Comments on: Keep Your Camera Safe While Traveling: 13 Essential Tips

By: Donald_W_Meyers

Donald_W_Meyers — Mon, 31 Jul 2023 00:37:37 +0000

I know that’s why they covered the logos on my computer (It’s a Dell and even the Intel stickers got covered).

It’s sort of like the signs alarm companies out put in front of people’s homes. To me that tells people 1. You have stuff worth stealing and 2. Here’s how its protected.

By: Brian M. Bannon

Brian M. Bannon — Sun, 30 Jul 2023 11:57:41 +0000

In reply to Donald_W_Meyers.

Hi Donald,
A strap logo is visible from a distance and literally flags your gear. No downside to losing it.

A covered logo on a camera body will hide the make/model (which can be quickly Googled for its value), however, it may actually signal a high value item to a potential thief. It’s like when you see a man carrying an attaché case?handcuffed to his wrist. You don’t know what’s inside, but you know it’s valuable.

Same with the laptop, unless it was seen on-camera and they just didn’t want to give Apple a free endorsement.

By: Donald_W_Meyers

Donald_W_Meyers — Sun, 30 Jul 2023 04:35:27 +0000

In reply to Brian M. Bannon. How do you feel about the logos on the body? I know some shooters who cover them in gaffer's tape. I had a TV production crew do that to my laptop.

By: Brian M. Bannon

Brian M. Bannon — Sat, 29 Jul 2023 11:26:31 +0000

I notice some of the comments are 10 years-old, but they’re still valid. I had this nylon web Nikon strap that was too flashy for me, so I was able to peel off the felt letters and tone it down a bit. It took a while but it was a labor of love.

If I couldn’t peel them off, then Plan B was to bring out the black Sharpie.

https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4ffdc05bdefb4f0b76da3371f6b6882ba18871739f21faee15d29e7c3f9fde6b.jpg

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 27 Jul 2023 10:46:40 +0000

I have a backpack where to get at my camera and lenses, the bag is only accessible via its rear door access that rests against my back. It can be a pain but it is more secure than most backpacks for a camera.

By: Greg Edwards

Greg Edwards — Wed, 26 Jul 2023 20:05:32 +0000

I never travel with a camera bag. I use a worn in ‘man bag’ and a few neoprene sleeves – nothing screams ‘steal me’ more than branded bags and straps. Secondly, I only take the kit I expect to use. For example, I don’t both taking a long tele-zoom if we’re not going to a zoo.

I’ve also embraced the compact power-zoom camera lately for smaller travels where I don’t expect I’ll need a camera but would be handy anyway. I always forget to take photos with my phone, so having an actual camera forces me to remember to shoot something.

By: Bob Gonzales

Bob Gonzales — Tue, 17 Jun 2014 16:07:00 +0000

I just returned from a month in Europe with stays in Ireland, London, York, Paris and San Sebastian and thought I would share my experience. This was my first extended overseas trip with this much expensive gear and I agonized on what to take and how to safely travel with it. I spent hours researching how others travelled with photo gear and came with the following which worked well for me. I kept revisiting the inventory and each time took one item out until I was happy with the weight and volume of gear. I ended up with the following kit: Canon 5D III body, Canon 7D body (only used the 7D once, but nice to know there is a backup in case something goes wrong), Canon G15 (for bars and music venues where dslr’s are awkward), Canon 24-105 f4L IS, Canon 28 f1.8, Kenko 1.4X and 2X teleconverters (to extend the 105mm reach), and the usual misc support stuff you need, ie cards, remote shutter release, batteries, chargers, filters, etc.

I left the big telephoto lens, such as Canon 70-200L f2.8 at home due to weight and space. This was a really tough decision because it is such a great lens, but in the end it was the right decision. I never missed it and only used the 1.4X teleconverter once on the 24-205. Never used the 2X teleconverter. Most photos were either wider angle landscape, both day and night, and indoors. My tripod is a Benro cf travel angel II. The tripod is a necessity for me since I enjoy late night photography. How can you go to London and Paris and not shoot night photos on the rivers?!

All of the gear fit into a GuraGear Bataflae 26L including the tripod. The GG was only used as an airline and train carry on bag. No camera gear was checked and I never had a problem with the GG as a carryon with all the equipment inside. Although expensive, the GG is definitely worth it. There are informative reviews for the GG on many websites. One side was for the tripod and small misc stuff packed around the tripod. The camera bodies and lens were on the other side. I made room in the GG for a Clik Elite Camera Capsule which held one camera body and lens. I also brought a ThinkTank CityWalker 10 for easy walkarounds. The Clik insert fit perfectly in the CityWalker 10 and made for easy switching. The CityWalker worked out great and is the perfect size for what I needed for day or night shoots. When empty without the insert, the City Walker could fold flat inside my checked luggage. It also doubled as a small personal bag without the insert and photo gear.

I did not take a portable hard drive for backup, but instead bought 2 Sandisk 128 gb usb thumb drives to backup the old Toshiba netbook hard drive. I also had enough CF, SD cards so that I never came close to using all the storage.

I must say that I used the 24-105L f4 on the 5D about 95% of the time. It is just a great all around lens for travel. It does take lots of thought and preparation to prepare for any trip, especially if the trip is primarily for photography. I hope this advice helps some of you.

By: Edmund

Edmund — Thu, 16 Jan 2014 18:32:00 +0000

I’m not sure about the in-room hotel safe. OK, better than leaving the temptation for the chambermaid but the majority of ones I have seen are of such bad quality that they don’t protect anything.
Great advice about an old, beaten up bag. Swapped my obvious camera bag for an old fashioned looking canvas bag and now don’t feel like a tourist everywhere I go which is a second advantage!

By: Kakneqgi

Kakneqgi — Mon, 30 Dec 2013 18:14:00 +0000

I’ve been traveling through USA’s southwest for 3 weeks this year.

Most places we went seemed quite safe, but we walked through a few bad neighborhoods in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

In these neighborhoods and crowded areas (e.g. Hollywood Blvd) I always felt unsave about my backpack, until i had the idea to lock the zippers together with suitcase locks. No more worries about someone stealing stuff out of my bag unnoticed.
I’ve also seen camera bags that are only accessible from the back-side.

It can also make the difference about getting robbed or not if your camera looks older (= cheaper) than it is.
Sticking some duct tape onto it will do the trick.

I read about a photographer who was travelling in critical areas like Afghanistan.
He had the ultimate backup-plan.
He saved his pictures to his laptop, sd-cards, rugged harddrives and he uploaded his best shots to the cloud if the internet connection was fast enough.
He always carried the sd-cards on his body (money belt) and mailed the harddrives back home every few days.

By: Ralph Hightower

Ralph Hightower — Sat, 28 Dec 2013 19:56:00 +0000

Write It All Down:
Use Evernote (https://evernote.com/). There are smartphone apps for Evernote. I created an Evernote Notebook for my camera and lens inventory with serial numbers.