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| Pelican 1510 Case |
Carry On!
In a little over a year since starting my photography hobby I'm now on my 4th storage and transportation case!
I think that anyone who gets at all serious about photography, even as a hobby, will find themselves needing a case of some sort to carry their gear in if they go outside of the house at all.
Once you start travelling with your camera you're confronted with choices about what to carry with you when you leave your car and how to carry it.
I mainly shoot landscape type pictures (as opposed to street photography or portrait photography). I don't hike very far, perhaps a mile or two maximum from the car. I don't carry camping gear when I hike, I just drive near a location, park the car, hike as much as necessary, take my pictures, and return to the car. I can spend hours away from the car so at a minimum I often carry some bottled water.
The Current Situation
I've mentioned before that I have been using the Amazon Basics camera backpack along with a LowePro waist pack. This has worked fine except when I take my 4 dogs with me. The dogs jump and climb around and step on the camera bags. Don't tell my wife but I've got about $6,000 worth of gear in the bags and I really don't want the dogs smashing it.
So, I've been planning to build myself a wood trunk to put the other bags inside of, which would sit in the back of the car (actually, a Ford Explorer). That way I can just use my existing bags, place them inside some protection, and not worry about the dogs. My wife knows me pretty well and decided to get me a hard case for Christmas instead of listening to me talk about how I was going to build a trunk.
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| Here's the gear I'm sticking in the Pelican 1510/1514 |
The New Situation
I don't know how she knew that Pelican is a reliable brand of case for camera gear, and one that I would have likely chosen (or perhaps Gator or SKB - I've used those brands for music gear). She got me the Pelican 1510 with the divider pack, which is then listed as the 1514.
I haven't got to go out with it yet, but in less than a week I've re-arranged the dividers packed it twice. I love it!
Since I generally take my LowePro waist pack with me (along with my Manfrotto 055 tripod), which contains my Nikon D610 and my 3 full frame lenses, the Amazon Basics camera back pack was used to hold my Nikon D3200 and its lenses along with my speed light, battery chargers, Cokin P-Series filter system, flash lights, and various other items that I don't want in the waist pack but I want along with me at least in the car.
I can fit almost everything the back pack held - everything except that I had all of my important manuals in an outside pocket of the backpack and I can't fit them in the Pelican. I may end up getting the pocket attachment that goes inside the lid to carry the manuals. Same for my Amazon Kindle - it doesn't fit in the Pelican, at least not without potentially sliding around.
But on the plus side my gear is protected in a waterproof case. The case also has wheels and an extendible handle so you can wheel it through an airport if you want (I don't. I don't want to ever fly again.) It will certainly withstand our 45 pound dog standing on it, and probably jumping on it. It is strong. You can lock it using the metal reinforced tabs with holes, but since someone could simply cut the tabs off I'm not overwhelmed by that feature.
I've used a number of cases over the years to transport music gear and I really appreciate this type of case. My wife did a good thing! I'm actually thinking I'll get another one, possibly without the dividers, that I could stick my waist pack inside of while in the car and then I could pull the waist bag out when I hit the trail.
You can see from the pictures that I get quite a bit inside - a camera body, 3 lenses, a set of extension tubes, speed light, and more. It isn't something you'd take on the trail with you but for the purpose I've outlined here it's perfect!
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| Here's the case with all the goodies stowed away. |
