Some travel advice needed

[Derrick]

I need some advice. I will be away on holiday for about a month. Some questions (hope they dun sound too silly):-
- Usually how much film to bring?
- Do you all usually stick to just one type of film (e.g. all slides or all negatives or mixture of slides and negatives)?
- Advisable to bring different ISOs?
- With this huge bulk of film to hand carry (since they always say dun check them in) i'll probably have to pack some camera equipment (lenses, flash, etc) into my main luggage to be checked in. Ok to do this?
- Where to get insurance for my equipment?

Thanx.

 

[ckiang]

Originally posted by Derrick
I need some advice. I will be away on holiday for about a month. Some questions (hope they dun sound too silly):-
- Usually how much film to bring?
- Do you all usually stick to just one type of film (e.g. all slides or all negatives or mixture of slides and negatives)?
- Advisable to bring different ISOs?
- With this huge bulk of film to hand carry (since they always say dun check them in) i'll probably have to pack some camera equipment (lenses, flash, etc) into my main luggage to be checked in. Ok to do this?
- Where to get insurance for my equipment?

Thanx.

1. Budget about 1 roll of film per day of travel. Bring more if you tend to shoot more.

2. Slide or neg is a personal preference. I tend to prefer slides and would bring mostly slides. For shooting in available light, then high speed negative film (e.g. Fuji Press 800) is preferable as any colour casts etc can be corrected at the printing stage)

3. Do bring a mix of different speeds so that you can choose the best speed film for the shooting situation. You can always mid-roll rewind and load another roll into the camera. But DO REMEMBER to use a marker to indicate which frame you are left at before the rewind. If your camera does not leave the leader out, a film picker is a must.

4. Discard all the cardboard packaging of the film, or if you are desperate, discard the plastic canister as well. This saves a lot of space. If your main camera bag cannot accomodate so many rolls, put it either in your hand carry, or get a small bag (e.g. LowePro Film Organizer) to put them in. Whatever you do, DO NOT check in the film. Equipment is generally okay, but I'd rather have them with me.

5. Insurance, dunno. ;p

Regards
CK

 

[Derrick]

Thanx for the reply. One other question, is a camera bag considered extra carry on luggage allowance like a laptop bag? My camera bag is about the size of a laptop bag and does not look like a camera bag so will they stop me?