Travelling with lenses..Suggestions

[Harcharan Singh]

Hi,
What are the precautions to be taken while travelling with lenses :
1. On flight
2. By Road-during jerky travels and bad roads
3. Recommended cases for lenses

Suggestions on maintenenace will be appreciated.

Does a jery road travel harm the lenses?
Thks
Harcharan

[Fredrik Callinggard]

I use stormcases and custom cut foam for my Master Primes and they're fragile. Works fine, no problems.

Pelican is as good (justa preference - I prefer that storm is lighter and that the latches are easier to open close). Flightcases work as well.

You need rugged cases that can withstand weather and you need custom cut foam, that holds the lenses in place safely. That's all.

[David W. Jones]

I'm going to agree with Fredrik and give my nod to stormcases for lenses because of the latches.

All the Best!

[Dan Hudgins]

White cases may be better than black, and don't leave them in the sun for long as glass and metal can expand and the elements shatter or get loose.

I just got a lens shipped from the UK and was cleaning in when I heard a clunk, so I shook it and "rattle-rattle-rattle" (more like the sound of a wood coin between two plates or something). It seems the trip had caused the cells to un-screw!

So having a lens wrench along with cleaning fluid and lens paper and a blower is not a bad idea, so shake your lenses before you mount them and see if they have loose elements or rings, otherwise you can get soft shots if you focus by scale or tilt the camera...

Fungus is a real issue, we have too much damp in San Francisco and have had some lenses develop problems so we now pack all our lenses in air tight canisters with Desiccant cartridges of Silica gel. The ones that are made of metal can be dried out in a low heat oven and re-used over and over, its best to change them when the indicator changes color, the good ones have a indicator window on them. For air travel air tight may not be good, but once you get there keeping the lenses dry is a good idea as its much easer than taking them apart and washing the elements and parts in Hydrogen peroxide and then 100% Isopropyl alcohol.

[Brent J. Craig]

There is great info here: http://www.casesbypelican.com/case-selector.htm about item fragility vs. foam type and thickness. Hopefully the lens manufactures can provide you with info regarding how many G's they can take.

There is also a debate on here about travelling lenses upright or on their side. The lens tech at Panavision says Cooke S4's, for example, travel better on their sides.