XL H1 Case

[Ashley Hosking]

Hi I am currently in the process of ordering a Canon XL H1 and trying to find a good carry case option, I was disappointed by Canon's case for the XL1 in the past and curious to know if they improved the canon case at all for the XL H1 or is it the same stock standard case the XL1 had as an option, I have been fairly happy with pelican cases in the past.. my canon dealer is suggesting the 1650 pelican however the new 1510 is designed for airline carry on.

I am not a fan of the cheap "Pic ‘N Pluck foam" that pelican use stock standard... Does anyone know if Pelican have custom foam molds for the XL H1 or otherwise the XL2 that might fit it?

Cheers,
Ash

[Richard Alvarez]

Ash,
I carry my XL2 in the Pelican with the 'dividers' option. Works great for me. The foam padded dividers have velcro sides and ends that allow you to move the 'walls' around for various shaped gear. I also happened to have an old camera case with extra dividers, so I have all kinds of options. I dissasemble the camera, and carry it with the 16x manual lens, TWO viewfinders, batterires, chargers, spare microphone and assorted support items. I wouldn't go back to pluck-foam if you paid me.

[Ashley Hosking]

Richard,
Do you find that your camera and gear moves around much with the "dividers" option? Could you have the camera fully assembled and ready to shoot or is having the lens, body, VF etc seperated something you must do in order to fit it all in? What model of Pelican do you use? just so i can compare size specs.

Anyone know of a soft XL H1 case that you could put inside a pelican?

Thanks,
Ash

[Jon Bickford]

actually Ashley pelican does have a pre-cut foam for the Canon XL series that goes with the pelican 1610. It's available with a clear picture at Cases4less.com it's a pretty nice set up but at the moment just a little on the pricey side.

-Jon

[Ashley Hosking]

Thanks for that Jon! Now that I know that pelican actully do a custom foam mold I will get onto pelican themselves here in australia and ask them if they do a mold for the 1510 as I will need to be able to take it on airline carry-on.

Now that i searched for "Custom Foam for Canon XL1" with no space between "XL 1" I have also found it on "www.customcaseco.com"

Cheers,
Ash

[Ash Greyson]

I use the 1510 for my DVX100b, dont think it will work for the XLH1. You could prolly get just the broken down camera but not much else...


ash =o)

[Ashley Hosking]

Ahh ok.. Damn.. I'll go out to pelican once I have the camera and take it from there, thanks for the heads up.

Nice to see another Ash on the site :)

[Jon Bickford]

yeah the 1510 won't hold it fully assembled, there is a carry on legal bag specifically made for XLs from tamrac, the protection is light but adequate and at least you don't have to worry about your checked flight cases getting lost, i've had that happen where my XL2 was in a different state than i was and it was a very frustrating experience.

[Steev Dinkins]

I had the Tamrac 2249 for my XL2, and I liked it a lot. Convenient pockets and easy to carry. It fit on airlines in the overhead easily.

http://tinyurl.com/dld2s

[Bob Grant]

Ashley,
another Aussie here! Have a look at the KATA bags, I think Miller are the local agents, should find a bag to suit, plenty of pockets as well and bright yellow lining to make it easy to see inside the bag.

[Per Johan Naesje]

I would recommend Peli 1620, yes it huge but you got plenty of room for accessories.
Personally I use the 1620 with my XL-2 (the XLH1 are the same size), and you got room for 20x, 3x wide, spare batteries, tapes, wires, battery charger etc.
You also got a fold in handle and wheels on the case.

- Per Johan

[Jim Feeley]

There's 5-ish options. The standard professional bag makers are:

Porta-Brace
http://www.portabrace.com

Petrol
http://www.petrolbags.com

Kata
http://www.kata-bags.com

You can also look at hard cases:

Pelican
http://www.pelican.com

Storm Case
http://www.stormcase.com

There are others (as mentioned already in this thread). The thing is, choosing the right bag is even more subjective than choosing the right camera. It depends on how much extra batteries stuff you want to carry, if you need it to fit carry-on size restrictions, how much protection you need, how you carry it, and so on.

Check out the Porta Brace Carry On Camera Case...rugged, well designed, etc. But check all the sites, bring your camera and all your peripherals to the dealer (if you can), and try out a few...

Best,

Jim

[Ashley Hosking]

Thanks for all your input everyone.. I like the look of the portabrace bags *Smiles*

[Joe Barker]

I use the Storm carry on case,about the same as the Pelicon.I have made up my own foam set to fit my XL2 in.I remove the lense and pack everything in very tight leaving about 25 mm padding between the camera componants and the case wall.One important thing to remember with all the so called carry on cases is ,most are heavy 4 to 5.5 klg empty.By the time you put an XL2 inside they go way over the regulation allowance of 7 klg.Now this is not a problem with most airlines,they dont always weigh it, but on my last trip from Tokyo to Australia the airline said my carry on case was over the allowance and made me put it in with the regular baggage. The next time this happened I took some components out of the case to lighten it,put them in a plastic shopping bag and carried both the case and bag on the plane. For some reason this seemed to satisfy the check in lady.Anything is better than putting an expesive camera in with the regular baggage.Make sure the case is packed extra tight with foam and take a strong plastic shopping bag just in case.It might never happen ,but it did to me.

[Bill Pryor]

You can't go wrong with Portabrace, Ashley. Some of my Portabrace bags are over 20 years old. They're indestructable.