Use protection to prevent STDs

[neuroanatomist]

<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.)

[Sinh Nhut Nguyen]

Looked at the tittle, post too long to read, just looked at the picture so where are the condoms?


PS, great stuff man![]

[btaylor]

Good stuff John. Pelican cases are fantastic. We use them underground to hold a heap of different instruments and they're fairly indestructive. Although I had a remote blasting box hooked up which was blown off the wall during blasting then run over by a 50 tonne loader - it didn't survive that one.


Have a look at Storm Cases as well for your next buy. They are very similar to Pelican cases in construction but I find the latches to be a lot more user friendly. i.e the good old Pelican "knuckle buster" latches can be a pain in the... finger if they get a bit tight. Pelican actually bought out Storm a couple of years ago and started selling them as Pelican Storm cases so they must be the goods. I've got a couple at work and they're just as robust.


Ben.

[Daniel Browning]

Great post, John. Thanks. So far I've mostly been using backpacks. Lots and lots of backpacks. But I'd like to get a hard case.

blown off the wall during blasting then run over by a 50 tonne loader - it didn't survive that one.

What!? I'm going to make sure I get one that can survive being run over by at least 100 tonnes. []

[Richard Lane]

Thanks for the very thorough review, I really enjoyed it!


It looks like one of these cases might be in my future!


Rich

[freelanceshots]

Nice setup, you definitely have an investment in lenses. Just hope no one ever breaks into your house and finds that case because that's a very simple way to lose all your valuable equipment in a simple grab and go. I am not a crook but posting all your equipment on the web might/could invite trouble. You never know now a days with all the info that can be found out on the web. This was just the first thing that came to mind when I saw this post. One day I would like to get a case like this for airplane travel but that would require more out of state jobs to pay for the case.





-Bryan

[bob williams]

Nice review John and I agree with your enthusiastic recommendation. I also have a Pelican 1510 and love it. It has replaced most of my bags and my equipment is always in it. I carry it just about every whereand in all sorts of weather--so I do like the wheeled version. I would also recommend this for airline travel since it meets the requirementsand should be able to survive the "flight attendant over head storage management process" it should also survive the dual bowling ball bag or the Snap-On tool box that i<span style="font-family: Verdana; color: black; font-size: 9pt;"]nevitably gets placed next your camera case. I would never put a soft case in the overhead!!!


For those contemplating purchasing a mobile pelican---dont forget the lid organizer---it will easily free up at least two standard lens sections that would otherwise be used for batterys, shutter release, rocket blower, cleaning material, filters, etc. It saved me from having to upgrade to the 1610, at least for the time being.





Bob

[deltasun]

Thanks for the thorough review, John. Which model # of the 1604 has wheels?

[neuroanatomist]

Which model # of the 1604 has wheels?

None. The 1560, 1610, and 1620 have wheels, but they are different sizes/shapes than the 1600 - and they are all taller, which I didn't really want.

[Iguide]

<h1 class="CommonTitle"]Use protection to prevent STDs

</h1>


John, you are a hoot. Provocative title with accurate and powerful delivery. Sex gets em every time. Very well done.


<input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"]</input><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden" />
<div id="refHTML"]</div>