Checking JVC cameras
 

I travel with two JVC 110s... I have taken them on eight trips overseas. Both in pelicans... I have never had a problem until three days ago!!! I was flying home from Costa Rica, and delta's people wanted to look in all my pelicans... So the guy took out both cameras and wanted to turn it on! Then he could not get it back in the pelican, so he started pushing it in! He broken off the plastic piece where the battery sits on the back of the camera!!! I complained to Delta and they totally brushed me off!! So my hypothesis, the people behind the counter are more dangerous than the people who load your luggage! I use a petrol backpack and put 1 JVC 100 in, with an aunton Bauer battery system and tape stock, and any other gagets.. I always want to be sure that one system will get to where I am going.

Andy,
I just got home from Anchorage (a 2 week family reunion in Eagle River and my brother's fishing boat in Whittier). I bought an HD-110 2 months ago with the smaller of the 2 PortaBrace bags recommended for the camera (can't remember the model number, but it's on their site- I live in Vermont so I'm loyal to Porta Brace). I brought the camera to Mexico on a shoot before Alaska (many flights on both trips with no problems as carry-on).
But when I heard the original poster say Air Canada, it brought back the only real hassles I've ever had with a carry-on camera. I fly all over the world (out of the U.S. 3-4 months of the year), and until recently carried a Sony 637A Beta-Sp in a "carry-on" Porta Brace case. Airline regs changed a while ago, and made carry-on specs smaller, but except for some small regional jets, I could carry my camera evrywhere, except Air Canada. I live a couple of hours from Montreal, and sometimes fly to Europe from there or Boston on Air Canada. Well, I should say I *used* to fly Air Canada. They gave me the biggest hassle of any airline for my camera, and I wound up taking it out of its carry-on bag and carrying it on without any protection once, and arguing very loudly with a supervisor another time. I love the 9 pounds vs. 22 pounds now that I carry a JVC HD-110!
Ed

Hi, I have taken my HD-100 to Iraq and back several times, plus several trips inside the US with no problems. I have the Petrol case for it, which fits inside the overhead bins of most planes. Always with the mic, and viewfinder removed.

I have had to fly a few times in smaller prop driven planes to get into small towns, and those overhead bins will not accomodate the Petrol case. For that, I just take the camera out of the case, gate check the case, and put the camera into the bin, wrapped up in a heavy coat. I defend my bin of course, and I detatch the viewfinder, and mic.

I have never had any objections, with the exception of the size of the case for the small planes. I have even convinced a few security screeners to not X-Ray it, by turning it on for them, and letting them see inside the tape mechanism. I know the X-Rays are not supposed to hurt the CCD's, and they haven't yet, but I still avoid it if I can.

The one thing I refuse to do though is let it out of my sight while traveling. Whatever it takes, my camera is never farther away than the bin above my head, if not in my lap, or at my feet.

Get a Press Card
 

I'm another one who travels a lot - and I live in southern Africa, and have to transit johannesburg about twice a month, where they'll steal your used underwear from a shrink-wrapped bomb proof safe.

I work all over - Iraq, afghanistan, somalia, and the rest, and I often transit through europe to hook up with a client. My passport must have an Agency trace on it a mile long.

I always carry my HD 111 (and before that my 400 AP) with me, in a protabrace, with radio mics and a spare battery. i also take a small backpack with my laptop, and a book, and my ipod... and a 6 pin firewire cable and some tapes.

y'all know how it is.

Oh, and my lucky silver Inukshuk a Canuk mate gave me.

the Portabrace is 60 x 40 x 30, by the way, so close enough.

Point is this: I can work off the plane with this lot. Doesn't matter if my toothbrush is on it's way to Bogota and won't be hear tilll next week.

If you're doing current affairs work, get a press card. National Union of Journalists is good, but frankly you can scan one up with half an hour on google and laminate it at the corner shop. These security guys at the airports are only doing their job. Give 'em a reason to be helpful (and a smile) and ninety nine times out of the century they will be. The lads at Heathrow often ask for my press card - then they let me through with the camera bag and the backpack. No probs.

Does anyone just use fedex to send there camera? I figure you can get it insured at least.