P#23 Q2D: Scott Stulberg Explains the Dangers of Traveling with Camera Gear

A Lesson Learned the Hard Way

Scott Stulberg: I want to say one thing about checking your camera gear. Don't ever, ever, ever check your gear and put it underneath the plane. Always carry it on board. In Africa, my friend had $25,000 worth of Nikon gear and decided, "Oh, I've got a really heavy duty camera bag. It can take it underneath the plane."

We left Africa (thank God she had all of her memory cards and her laptop with her) but when she got back to the east coast, she called me the next day and said, "Scott, my camera bag came through. I opened it up and there wasn't one piece of gear in there."

They ripped off everything because she checked it through. There are some things, no matter what country I'm in, that I don't check through. I don't care what they say, and sometimes I have a lot of gear. If they told me to check my gear through, I would tell them, "I'm not going on your plane then," for exactly this reason. Every piece of equipment she had was stolen.

She had been toying with the idea of leaving Nikon and going Canon anyway, so she ended up buying all new Canon gear. It was really tragic. I just tell people never, never check your camera gear even if you think it's going to be a good idea.

In Conclusion

Think checking your gear through when traveling is a heck of a lot easier than lugging it with you? You may want to think twice. If all your gear is stolen (and it may very well be) then checking it through will have saved you no hassle at all. You'll be put in the position of having to buy entirely new camera gear, piece by piece, all over again.