<p class="MsoNormal"]That&rsquo;s right boys and girls, it&rsquo;s very, very important to
use protection to prevent Serious or Total Damage to your photography
gear.<span> Although I doubt that a thin
layer of latex would help much, a polypropylene copolymer case with a
watertight seal should do the trick.
<p class="MsoNormal"]If photography is your day job, you almost certainly have
Pelican cases or the equivalent.<span>
If photography is not your day job, your camera gear most likely spends
a significant amount of time being stored somewhere in your home. <span>Pipes burst.<span>Toilets overflow. Kids spill juice.<span>
Accidents happen.<span>
Considering the investment made in gear, the cost of a durable, waterproof
case is minor by comparison.<span>
Insurance is needed too, of course, but prevention is better than
cure.<span>
<p class="MsoNormal"]For that reason, I recently decided to move my gear from a
drawer and assorted camera bags in the closet, and transfer it all to a hard
case.<span> The challenge was, which
one?<span> Even considering only the
Pelican brand, there are many options from which to choose.<span> Wheels or no wheels?<span> Padded dividers or foam?<span> Lid organizer or not?<span> Most importantly, what size?<span>
<p class="MsoNormal"]For me, wheels were not important &ndash; this case is for home
storage, not transport.<span> I wanted
the flexibility to rearrange my gear over time, meaning dividers instead of pluckable foam.<span> A lid organizer is nice for
storing the miscellaneous stuff.<span>
That still left the issue of size &ndash; there are a lot of options!<span> I wanted something relatively flat - <span>a case tall enough to store a 70-200mm f/2.8 lens vertically would mean stacking the more numerous shorter lenses, or
a lot of unused space.<span>
<p class="MsoNormal"]I decided on the Pelican 1604 (aka 1600 with padded
dividers).<span> Here&rsquo;s the new case, surrounded
by my Lowepro bags &ndash;Toploaders (Pro 65AW and Pro 75AW), a Flipside 400, and
several Lens Cases:
<p class="MsoNormal"]
<p class="MsoNormal"]
<p class="MsoNormal"]Here&rsquo;s the layout of the gear inside:
<p class="MsoNormal"]
<p class="MsoNormal"]I decided to store the lens cleaning solution in its own
waterproof micro case, since it doesn&rsquo;t make sense to have gear in a waterproof
case then store liquid inside that case.
<p class="MsoNormal"]So far, I&rsquo;m quite pleased with the case.<span> It&rsquo;s big, but not too big.<span> It&rsquo;s not light &ndash; 26 pounds of gear and
16 pounds of empty case.<span> But it&rsquo;s
easy enough to carry from room to room or up a flight of stairs, and that&rsquo;s as
far as it has to go.<span>The fact that I wasn't limited to black or tan as color choices, as is the case for many of the medium and large cases, was a nice bonus.
<p class="MsoNormal"]<span>I have only
two concerns at this point:
<p class="MsoNormal"]First, there&rsquo;s not as much extra room as I had hoped there
would be.<span> It&rsquo;s not a big issue &ndash;
it does hold all my gear, and it&rsquo;s not tightly packed, so I can reorganize to
make more room (I&rsquo;m hoping for a 35mm f/1.4L II and wishing for a 5DIII).<span> Also, I&rsquo;ll likely get a Pelican 1510
before my next airline trip, so I&rsquo;ll have two cases among which I can distribute
my gear.
<p class="MsoNormal"]Second, the [url="http://www.pelican.com/support/guarantee.php]Pelican guarantee[/url].<span> Not the tag line (&ldquo;You break it, we replace it, forever,)
but the fine print.<span> It
specifically excludes damage caused by shark bite, bear attack, and children
under five.<span>I know it&rsquo;s a tough case, but I&rsquo;ve
seen what my two year old can do! [:O]
<p class="MsoNormal"]Bottom line, I highly recommend getting a tough, waterproof
hard case to store your gear around the house.
<p class="MsoNormal"]--John
<p class="MsoNormal"](Ps. As near as I can determine, this thread was the last
one posted before the server went belly-up earlier this week &ndash; the above is my
attempt to recreate it from memory.)
<p class="MsoNormal"](Pps. Forum seems to still be having trouble with TDP-hosted images - I know Bryan is working on it, but for now I'll just link these from elsewhere.)