I have a carbon fiver tripod and I need to travel with it, in checked airline baggage. Does anyone have any solutions for that? I was thinking about some sort of hard case. Howeer, a good padded soft case would do also.

Thanks.

I carry the head in my hand luggage and the legs diagonally across my suitcase.

With the growing restrictions and extra fees on checked bags, we use the same approach as mahleu. Just spin off the head and shove it down into a shoe for extra padding, then put the legs in the bag. It requires that we use a bag that's long enough, but it beats paying for an extra bag in the airplane hold.

Edit- You didn't ask the question, but I'll offer this up based on your interest in studio shooting, as seen in other threads: More and more, when we travel to distant shoots we rent lighting equipment at or near the destination. Most major cities have at least one company that rents studio equipment. In almost every case we can rent all the gear we need for less than it costs to ship our own ahead or bring it along as excess baggage.

It sure saves wear and tear on your own gear, too! Remember, there's a ham-handed baggage handler (known by the airlines as ramp rats) that can defeat the most sophisticated packing cases. I swear that they are trying out for ramp rat olympics, the way they abuse bags!

I do that too, but I wanted something to keep the legs from getting crushed if a heavy, hard cased bag gets dropped on it. I had a reflector bent beyond recognition the last time I flew because I use a soft duffel bag for me check on bag. I guess I could switch up to a hard bag and that might work. I'm still worried about the legs though.

In recent years we've been using Tamrac's Rolling Studio cases as luggage. The regular (660) and medium (661) are just right, with the 661 being a little longer than most standard suitcases. They're well padded, plus they have rigid liners that protect everything inside. You can't beat Tamrac's wheels and extendible handles for toughness and convenience, too. Many of the Tamrac bags and packs have kind of a sleeve on the back (I don't remember what they call them) that lets you slip the bag securely down over the handle on roller bags. That's really slick for transfering your carryon load off your shoulders once you have retrieved your baggage. When you travel lots, you'll bless the wheels and handles, along with a means to securely transfer your carryons to something wheeled.

[quote=dwdallam,Jun 15 2008, 11:22 AM]
I have a carbon fiver tripod and I need to travel with it, in checked airline baggage. Does anyone have any solutions for that? I was thinking about some sort of hard case.

Hi,

I travel extensively on plans and have my tripod and camera gear with me in the plane. Never had a problem checking in

Sigi

[quote=Sigi,Jun 19 2008, 08:24 AM]
[quote=dwdallam,Jun 15 2008, 11:22 AM]
I have a carbon fiver tripod and I need to travel with it, in checked airline baggage. Does anyone have any solutions for that? I was thinking about some sort of hard case.

Hi,

I travel extensively on plans and have my tripod and camera gear with me in the plane. Never had a problem checking in

Sigi

[/quote]

They don't count your tripod as an extra carryon? Most airlines allow one carry on and on personal bag, like a laptop case or purse, and that's it, with size limitations. My tripod with head is 35".