't forgotten anything.

Svenedin said:

The UK short-hail airline, Easjet, has size restrictions for carry-on but no weight restriction.

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I sometimes fly with Ryanair because they service some routes that Easyjet don't. The weight and size restrictions with Ryanair are often enforced quite rigorously, or sometimes not at all. To avoid the lottery of being charged extra for an overweight carry-on, I will often wear a modified tactical vest and put the heavy items in the pockets. Tripod and walking stick has to go checked - I don't get a choice in that.

Toffle said:

The recent thread on traveling with a Rolleiflex got me thinking. My participation in that discussion had to do with traveling under extreme weight restrictions.

My question is, what are the absolute essentials for that trip of a lifetime where your carry-on luggage is restricted to 22 lbs? Assuming that you're not about to put your cameras or film in your checked baggage, what gear could you not do without? (note: in my own case, I'm cheating by putting my travel tripod in my checked bags, otherwise, I'd be doing hand-held shots with my Chamonix, as my tripod is considered too large for carry-on)

Cheers,
Tom

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Excuse me, but how 10 kg is limiting for carry-on? As long as you have reasonable gear for travel it should be enough.
I have no idea what Chamonix camera you have and how big are they. I have used Graflex press 4x5 cameras, they aren't big, build well for travel and to be handheld. I've had one of them in my regular size camera bag with 35mm camera on local trips and one week trip to Montreal.
On extended trip I would take one of these press cameras and box of film with couple of film holders, small light meter, couple of filters release cable and rocket-blower in carry-on larger bag. And put the rest of film holders and changing bag to where tripod is.

Ko.Fe. said:

Excuse me, but how 10 kg is limiting for carry-on? As long as you have reasonable gear for travel it should be enough.

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This is an excellent question, and precisely what I am trying to determine.

If I was just loading up the trunk of my car, I would have little hesitation in adding an extra camera or two, a lens for every conceivable situation, filters for even the most inconceivable situations, multiple formats of film, and at least one spare tripod. My humble Dodge crossover could also handle a cornucopia of accessories, gizmos and magic bullets as well. (Have I missed anything there?) Experience has taught me that I don't need half that crap anyway, and that there's nothing more foolish than running around a mountainside swapping lenses and cameras, trying to get that perfect image. It might work for some, but in my world, it only leads to distraction and disappointment.

The size and weight restrictions for airline carry-on don't allow for the ideal camera kit though, so apart from breaking my kit up between things I am brave enough to leave in checked baggage, and that which I cannot let out of my sight, other compromises must be made. I love my trusty Luna Pro SBC light meter; it's a standard tool for all my LF work, but it's a brick. Do I leave it behind in favour of one of my smaller, less-used meters? For that matter, should I just use an app on my phone? To be honest, I can't say I'm truly comfortable with anything but the SBC for LF.

I could just take two film holders, but I've never been a fan of loading film in the field. It works for some, but it does not work for family members waiting on the side of a trail watching my forehead bead up with sweat while I try to get the job done. So, I need more holders, but how many more?

Film, how much? How many sheets for 10 days of hiking? If I add my 35mm Nikon to my kit, I will have to account for that body, lens and film as well.

I could just take one lens instead of the three which usually reside in my kit, but which one? The long and the short of it, (and the medium, as well) is that compromises must be made. Keep in mind that every piece of kit that gets moved to my checked baggage must compete with other travel essentials such as socks and underwear.

I really am interested in how

frank said:

Best of luck! Did you say where you are headed?
You live in an interesting area. Excellent for bird watching, I believe.

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Thanks Frank. Point Pelee is indeed a beautiful area, but I'm originally an Ottawa Valley boy, so my heart (and my photographic eye) seeks out hills and thundering rapids.

This trip is actually my wife's retirement adventure. (Congratulations to the lovely Dora Overton! ) Her choice of celebration is Iceland. We're spending ten days wandering between the Snaefellsnes peninsula, through Vik and Hof (and points between) and ending in Reykjavik and a night at the Blue Lagoon. I know, as Yogi Berra said, "Nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded", but it's her trip, and I'm more than happy to share in her joys!

Cheers,
Tom

Toffle said:

Thanks Frank. Point Pelee is indeed a beautiful area, but I'm originally an Ottawa Valley boy, so my heart (and my photographic eye) seeks out hills and thundering rapids.

This trip is actually my wife's retirement adventure. (Congratulations to the lovely Dora Overton! ) Her choice of celebration is Iceland. We're spending ten days wandering between the Snaefellsnes peninsula, through Vik and Hof (and points between) and ending in Reykjavik and a night at the Blue Lagoon. I know, as Yogi Berra said, "Nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded", but it's her trip, and I'm more than happy to share in her joys!

Cheers,
Tom

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Most excellent Tom! Quite a trip. Please keep us updated on your decisions and gear selections.

Toffle said:

I love my trusty Luna Pro SBC light meter; it's a standard tool for all my LF work, but it's a brick. Do I leave it behind in favour of one of my smaller, less-used meters? For that matter, should I just use an app on my phone? To be honest, I can't say I'm truly comfortable with anything but the SBC for LF.

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Comparing my mobile phone lightmeter app to conventional light meters

• it exactly matches my Minolta Spotmeter F reading 18% gray card
• it matches my Minolta Autometer Vf incident meter within 0.1EV

so if push came to shove, my phone would come with me and my meters would stay home in the interest of meeting airline carryon weight restrictions

Toffle said:

I can't say I'm truly comfortable with anything but the SBC for LF.

So, I need more holders, but how many more?

Film, how much? How many sheets for 10 days of hiking? If I add my 35mm Nikon to my kit, I will have to account for that body, lens and film as well.

I could just take one lens instead of the three which usually reside in my kit, but which one? The long and the short of it, (and the medium, as well) is that compromises must be made. Keep in mind that every piece of kit that gets moved to my checked baggage must compete with other travel essentials such as socks and underwear.

I really am interested in how
.....

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You need to be realistic, you really need to be realistic on what are you into....
This doesn't sound as thoughtful at all:
"It works for some, but it does not work for family members waiting on the side of a trail watching my forehead bead up with sweat while I try to get the job done."

Do you realize what they would have to wait for you to set up the tripod, set the camera, compose, measure, take and undo it all? Do you really think it is any different for them to wait for you to change film in the holders? And I didn't suggested two + film pack, I suggested two + film pack in carry-on and the rest of holders in checked-in, where tripod is.

But after all, if you would be one of those real LF fanatics who hasn't have anything else, including wife, it would have been something to talk for real. But once you have mentioned this trip as dedicated to wife retirement and existence of 35 Nikon, this was it. Leave your Large F ego and "it is all about me taking pictures" at home. Hike with her hand in your hand, instead of self-serving your interests. Take snapshots on 35 Nikon thing. It will do picture taking process on hike as normal thing, not as family torture in waiting exercise and sorry to say this, usually results are way better.
You are not AA with gear in the truck and you are not AA who hiked to get LF pictures alone and has time. You are hiking and traveling with family. Don't you think what your wife might need extra space and weight in carry-on?

Last fall I was on a semester abroad to Sweden and when packing up... Everything fit into a single checked suitcase (20.5kg, slight above allowed but they were nice) and my small 22L backpack (not big, well filled tipping 5kg). A month and half into the stay my parents visited and used the opportunity to rotate some clothing, they came carry on only. I brought OM1 and small mirrorless, but I could have tried to rotate them with the Fuji 6x9 and maybe bring the tripod.
All recent trips have been in LCC's and there's that personal item thing. I could have brought aside of the backpack a small bag of stuff or maybe even the tripod, but that can be risky. On my way home December I did bring a bag of food.

Making decisions on equipment is rather hard and sometimes easy to overpack or regret. While packing up I had to decide between OM1 and Fuji 6x9, so far I could have brought the latter.

This thread is interesting as I am rather fixated with taking the Fuji on my next 1mo long trip to SE Asia, long overdue -relatives there, long time no see-. I am much more concerned about volume rather than weight. Even if it may not be anytime soon, I did a mental list:
GW690, film -5x220 + 15 to 25 varied 120- (select shooter), digital mirrorless, meter (perhaps) and not much more photo wise. For the shady streets I thought about a good but cheap 35mm but another format is rather no-no. Then there's the which this or that shall I use for a certain something. I do like digital for some uses of course, but keeping a distance as to no overlap useability situations.

Do some kind of test run or pilot trip. A single day outing to get the feeling of things. I agree with Ko.Fe's points and it's a bit related to why I left off the Fuji 6x9 4 months at home (frames per roll).

About the issue of holders -just that makes me feel 120 6x9 is quite nice-, perhaps get a couple grafmatics?

EDIT: DIdn't think about the location. Iceland. That deserves large film sizes. In Sweden I went rather on my own and I could have used the 6x9 quite a bit, although after october tripod is almost a must.

Ko.Fe. said:

You need to be realistic, you really need to be realistic on what are you into....
This doesn't sound as thoughtful at all:
"It works for some, but it does not work for family members waiting on the side of a trail watching my forehead bead up with sweat while I try to get the job done."

Do you realize what they would have to wait for you to set up the tripod, set the camera, compose, measure, take and undo it all? Do you really think it is any different for them to wait for you to change film in the holders? And I didn't suggested two + film pack, I suggested two + film pack in carry-on and the rest of holders in checked-in, where tripod is.

But after all, if you would be one of those real LF fanatics who hasn't have anything else, including wife, it would have been something to talk for real. But once you have mentioned this trip as dedicated to wife retirement and existence of 35 Nikon, this was it. Leave your Large F ego and "it is all about me taking pictures" at home. Hike with her hand in your hand, instead of self-serving your interests. Take snapshots on 35 Nikon thing. It will do picture taking process on hike as normal thing, not as family torture in waiting exercise and sorry to say this, usually results are way better.
You are not AA with gear in the truck and you are not AA who hiked to get LF pictures alone and has time. You are hiking and traveling with family. Don't you think what your wife might need extra space and weight in carry-on?

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Thank you for your helpful suggestions.

I've often carried complete 4x5 gear on a carry-on, including on stringent weight flights. This kind of system can be distinctly lighter than med format SLR's if you carry just a few filmholders and something like a film-changing tent, carbon fiber tripod, a lightweight folding camera (I use an Ebony, and obviously leave the Sinar behind), with compact lenses (view lenses can be dramatically lighter than MF versions because they use the bellows for focal length extension rather than metal barrels). Or you can use roll-film holders on a 4x5, so gain compactness plus view camera movements. The downside for me is that if I'm traveling with my wife and it's intended as her vacation, I don't want to abuse her patience. I either take very few 4x5 select shots and supplement this with a Nikon, or else we stay at some nice location where I can simply wander out the door with the 4x5 while she relaxes reading a book. Due to this kind of scenario and not weight per se, I'm more likely to take a P67 kit with two bodies, and now have a Fuji MF 6x9 rangefinder option as well, which is really light, but obviously can handle only one type of film at a time and has a fixed lens. One simply learns to gravitate to subject matter that works with the specific gear on hand. It's all good.

I would have second thoughts about packing a tripod in checked luggage. When x-rayed especially a metal tripod can raise suspicions. Years ago I used to pack my Tiltall in checked luggage. On one trip upon arrival I received a message from the airline that my luggage missed the flight (while my wife's luggage checked at the same time didn't). They authorized reimbursement up to a certain amount for immediate needs. It took two days before my luggage arrived. My guess is the tripod legs resembled a pipe bomb. After that I bought a carbon fiber tripod that I carry on.

http://www.jeffreyglasser.com/

I was recently on an Island flight with my own single carry-on camera kit. There was also a "big shoot" pro and his assistants on the same flight. So each had a carry-on to prevent anything needing to go as check-in luggage. But his big panning tripod wouldn't fit, so I noticed they let that be stored
separately in it own long bag at the front of the cabin, just like sets of golf clubs brought aboard. That made me wonder how conventional that courtesy happens to be. I would never ever put ANYTHING of value in checked baggage. It a pretty rare flight we don't get something stolen from
checked luggage, even if it's just a box of chocolates or macadamia nuts.

I've put a tripod in my checked bags from time to time. I've never had anything go missing in my checked bags though. I'm not flying much these days, but I've gone multiple years flying weekly.

I put not one but two tripods in checked-in baggage and never had anything go awry or raise suspicions. Customs are not stupid — they do know what a three-legged steady-friend is in there, and have various contrast tools on the machine to enhance the view. Pipe bombs and the like would definitely not pass the sniff test, let along get through x-ray!

Up until November 2013 a tripod could be carried onboard the plane on domestic Australian flights (but not international flights connecting between cities), stored in the overhead lockers. My two tripods travelled like this in 2013, even with the spiked feet highly visible (they were x-rayed and swabbed). At some stage after that (early 2014?), all tripods/monopods were required to be packed to checked-in luggage without exception. Probably they had an afterthought about those potentially nasty spiked feet...

I generally leave the spiked tips behind and take a compact but solid Gitzo CF tripod with rubber feet in the carry-on itself. The rare exception would
be when I've flown with an 8x10 instead, which realistically requires too big a tripod for any carry-on. Luggage handler theft is pretty much an epidemic around here. TSA with carry-on has gone a lot smoother. I just avoid high-ASA films (anything over 400) and let them X-Ray everything at
once in the carry-on. It's been a long time since they even swabbed or visually inspected the kit. By contrast, they almost ruined my wife's laptop on
the same flight, prying at it. I'm personally more concerned about ordinary lithium-battery anything being allowed on planes, knowing what I do about
the frequency of counterfeit and substandard batteries out there, and their propensity to catch fire without warning.

DREW WILEY said:

I generally leave the spiked tips behind and take a compact but solid Gitzo CF tripod with rubber feet in the carry-on itself. The rare exception would
be when I've flown with an 8x10 instead, which realistically requires too big a tripod for any carry-on. Luggage handler theft is pretty much an epidemic around here. TSA with carry-on has gone a lot smoother. I just avoid high-ASA films (anything over 400) and let them X-Ray everything at
once in the carry-on. It's been a long time since they even swabbed or visually inspected the kit. By contrast, they almost ruined my wife's laptop on
the same flight, prying at it. I'm personally more concerned about ordinary lithium-battery anything being allowed on planes, knowing what I do about
the frequency of counterfeit and substandard batteries out there, and their propensity to catch fire without warning.

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Your concern about lithium batteries is shared by many. I think we are getting really close to the time when ALL lithium batteries are prohibited on aircraft (e.g. what was in MH370's cargo hold??). The credence for this comes from the recent (and still current) ban by Qantas here in Australia that prohibits carrying on board the Samsung 7 smartphone in response to that phone exploding or catching fire during recharging, but also just being carried about. That is truly frightening and a look into the very dangerous future. And THIS, from a respected manufacturer (but a recent item has surfaced where Apple's new phone is also catching fire!!). I imagine that a phone catching fire, or worse, exploding at 13,000m is not a particularly relaxing sight. That's why I always pick a window seat so I can make a quick exit...

When I travel with LF, I put tripod, empty filmholders, and meter in checked baggage usually, but carry on my film, camera, and lenses. Maybe I'll carry a few filmholders with me on board if there's space, so I can shoot if my checked baggage is delayed (just 4x5" or smaller). I've gone handheld with my 4x5" Tech V using a grip and Grafmatics, and rangefinder focusing, when my tripod hasn't arrived with me. Now I can meter with my iPhone, if my meter is delayed in checked baggage. In recent years, I tend to travel with the 2x3" Technika and 3 lenses, if I want most of the functionality of LF in a smaller package.