Camera and airport security?

The website referenced above is a very good place to look for the letter of the law.

A couple of corrections to some incorrect statements made earlier in this thread:

oredith wrote in post #6319631
hmm.. i may just throw all the batteries in the check-in-luggage then. just to be safe.

NO! Having extra batteries in your carry-on is allowed. Having extra batteries in your checked baggage is not.

wingit wrote in post #6319589
correct me if i am wrong, the new policy only allow you to carry 1 camera battery.

This is wrong. There is no set number of allowed spare batteries. Using some of the conversion charts on that website, you could have 10 spare batteries and still be below the maximum allowed content for Li-Ion batteries.

Pack your camera and your lenses detached to minimize your risk of damage (that is today's post on Flying With Fish after checking my e-mails going back to Feb '07 and finding 53 e-mails from readers telling me about how they damaged their camera/lens when packed together!). You batteries and CF cards are fine. There are no special precautions. It is all allowed on.

Whatever you do, DO NOT CHECK YOUR BATTERIES. The rules for checked batteries are that each battery must be packed individually (that means 36 plastic bags for 36 "AA" batteries and that each terminal end of the battery be covered. If you carry the battery on you will have NO problems. If nothing else make sure you carry your batteries on board with you!

Your Monopod and/or tripod should be allowed on, depending on size of the tripod/monopod. If you can check the tripod/monopod then check it. It is just easier than hauling it. Only Italy really has a 'no tripod' policy in place for carry-on , and they are totally inconsistent in the rules governing carry-on tripods.

Other than that, check out my site for traveling photogs, www.flyingwithfish.com

If you have any specific questions, or need any help drop me an e-mail. Send me your flight info and I may be able to help you select decent seats as well!

Happy Flying!

As for batteries,I am one of the few people I know who actually read the US Department of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous Materials ruling on batteries cover to cover. It made no sense. But rather than go into the utter uselessness of the ruling, which the TSA chose to disregard, you can read the current "clarified' battery rules here on Flying With Fish

02/01/08 - DOT / TSA Battery Restrictions Clarified For Airline Travel - We Can Fly With As Many As We Want (sort of)

One guy was wondering what my XTi was I guess (maybe he was new) and he took a short look at it. "That's a huge camera." (Gripped XTi and Sigma 18-200 OS)

He hasn't seen anything..

ibdb wrote in post #6320110
This is wrong. There is no set number of allowed spare batteries. Using some of the conversion charts on that website, you could have 10 spare batteries and still be below the maximum allowed content for Li-Ion batteries.

The amount of Li-Ion allowed is 'per battery' so you could have 200 batteries with a total amount well over the limit, as long as each individual battery is below the amount. The reason the TSA chose to disregard the rule change is that they are not capable of checking batteries on-site.

The only way to check a batter is take it apart (destroying it) and then sending it off-site to a lab.

This is outside the scope of the TSA's ability and they knew it.

Vascilli wrote in post #6320781
One guy was wondering what my XTi was I guess (maybe he was new) and he took a short look at it. "That's a huge camera." (Gripped XTi and Sigma 18-200 OS)

He hasn't seen anything..

My 'usual' kit for many jobs is 3 bodies (often 1D bodies), 6-8 lenses, 2-4 speedlights, pocket wizards, cables, etc etc etc. Never have any problems anywhere. Except weight issues (which 'go away' when you fly business class:lol

Never been out of the country, but two or three flights from Charlotte to Vegas and back, with camera(30D + 70-300) AROUND MY NECK, I have never been asked a question or anything.

fishfoto wrote in post #6320793
The amount of Li-Ion allowed is 'per battery' so you could have 200 batteries with a total amount well over the limit, as long as each individual battery is below the amount. The reason the TSA chose to disregard the rule change is that they are not capable of checking batteries on-site.

The only way to check a batter is take it apart (destroying it) and then sending it off-site to a lab.

This is outside the scope of the TSA's ability and they knew it.

Thanks for clarifying that. The site I was reading gave some general guidelines for how to calculate what might be in your battery, and some limits as to what was allowed, but never said whether it was a per battery limit, and aggregate limit, or completely arbitrary. It seemed like an administrative and enforcement nightmare, but that didn't necessarily exclude any possibilities.

oredith wrote in post #6319358
I'm really not sure if this is the right place for this, but it seems to be the forum where there'd be most experience in this matter (pros traveling around the country).

I'm going overseas to taiwan to visit family next month, and it'll be the first time i travel anywhere with a "real" camera. (gear list below in my sig).

I hope to carry the bag onto the plane with me. I will be using a crumpler 7MDH.

are there any do's and don'ts about carrying a camera onboard? batteries? CF cards? or if it's allowed at all?

i just don't want to be caught offguard, and have to rip apart my check-in luggage to try to stuff my camera equipment in there at the last minute.

I plan to stuff the mono/tripod in the check-in luggage.

i just flew from phx to seattle and back with my 7 mdh packed. took 3 lenses, extra AA's, my tripod etc. the thing was stuffed. no one said a word and i didn't have to open it.

What's the deal with batteries in the check-on baggage? Why won't they allow that?

Z,

The US Department of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration determined that certain types of batteries are prone to becoming incendiary devices when heated(and generally an aircraft's cargo area is freezing rather than boiling while at altitude) so they banned them. The logic is that should a random piece of metal come in contact with a battery's terminals, + & -simultaneously it can spark. That spark can cause a fire,and a fire in flight is dangerous.

The US DOT's PHMSA, which has no authority over the aviation industry (the DOT does, but not the PHMSA), based its study on quite literally random occurances (I don't find them random, other people in the DOT and FAA found them to be 'random') that had nothing to do with batteries themselves. In fact, the only known in-flight battery fires on airliners in the past decade have been caused by batteries that were not placed on the restricted list by the DOT PHMSA's findings.

There was a fire on board a UPS DC-8 at PHL that involved li-ion batteries, a whole pallet of them, however that was air freight which has different rules. The batteries did not start the fire, the crew flew the plane nearly 50 miles while on fire!!! They landed perfectly and safely. The fire spread due to a deployment error of the PHL Crash/Rescue crews by not puncturing the skin of the aircraft and injecting the foam directly into the aircraft.I forget the details now, but it was determined to be an error in the actions by the crash/rescue crews. ............... but that fire is mentioned heavily in the report.

.......so your question was what now?

I flew to HNL in August and carried on board 1DsMKII, 1dMKIII, two extra batteries, a slew of lenses and couple of 580 flashes along with assorted accessories. This all fits in a AW Trekker bag. I make an average of at least one trip a month and in the summer many more and have never, I repeat, never been turned back at security. I've had them gawk at the equipment but I think that is more in amazement than anything else. I throw the charger for the 1 series batteries in my checked baggage.

The OP is certainly not going to have any issue carrying on what is in his signature line. The best bet is to refer to the airline(s) web sites that you will be traveling on as well as each country's security website. Always pack to the most restrictive regular you can find. This whole battery thing has been blown way out of proportion and that is when people throw out comments that are wrong and don't bother to look the right info up. With the right planning there is no reason that anyone should encounter problems in flying with their gear.

fishfoto wrote in post #6321586
.......so your question was what now?

The answer I read was that if there was a battery caused fire in the cabin, the crew could try to put it out. If there was a battery caused fire in the baggage compartment, there's no such option.

David,

Actually commercial aircraft have fire-suppression systems in the cargo hold,much like they have fire suppression systems in the engines. Crews can and do fight fires in the cargo hold.

Sheldon,

The battery issue has been blown out of proportion.

There is a lot of misinformation on batteries being allowed as carry-on,when in reality there are very few restrictions on carry-on batteries.

Much of the incorrect info has to do with the very confusing language on the TSA website.