Bringing Camera Gear on a Plane: What I Would Do Differently

Recently, I was flown out for the first time as a photographer, and this is everything I learned from the experience, as well as what I would change for next time.

I have flown with camera gear before, but with fewer cameras and no lights, as it wasn’t in a professional capacity. Safe to say, bringing a full studio aboard a plane is a much different process. I can confidently say that, while everything worked out in the end, there are definitely some things I would change going into the next round of travel as a photographer.

First things first, I’m not about to check gear. Everything was either in my carry-on or in my backpack. While I do a decent job explaining everything in the accompanying video, I want to provide a little more detail, as well as open the conversation for those yet to travel with camera gear, and for those who have traveled extensively.

My entire kit consisted of three bags in total: my checked bag, my carry-on, and my backpack. I’ll break down everything that was in each so you get the clearest picture of what went into this.

Firstly, there was the long checked bag. This was actually the carrying case a c-stand I purchased from Amazon came in. And actually, it carried everything I needed it to. Although, the stitching is starting to wear on one handle as I have overloaded the bag once or twice. Inside of this particular bag were:

• The pole from my main c-stand (turtle base variety)
• Two lightweight backdrop stands
• Adjustable backdrop pole
• Travel tripod
• Lightweight baby light stand
• White umbrella
• Folded-down octabox

As for my carry-on, about half of it was clothes as I was only gone for all of 48 hours. For the gear half, was the following:

• C-stand legs (were too big to fit in the stand bag)
• Tech pouch with accessories, cables, and tools
• Godox AD600 with battery
• Speedlight and diffuser
• 5-in-1 reflector

Then my backpack (the Incase DSLR propack) had the majority of the gear which included:

• Two camera bodies
• 24-105mm
• 85mm
• 70-200mm
• Godox AD600 with battery
• Cables
• iPad
• 15” MacBook Pro
• Portable hard drives
• Chargers
• Shotgun mic for vlogging
• Folded white backdrop

And that’s the gist of what’s in each bag. Now, there are two things here: one, this may not be a lot of kit for me to bring, but fitting it all in three bags was tricky, to say the least. The second issue was the size and weight of the Godox AD600. On the flight out, security did inspect them, as I’m guessing it’s not something they see every day, but it was all fine. That said, there were multiple moments I was concerned about the size of both my carry-on and my backpack, as neither was small by any means. Naturally, I played it off as if I didn’t give it a second thought, which I would argue worked to my benefit, but it gave me a valuable lesson for the next time I’m flown out with a similar setup.

Now, the AD600’s have been my main on-location flashes for years, before the pro versions even became available. Yes, they may be large and heavy, but they have a lot of power for a monolight, and I would trade the size for the power, so that was a non-issue for me—until now, that is.

When it comes to buying new gear, I will wait until I absolutely have to before actually biting the bullet. For a while, I was looking at getting more portable, compact lights to add to my kit, but the need was never that pressing. The pain of not having them wasn’t to the point where it left me with few options. I considered this option for a while until I realized portability is something I need. Between this video and me writing this, I added a couple of AD300 Pro’s to the kit as a solution to this problem. Two of these are roughly the size and weight of the AD600’s, while not compromising much on flash output. To be safe, I’d need a couple of backup batteries, as they don’t offer as many full-power flashes per charge, but that’s a pain I’m willing to bear as it will drastically decrease the size and weight of my travel photography kit.

On the way back, to reduce the size of my carry-on, I put both AD600’s in my backpack, and by the time all was said and done, that thing was almost as bulky as my luggage. Safe to say, it worked for the one time, but it’s definitely not a long-term solution. With carrying these lights on a plane and multiple backup batteries, I did have to consider the regulations for the airline when it comes to batteries. I would also advise any other photographers to do the same, as this particular flight was with Air Canada, allowing up to 20 lithium-ion batteries, and no more than two exceeding 100 watt-hours. Fortunately, the AD600 batteries came in just under, at 96 watt-hours, I believe. I did a full inventory of all my batteries and devices, as I knew I wasn’t exactly traveling light in the tech department. For reference, my total count looked like:

• 6 Canon LP batteries
• 2 Godox batteries
• Phone internal battery
• iPad internal battery
• Laptop internal battery
• Wireless headphones
• Backup power bank
• Apple Watch

By the end of it, I had roughly 15 or so batteries, if you count each wireless earbud as its own battery. That’s also good to know for how many extra batteries I can bring for the new AD300’s, as well as any extra Canon batteries I have with me, as I tend to overprepare a little and can easily get carried away.

In the end, as I mentioned, everything ended up being fine, but it did leave me with a valuable lesson in how to make sure it keeps being fine. If you’re planning on flying with camera gear anytime soon and are wondering about things to look out for, I hope this has given you some solid insight, as the majority of it I just researched on my own, and then played a fun game of Tetris between all my bags to make everything fit. My best advice: check airline regulations, pack smart, bring backups but pare down your kit where you can, have the right tools for the job you’re hired for, and if you’re able to, rent from the location you’re going to so you don’t even have to worry about bringing any of this on a plane! This was a situation where renting wasn’t exactly an option, so I had to make it work, and make it work I did. That said, I have a better plan of attack for the next one.