Flying with camera gear in carry-on bag

Perhaps a stupid question to some, but I am about to embark on a short weekend trip to Denver. I am curious whether or not airlines will have me empty my carry-on bag (in my case, a Gura Gear with an 800L and various lenses and two bodies inside. I remember doing so back in 2017 the last time I travelled but I recently talked to a couple people that have said they don't have to unzip their carry-on and put all items in a tray for screening. I know it sounds dumb, but I hated all the stares on my last trip when I emptied all my gear into a tray; I don't like attention and it is embarrassing. I know I should have gotten TSA Pre-check but it is too late for that. Thoughts?

birder_herper wrote in post #19382019
Perhaps a stupid question to some, but I am about to embark on a short weekend trip to Denver. I am curious whether or not airlines will have me empty my carry-on bag (in my case, a Gura Gear with an 800L and various lenses and two bodies inside. I remember doing so back in 2017 the last time I travelled but I recently talked to a couple people that have said they don't have to unzip their carry-on and put all items in a tray for screening. I know it sounds dumb, but I hated all the stares on my last trip when I emptied all my gear into a tray; I don't like attention and it is embarrassing. I know I should have gotten TSA Pre-check but it is too late for that. Thoughts?

Yes. TSA makes me dump them out. So far at ATL, SFO, and LIH.

My experience is that every airport is different. Smaller airports tend to be fussier. I flew earlier this month and did not have to remove my camera (R5 with 24-105mm) from my personal item bag. I didn't have a big lens along. Note that rollaboards have to be gate checked for smaller aircraft and those bags can be handled roughly. I had a ceramic teapot in one and it arrived shattered into many pieces. It would have been fine if I had handled it.

never had to unpack my camera bag.

both with or without pre-check.

i only carry a domke f7 though with a pair of 5D4s, 70-200 f2.8, 24-70 f2.8, 600ex-rt, controller and then all the little stuff (batteries, cards, pens, flashlight, note pad blah blah blah). accidentally had a bottle of water in an end pocket and had to take it out. i asked if i could drink it before going on and they said sure. slammed the 1/2 ltr with one break for air and carried the empty through with me...

detroit, atlanta, denver, spokane, anchorage, midway, memphis, fairbanks, shiphol (amsterdam) copenhagen all same same...

I've never had to open or empty my camera bag, and I carry it a lot, and travel a lot. Except for the one time I packed a mini-tripod. On the x-ray it looked a lot like three pipe bombs.

I never did that again, I can tell you.

Varies with airport and particular TSA agent's discretion. I've had bag dumps at LAX, HND, NRT, KOJ, SNA, EUG and SFO. Not all the times I've been through though. HNL the TSA agents are are polite, laid back as one might think of island types. At NRT it took 4 agents because I also had some 4-6mm hex wrenches in the bag. They were talking in Japanese, had to call the wife back (She had already cleared BTW.) to translate. In so doing they re-checked her bag because I must have been a suspicions gaijin and she was with me.

Organize your cables, mine were a tangled mess so to them along with the card reader, multiple battery packs and chargers it looked funny. That is what the agent had said the batteries and cables drew their attention. Lenses not so much nor the body/bodies. One agent at SFO wanted to make sure that the camera was real and wanted to see the mirror articulate on shutter press. That was only time, not since have I been asked to verify camera operation.

YMMV

I travel weekly, and with some form of gear. I do have TSA pre, but that said, even before that I almost never have to take stuff out. They see this stuff all the time... they are super used to it. And if you have to unzip... so what. Take your camera and have a good time.

Croasdail wrote in post #19382610
I travel weekly, and with some form of gear. I do have TSA pre, but that said, even before that I almost never have to take stuff out. They see this stuff all the time... they are super used to it. And if you have to unzip... so what. Take your camera and have a good time.

That's a good answer. I didn't reply as I have Pre, and I haven't needed to take stuff out in the states. In other words, my experience may not apply to the OP. In the UK, where Pre isn't used, I had no problems with camera gear back in February this year,

Maybe, maybe not. Don't get embarrassed... they are not singling you out. This is just a byproduct of our post 911 reality.

I don't look at people differently and for the most part the agents do exercise some discretion. If there is some hobby that has "unique" paraphernalia I'd put that in checked luggage if potentially embarrassing.

Reminds me: One of the guys we'd met through a business contact was a product rep for a "health" company related to procreation activities. He'd told us one time about being pulled over and the cop requesting to check his trunk. He knows there isn't anything illegal so consented to see how the cop would react. The cop got a good laugh from the "goodies" and he escaped a speeding ticket.

Nothing like the woman I saw who had to unpack all her lingerie and sex toys...

I have never once had to empty my camera bag. Domestic or international. The only time the guy even made my open the bag so he could take a closer look was in Singapore, I think. I was carrying an 85mm apochromatic refractor and it looked different enough from a camera lens that he wanted to make sure.

SeattleSpeedster wrote in post #19382887
Nothing like the woman I saw who had to unpack all her lingerie and sex toys...

Lol. Were any phone numbers exchanged after that?

I have only had to take out the camera body. The rest stayed packed. YMMV...

abacus022 wrote in post #19382117
Except for the one time I packed a mini-tripod. On the x-ray it looked a lot like three pipe bombs.

I'm now both laughing and curious. What kind of mini tripod is that?