Every underwater photographer I know struggles to carry-on as much equipment as he / she can. As we prepare for another trip to Bonaire (in October 2005), I took a few snapshots of our carry-ons to describe our setup. Hopefully you can use this information to improve your own setup, and if you have some suggestions / comments for us, please feel free to post a comment bellow.

Melanie and I both use complete dSLR setups with dual strobes and a variety of ports / lenses, which makes travelling a little equipment intensive. When packing, I try and carry-on as many essentials as I can, figuring our checked luggage might arrive late, or not at all. We use two Storm Case iM2500 hardsided carry-ons with dividers, a Crumpler Schrinkle backpack, and a large Stahlsac regulator bag. The iM2500s are just at the carry-on size limit. They fit in the overheads of all but the smallest planes -- where they "valet check" all wheeled carry-ons anyway. The backpack and regulator bag fit under the seat in front of us. We just have to make sure not to get the front row. :-)

The dive related stickers on the carry-ons are there for a purpose. When I slide the carry-ons in the X-ray machine, I usually get a comment from the agent similar to "diving equipment, ey?", which is just what I want. This way, they're ready for the picture they'll see on their screen. It's helped get us through a little faster on several occasions.

One of the Storm Case iM2500s holds two Ikelite housings, minus the trays and handles, and two ports -- a 5" dome port that fits a variety of lenses, and a flat port for a 100mm macro lens. The ports are sealed in large ziplock pags to keep dust and fibers out of them. The housings contain a camera each -- no point in wasting space. :-) Along the side of each housing I've squeezed in a collection of o-rings for ports, substrobes, flashlights, etc.

The second Storm Case iM2500 contains the housing trays, handles, several different lengths of ULCS substrobe arms and clamps, two substrobes, focus / zoom gears, camera battery charger, nitrox analyzer, diopter filters, microfiber cloth and a gitzo rocket blower.

The Crumpler Schrinkle backpack contains four lenses, a lens extension ring, two substrobes, a substrobe charge, two TTL "Y" cables (under the substrobes), fiber-free sport towels (excellent to clean o-rings), a spare dSLR body, and a variety of personal items not shown here (they fit over the mesh divider).

The Stahlsac regulator bag fits two sets of DIR single tank hoses (seven foot primary regulator hose, short backup regulator hose, and analog SPG). The second stage regulators have to be disconnected to fit both sets in this space. In the small nooks and crannys left, I've included four wrist computers, two compasses, and a download cable for the computers. On the other side of this bag I slide in my laptop with a card reader, power adapter, and a few DVDs for the airports.