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Review of Peli/Pelican 1450, 1470 and 1510 waterproof hardshell cases.

PhotoNotes.org DonationsCopyright © 2006-2007 NK Guy

http://photonotes.org/reviews/pelican-cases/

On 10 August 2006 British and Pakistani officials announced that they had unearthed a new mass murder plot. The plan was to said to involve the targetting of civilian aircraft flying from Britain to the United States. In response the British authorities enacted an unprecedented and near total ban on carry-on items on civilian aircraft. For several days in August passengers could only carry aboard the plane a handful of items, such as travel documents and non-electronic keys. All bags, cases and containers were similarly banned from the cabin.

This was of course something of a disaster for photographers. Most photographers carry their beloved cameras and lenses into the cabin, checking only large or problematic items like tripods into the baggage hold. This is for fairly obvious reasons - cameras and other valuables are easily damaged by the rough and ready baggage handling process, and baggage handlers and other airport employees have also been known on occasion to liberate travellers’ belongings for their own ends. Now all of a sudden everything had to be checked.

It was even more disastrous for musicians. Apparently one travelling orchestra from Russia had to make a long arduous overland (and underwater) trip by train to get home to Moscow from London following these travel restrictions. Not only are irreplaceable and expensive musical instruments highly fragile, but a lot of Russian musicians use state-owned instruments and are bound by contract not to leave them unattended.

Anyway. This whole thing kind of sucks at so many levels. Air travel has changed again for the worse in response to a lovely group of people bent on murdering other human beings for hate-driven religious and political ends. But at a personal level I was also planning a trip to Canada from England in late August. So I decided to invest in some hardshell cases. I figured that the outright ban on carry-on items would eventually be lifted, since it’s both costly and inconvenient for all involved. But if the ban were still in place by the time I was scheduled to travel at least I could check my insured camera gear into the hold in proper cases to minimize the risk of damage. And hope against hope that the airline wouldn’t lose the luggage. I would put these cases in cardboard boxes to make them look innocuous and less likely to attract the attention of thieves. So I ordered two cases - the Peli 1450 and 1510 - on the theory that I’d be able to use the smaller case as carry-on later. Unfortunately, it was not to be.

Peli or Pelican?

But first a note about names. The US manufacturer of these cases is known as Pelican in North America. But, presumably for trademark reasons, the company is known as Peli in Europe and possibly other regions. Same company; same products. The only difference, aside from the name on the labels, is the massive price disparity. The European prices are up to double that of the US. I know they’re shipped from California to Barcelona and on to London (or wherever), but it’s still a pretty hefty difference.

Peli/Pelican 1450

The Pelican 1450 is a heavy duty plastic case the size of a small suitcase. That’s 40.5 cm long by 33cm wide by 17.7cm deep. The interior dimensions are 38cm long by 26.5cm wide by 15.3cm deep. Be careful about this - a lot of places sell the product by its internal dimensions, which is useful to know. But not so useful if you’re looking to find something that has critical external dimensions! It’s pretty heavy - it weighs 2.5 kg.

The case is moulded from heavy industrial-looking copolymer resin. It isn’t a very dainty looking case. It definitely comes from the partly functional, partly tough swaggering aesthetics school of design, which is no doubt one of the reasons the products appeal to the military and makers of SF and action movies. It’s blocky and chunky with sort of shallow fins sticking out, and you can see the curved lines where the liquid plastic was injected into the moulds. The top and bottom sections have a tongue and groove fitting with a neoprene rubber O-ring to prevent the entry of water. The case is actually capable of floating, in fact. Its thick plastic can also withstand tremendous amounts of pressure and impact. At least, according to its maker. I haven’t tested it by driving a car over it, but the thick plastic is certainly convincing.

Other standard features include a heavy rubberized handle, tabs with holes for locking the case shut (but no actual locks) and an air-pressure relief valve. Some models, such as the 1450, have spaces for optional nameplates. The release latches have heavy plastic things with raised cage areas.

One area that may be of some concern is the lock holes and the hinges. The lock holes only accommodate locks of a certain size. Naturally the Pelican-made locks fit perfectly, but they are frankly not the strongest locks ever made. (though I bought some Master padlocks with removable hasps in North America that fit fine) And the hingest, while sturdy, have their stainless steel pins located on the outside, where they could be tapped out with a hammer and a nail. So if strong resistance to unauthorized opening is an issue then these cases may not be for you.

The interior has straight sides, so foam cut to fit it can be simple rectangles. Pelican sell both regular sheets of medium density black foam and also what they call "pick and pluck" foam. The latter is foam pre-diced into small cubes around a centimetre on each side. These cubes can easily be detached by hand, allowing you to form custom shaped holes for storing stuff. It doesn’t look all that great and doesn’t always let you fit everything perfectly, but it works well enough. If you’re on a huge budget you can send computer files to Pelican who will cut out custom holes in foam for you.

The 1450 looked good for my purposes - carry-on if possible, but check-in if necessary. The problem was revised regulations.

New UK carry-on regulations. 15 August 2006

About an hour or so after I’d ordered my cases I was browsing the BBC News Web site and there, on the front page, was an announcement that British airport authorities were indeed lifting the outright carry-on ban. Hooray. But - they were also introducing and enforcing drastically curtailed carry-on baggage rules. Basically you can now carry on luggage that’s about half the size that you used to be able to. That’s 45cm by 35cm by a miserly 16 cm. I looked at the regulations, compared them to the specs for the 1450 and found -

- that the Pelican 1450 case is TWO CENTIMETRES TOO THICK for the new regulations. Argh.

So I had to rethink my plans dramatically, since airports have been displaying cutout boxes with the new restricted carry-on dimensions and have been making customers put their carry-ons inside them to prove they fit.

Peli/Pelican 1470 laptop case

case.jpg I spent a bunch of money returning the cases and ordered a Pelican 1470. This one has similar width and breadth dimensions, but is much much thinner. At 42.5cm long by 33.6cm wide by 11cm deep it was the largest Pelican case legal by August UK carry-on regs. (though there is also the 1400, at 34cm by 29.5cm by 15.2 cm, which is less wide but more thick, and the 1490 which is half a centimetre too wide) The 1470 without foam weighs 1.94 kg.

It also has different styling - it’s designed to resemble a conventional briefcase. It still has the utilitarian rough finish (you can see the curvy patterns indicating where the plastic was injected) and raised strip design, but is subtly smoother and slightly rounded. It’s not as cool and snazzy as the smooth and geometric Pelican HardBack case design, but it’s not bad. Details such as the handle are definitely less chunky and probably slightly less sturdy. (which isn’t to say it’s not sturdy - just that it isn’t as sturdy as the extremely hefty regular Pelican cases) I haven’t taken a pair of calipers to it, but I think it’s made from thinner material than the 1450. The lock and hinge flanges look slightly less sturdy and rugged, but the case has the same neoprene O-ring seals as the other Pelican cases. It’s really easy to pinch fingers and hands in the edges, though.

It also has a pair of very tiny barrel locks built into the double-release latches (which are designed to sort of hold in place if released accidentally). If you don’t want to use these locks there are still the traditional Pelican drilled-out tabs for padlocks, though they don’t have the metal protector strips seen on other recent Pelican cases. An optional accessory is a shoulder strap. It clips to two add-on metal posts which fit into holes on the top sides of the case. These posts extend the width of the case outwards, but don’t impinge on the UK regs. They’re removable with a simple Phillips 1 screwdriver anyway, and have neoprene O-ring seals built in. If you don’t use the strap you can fit small rubber plugs into the holes instead. Personally I like the shoulder strap as it lets you carry it hands-free and also look a bit more casual and less serious at the airport.

So it’s considerably less capacious than the 1450, but fits well within the August UK regulations. In fact, I wish Pelican made a case with the same width and breadth but 15 cm thick rather than 11, as I could fit a lot more in. Ah well. At least this is something. I can fit two bodies and two large lenses in it - specifically an EOS 10D, a 5D (both without grips), a 28-80 2.8-4L lens and a 17-40 4L. (but no laptop as well, which is a drag) That while leaving a decent amount of space for foam.

Potential problem points to be aware of:

- As with any Pelican case this one closes very snugly and has sharp plastic edges. What this means is it’s really easy to crush or crimp electrical wires for any accessories you may have stored in the case. I managed to destroy a camera remote and a USB cable this way - the wires got inadvertently stuck between the body of the case and the lid. When I closed the lid the wires got crushed and ruined. Argh.

- The metal posts used to attach the strap have two screwheads on the inside of the case. These metal screw heads left deep gouges in the sides of my aluminium-encased laptop, which is very annoying. If you have a block of foam which covers these screw heads up, that’s fine. But I didn’t.

- The locks seem sturdy enough, and are certainly sturdier than those found on your typical briefcase. But they aren’t as hefty as the thick plastic latches used on regular Pelican cases.

- The latches have a sort of two-position mechanism to make it less likely that the case might flip open if the latches are accidentally released. This is generally a good thing except when the case is full and there’s a fair bit of internal pressure. When this happens it’s really hard to open the case, as you sort of have to push the lid down hard while pulling the latches back by hand.

- The case is much heavier than a traditional briefcase, but much less capacious than most Pelican cases. It sort of fits in a middle zone, which may or may not be good for you.

- Finally, the sides of the cases are very slightly curved rather than straight as on the 1450. This means that the foam needs to have a slight barrel curvature to it - you can’t cut simple rectangles. Kind of a pain to make it look good unless you buy the precut Pelican foam.

Peli/Pelican 1510 wheeled case

I’d also bought a Pelican 1510 before the new regs kicked in. This one is advertised as being "carry-on legal." Well, it definitely isn’t everywhere, as it’s huge at 55.9cm long by 35.1cm wide by 22.9cm deep. It may be carry-on legal on US carriers, but many European carriers wouldn’t have accepted it even before the new security rules. It also weighs a hefty 5.3kg totally empty, which is half the cabin baggage restrictions of some airlines.

It’s a pretty cool case, though. It stores quite a lot of stuff, has two ball-bearing wheels on the left side and has a flat plastic retractable handle so you can wheel it around with you. Being small hard plastic wheels, however, they do clunk noisily over gaps between paving stones and so on.

My main concern is that the handle is a bit wobbly when extended. The handle is a flat plate which slides into the underside of the case when not in use, but there’s a lot of play in the design. When extended, relatively little of the handle remains inside the case, which does decrease its solidity. And the handle itself bends a fair bit under pressure. So far it hasn’t broken for me or anything, but the design doesn’t entirely inspire confidence. Also, the lower corner of the case does tend to scrape and get torn up on the pavement when the case is tilted at certain angles when wheeled around.

Note that this case shares the same design issue with all the other Pelican cases - wires, cables and small objects which get caught in the very tight rubber seal between the case bottom and the lid can be crushed and destroyed. Be super careful when closing the lid to avoid this type of damage.

In addition to the usual optional foam blocks (solid and "pick and pluck" pre-diced) there are a couple of Chinese-made accessories available for the case. You can buy stitched nylon-covered foam dividers (Pelican 1515) that fit inside the case. These have movable velcro-sided panels so the shape of the internal sections is adjustable. It’s okay, but the long centre divider can’t be moved very far, so it’s not a terribly flexible design. And it’s really quite expensive at a little under half the price of the case itself. It comes in a weird greenish light grey colour which, while ugly, makes it easier to find thing under low-light conditions than black dividers. You can also buy a lid organizer (Pelican 1519), which contains a number of little zippered mesh bags. Quite handy, and somewhat more reasonably priced, and fastens to the lid with small screws.

For me, the case has two benefits when travelling. First, it protects your gear during the actual travelling part. But second, it makes it easier to secure your gear at a location. For example, if you’re doing wedding photography you can bring a padlock and cable along with you. Then you can lock the case closed and lock it to a convenient water pipe or whatever when you’re off shooting elsewhere.

On balance this is a somewhat useful case, but its weight and bulk make it a difficult travelling companion sometimes. It certainly is quite conspicuous - I'd probably stick it inside a duffel bag or something if checking it in on a plane to make it less of a thief magnet. And always check with your airline before travelling. Though it’s billed as "carry-on legal" and official-sounding phrases like "FAA Approved!" are happily used in the advertising, this is NOT a guaranteed situation. Some airlines, notably the budget European airlines, will not accept this case as carry-on. There’s no law saying any particular airline is obliged to accept it. So keep that in mind.

Buying in the UK

I tried to do a little shopping around before buying, but these expensive cases aren’t widely available in London. Jessops on Oxford Street don’t carry them. Jacobs on New Oxford Street had 3 sizes in stock, including the 1510. Calumet near Euston Station had a variety of sizes. In the end I bought the cases online. I bought them from Jit-Pak, an oddly named firm in Leighton Buzzard. I was a bit apprehensive, as their prices were suspiciously low compared to a lot of other outlets. But they were very helpful and accommodating, even with all the chaos of discovering the cases weren’t the right size anymore and having to return them and ordering the 1470 which doesn’t seem to be a widely known Pelican case.

October 2006 update

I flew British Airways to Italy this month, and it seems that the stringent size regulations have been relaxed somewhat, at least on some flights. The official airport limit is now 56cm by 45cm by 25 cm. (about 22 x 17.5 x 9.9 inches) That increase in width makes a lot of cases, including my first Pelican case, possible. However, EasyJet (45x35x16cm) and Ryanair (55x40x20cm) still have stricter rules, so if you’re flying a cheapie airline always double-check. Actually, you should probably double-check before you go no matter what airline you’re flying, as these rules can change at any time.

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