airline travel & equipment

[Dave Neyman]

I have traveled all over the US and the world with this gear and not had any problems. It is a requirement to take the cameras out of the cases to go through security but that is no big deal. All the gear should be no problem. I used to get a lot of weird looks carrying multiple hard drives but I think they are getting used to it in this digital age. The biggest problem now is the batteries.

Check out this link.

https://safetravel.dot.gov/whats_new_batteries.html

Keep in mind the London is among the worst airports. They hold to the single carry-on while most others don’t mind if you have a computer bag and another carry-on.

Best of luck and safe travels!

[Ralf Meyer]

thanks Dave,

speaking of batteries. Do I assume right that if I seperate all my spares (Panasonic CGA-D54s-CGD -D28 and Firestore spare) and stick them in ziplocks (seperated) that this will sufffice regarding the TSA folks?

Ralf

[Richard Harrington]

https://www.podango.com/podcast_episode/1941/58877/Producing_Video_Podcasts_iPod/Producing_Video_Podcasts__Traveling_with_Camera_Batteries

I’ve had no issues so far

Richard M. Harrington, PMP

Author: Photoshop for Video, Understanding Adobe Photoshop, and ATS:iWork

[Jan Crittenden livingston]

Hi,

Yoou are allowed one battery in cargo, aka luggage and cases with gear in them, a singular battery, it must be attached to the camera, or recorder. All else has to be in the carry on. In your carry on you can have up to 25 grams of Lithium Ion. In each of the HVX batteries you have about 2 1/2 grams. We are working on having a certificate on the website sometime in the near future but bureacracy takes time. Sorry.

Anyhow,I just traveled with a set of the above and no one seemed to care about the number of batteries. They had a lot more interest in the 14 P2 cards I had in a small case. They had not seen PCMCIA cards in that quantity. I felt I was in a visual training session. 😉

Hope this helps,

Jan

Jan Crittenden Livingston
Product Manager, HPX500, HVX200, DVX100
Panasonic Broadcast & TV Systems

[Mitch Ives]

[Jan Crittenden Livingston] “Yoou are allowed one battery in cargo, aka luggage and cases with gear in them, a singular battery, it must be attached to the camera, or recorder. All else has to be in the carry on. In your carry on you can have up to 25 grams of Lithium Ion. In each of the HVX batteries you have about 2 1/2 grams.”

Jan, I may be wrong, but I’ve been on all three sites and according to all three, as of 1/1/2008:

1) you may not have any batteries in your checked luggage

2) you may have one battery in the camera

3) you may have a maximum of two spare batteries in your carry-on (separated in bags)

4) the gram exemption has been removed… there is no break for small batteries anymore… it doesn’t matter what their size is, it’s a max of two. They do mention a max, and warned that some laptops batteries exceed this and will not be allowed.

They may not have spooled up on this at the airports yet, but they will any day now, just like they did with the liquids. It went into effect, but it was a while before they actually started enforcing it at the airports…

Mitch Ives
Insight Productions Corp.
mitch@insightproductions.com

Apple Certified Trainer: Final Cut Pro

[Dave Neyman]

It seems pretty clear that they will not allow any Lithium Ion batteries in checked luggage but it is vague what the limit is for carry-on luggage. My understanding was the the limit of 2 was for the larger batteries. The HVX batteries I thought were considered small. I am getting ready for some travel soon so I guess I will find out for sure. I normally carry 4 batteries with each HVX-200 and then I carry 2 for my laptop and 2 for my still package plus 1 in my phone. That makes 9! Do they count the total or do they allow for each item? It is just not clear where they draw the line at this point. I’m not sure we will fully understand until we get some hard experience. I guess if you travel with enough people you can split them up. Any stories out there from folks who are fresh from a trip?

[Jan Crittenden livingston]

Hi Mitch,

Please review this page from the FAA. https://safetravel.dot.gov/

You may have a battery attached to the device in check luggage.

Best,

Jan

Jan Crittenden Livingston
Product Manager, HPX500, HVX200, DVX100
Panasonic Broadcast & TV Systems

[David Rosberg]

I went through airport security in Denver, El Paso, TX, and Wilmington, NC, with my HVX200 and three batteries within the last month. I had one battery attached to the camera, another battery attached to the charger (with gaffers tape to hold it in place) and the third loose in my bag. They didn’t seem to care, but as previously mentioned on this thread, the training may not have gotten to all the inspectors… I had more trouble with the RAID in my bag. The El Paso security people felt the need to go over it with a wand.

Beyond that, I generally send a small freight train of security bins through the scanners. No problems with the data on the P2 cards, Firestore, MacBook Pro or RAID, everything came through alright.

Dave Rosberg
Producer
Dish Network

[Dave Neyman]

I have scrutinized all the documents I could find on it and it appears that the limit of two is for the much larger batteries. I think the HVX batteries are small enough to take a handful and still be under the limit in grams. I think we should just use common sense and bring bags for them so there is not threat of them shorting. As far as any damage to data on the P2 cards and raids are concerned – there is nothing to worry about. I’ve never heard of anyone losing data to the x-ray machines. I can remember when we used to have to do hand inspections with the changing tent and 30 rolls of film. Life has improved a little since then!

[Lars Wikstrom]

What scares me about having my Battery attached to my HVX200 is that it might break of the tabs on the camera that holds the battery in place. I remember well some one posting here a year ago that said during his air travel with the battery on it brook off a couple of the tabs on the camera. Since that post I have been very carefull when putting on a removing the battery and never travel with it connected to the camera.

-Lars