How I pack a RED for travel

I do not have a packing list so much as two packing lists, and a single question that tells me which one I am using.

The question

Is the 600 coming?

If the 600 is coming, the large Pelican is coming. That is not a preference, it is arithmetic. Once that case is in the picture everything else changes, because now I have somewhere to put things and I may as well use it properly.

Pack light

The Peter McKinnon bag, and in it: the RED, the Nikon 100-400, the Sony 16-35, two batteries and the Benro hi-hat.

That is it. It sounds thin written down, but lately the 100-400 has been on the camera more than anything else, and this bag takes the RED with all of its hardware on it. The handles, the monitor, the ribs. Two large SmallRig batteries, two laptops and the 16-35 as well.

One bag that holds a built cinema camera and still closes is the whole reason this loadout exists.

The 16-35 is the Sony, and it stays assembled. The Megadap lives on it and the McKinnon variable ND lives on the front. I do not take that apart between trips, which is one fewer thing to find at six in the morning.

The short tripod is the Benro hi-hat. That one is not optional for me.

Pack for just in case

The same bag, plus the large Pelican. The 600 goes in. All the tripods, all the chargers, and as many batteries as I can manage.

The lenses get sorted into the Pelican, which leaves room for more batteries, and batteries are the thing I always want more of. If I am going far and I know I will need power, that case stops being optional.

What gets checked

Chargers and tripods get checked. They are heavy, they are replaceable, and they are not what the trip depends on.

If the large Sachtler is coming it travels in its own bag. It does not share with anything.

Batteries I just pack. As many small REDs as I can carry, plus the large ones. I have never had a problem with it, and the check at the gate has always been about the size of the individual battery rather than how many I have.

Worth saying plainly: the airline limits are per battery, not a total, and where the line sits varies by carrier. Check yours before you travel with anything large rather than finding out at security.

Tools go in checked, always. Every Allen key, every set, no exceptions and no thinking about it.

I have had tools confiscated at a connecting airport, on the second leg of a trip, after they went through the first one without a word. It is arbitrary and there is no arguing with it. The only version of this that works is never having them on you in the first place.

Why two lists and not one

Because the cost of the second list is real. More cases, more weight, more to move through an airport alone, more to account for at the other end.

The honest version is that most trips do not need the 600 and I take it anyway when I think there is a chance. The first list is what I would take if I were being disciplined. The second is what I take when the shot I might miss matters more than my back.