Rent or Bring Along?

[Pao Dolina]

A friend now lives in Fruitland, Utah. He mentioned there are a lot of birds there. I am in Asia right now with all my gear. My question is if placed in a similar situation would you rent a 800mm during your stay or take a chance with the TSA and check it in from Asia until Utah? Will be bringing in my bodies, tripod and zooms.

[Jamie Strickland]

if you have insurance I would bring it, renting a 800 is going to be very expensive, your looking at around 500 USD for a week

[Ed Cordes]

I would do what I always do - check luggage for the tripod and ball head, TC's and 17-40, as well as clothes and other travel stuff. The rest of the camera gear I would pack for hand carrying. If I had to check a spare body I would, but usually I don't have to. With proper packing I usually travel with a 1 series body, a 1.6 crop body, a 24-105, 100-400, 300 f4, 500 f4, Colorspace, laptop, along with the chargers and wires needed to use all this stuff. Many times my wife travels with me and we hand carry a third body with a 17-40, binoculars, second Colorspace, and 3 TC's.

On international flights where the carry on stuff is very weight limited, I remove the 500 F4 from the pack and hand carry it as my "personal item". After checking in and weiging I then place the 500 back in my pack where it belongs.