I was in South Africa this summer for Sardine Run. All carryon bags would be weighted if you have to fly in/out in Johannesburg. My friend was able to negotiate keeping her heavy camera bag but it took going up to the supervisor . The possible solution is to pack one camera body and maximum amount of lenses in your Cary on complying with Weight and bubble wrap the rest to the checked bag along with second camera body , this way you will have at least one set of gear should luggage gets lost or invaded.

I was also on Gate 1 travel and I replied before. If you are shooting in large and fine format, maximum quality, than I would recommend additional memory cards. I took two 128 GB, two 64 GB and two 32 GB cards. I had two bodies. I only filled one 128 GB, one 64 GB and one 32 GB card. I ended taking about 5000 pictures and a few movies. I had my camera set to Raw plus JPG. The raw filled the 128, and the jpg filled the 64 GB. On the other camera I shot both raw and jpg also; but used it much less. As I said earlier I had a long lens on my better camera, and basic lens on the other. Good luck. Always try to get the highest seats in the safari trucks. You can see more. We had one woman who became our spotter. She was incredible at finding lions and leopards. We saw the big five several times.

If you are taking Gate 1 Travel, I have the following advice: Just returned from 16 day tour of South Africa, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, and Botswana. I also was very concerned about weight before I left. I had called numerous times to get an understanding of what were my options. Bottom line: When we got there we ended flying on British Airlines on all our internal flights. They have a one bag limitation to check, 23 KG (50 lbs), they never checked my carry on which was legal size but well over 14lbs and contained all my camera equipment. I had a tripod and 150-600mm lens, and two base cameras, and 24-120mm lens. It was difficult using the 600mm lens while on safari. There isn't enough room in the 4 wheel drive trucks. If I had to do it over again I would have taken my 70-300mm lens instead. Hope this helps. Good luck. Hope you have as much success as I did. Hope to post some pictures next week after we return home.

I have lived here in Chad, Africa past almost 6 years and 3 yrs in Nigeria some years before that. You have received lots of good advice. We carry lots of stuff for hospital besides our personal things so always overweight. We have never lost any bags. We mark our checked baggage with bright red duck tape with our name and address on it so easy for us to find at the baggage claim but also helps them keep it together. We did have a duffel bag that arrived a day later this year. One time previous lost a bag 5 days on flight from Atlanta to Joburg to Lasaka on South African Airways and they paid $75 per day it was late. Yes lots of variations in airlines and airports. They almost never weigh carry ons but watch as you check in as some agents will weigh and other not. United Airlines is the worst. Emirates has the top reputation. Pack your lenses and camera with your clothes around them in your back pack. I carry my computor as my "personal item" alon with other things. Our last flight here carry on and "personal items" each weighed about 25 lbs. We always carry a small luggage scales with us so we know exactly what everything weighs.

There may be an option that has not been mentioned. I have an F-Stop bag (the Anja) and the full line of F-Stop bags utilize the ICU (internal camera unit) concept. These ICU come in a variety of sizes and configurations. When I travel I only take my ICU, which is detachable from the bag, on the airplane which has my camera, filters and lenses. This ICU fits conveniently under the seat in front of me. I check my bag which has clothes and other items, compass, head light, first aid pack and a myriad of other photographic gear. I stow my tripod in a second bag along with my clothes.

With F-Stop gear the bag and ICU this affords me an opportunity to carry on my camera and lenses. As for lenses I think that you can leave your 100 to 300 lens home since your have this focal length covered with the 100 to 400.

Leave one of the 28-135 lenses at home. Take the 100-400 and leave the 100-300 at home. By all means take two bodies, a camera breakdown three days into a $20,000 trip can really spoil your day. You will be required to have your laptop and any lithium batteries in your carry-on, but put all of the other etc stuff in your checked bags. Leave your Kindle at home and read the airline magazine or the newspaper. If this doesn't get you down to 15 pounds then bubble wrap one of your big lenses and stuff it into one of those cardboard tube boxes that good whisky comes in, and put it in your checked bag. Why are you flying with Emirates anyway? British Airways allows you two carry-on bags with a total weight of 101 pounds - all they require is that you can lift them into theoverhead storage without help.

Totally agree with this suggestion. No need for more than the two lenses. On safari I would use 2 bodies so no lens changes. On my last safari I used the 100-400 for 99% of my shots.

I have no experience with your airline, but encountered the same type of restrictions on 6 internal flights in South Africa using 5 different airlines. In one instance my solution was to strap the 100-400 lens in its case to my belt, thus removing it and its weight from my carry-on. As it turned out not once was my bag weighed and the majority of passengers on all of the airlines had far larger carry-ons than I did. Lots of worry and concern for nothing.

I take all my crap with me and have not yet considered putting it all into the luggage....I am in your camp.
The vest is a good idea. If you are travelling with others, have a distribution plan to even the weight if needed (vest, friends purse etc).


GET ON EARLY ...be first to line up for your zone. Worst case scenario is having to skycheck your luggage at the gate due to no overhead space (and the equip you are describing likely wont fit under the seat)....I would not get on the flight at that point (15k of equipment in my Lowepro Protastic450....great bag but long lenses will still get damaged as it is being tossed around by the baggage handlers.

You may want to consider a hybrid solution if you are not travelling with a friend.
Bubble pack your redundant body and lens (make sure they are seperated and packed individually otherwise you create a stress point at the mount).
Carry the rest.if you lose the redundant stuff...you will still have a great photography trip.
...and split the accessories between carryon and packed. Same reason.

I went to Hawaii and Jamaica this year and took most of my crap with me. 2/3 bodies 5 lenses. Flashes, tripod, laptop, backup HD, lots of accessories...lunatic :-)

All worked out as I travelled with my wife and a 2nd pack. I think I may have packed 1 lens in the end.

...and used them all :-)

That upgrade would cost $5,000 business classs and $16,000 first class each way. I looked into that option last June.

I traveled Orlando JFK, Dubai, Johannesburg on Air Emeritus a380a. Fantastic flights.

My daughter and I checked on one bag but each carried on two bags. I had two camera back packs. No problem and they did not weigh our carry on bags.

Return flight JBurg, Dubai, Orlando. In Dubai I had to turn in all electronics before boarding. I could bring my cell phone. They packed my cameras in a sealed box which was returned to me in Orlando. I did keep my memory cards with me.

You posited a scenario with very specific constraints which do not leave a lot of available options for people to suggest. There are NO options which would meet your obviously preferred solution - let me take it all in the cabin - within your original parameters of specific airline and seating class, with the limits those impose. Those options which WERE suggested are about all that's left, and after they were offered you then added ADDITIONAL constraints which make some of the options non-starters.

So one wonders - what "types of comments" DID you expect, given the decision box you set up in the first place? It looks like the ones you got pretty well exhaust the options.

Think I will go with "twowindbear" on this one. If you insist on taking all of the equipment, ship it ahead to your final destination(and back). Make sure you insure it for damage and replacement value.
Second option - pare down your load. 1-DSLR body, 1-100-400, 1-20mm, 1-28-135. Adding batteries and cords, etc. You should make your 15 lb. limit for carry-on. If budget will support it, add a pocket camera, one small enough you can stuff into the pocket of some cargo pants or shorts. Maybe something with a pancake lens?" Guessing you will use it more than you can imagine. Sounds like a great trip. Wish you well.