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Camera Safety While Traveling


Enbee

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Wrap the strap around your wrist so that the camera can't be grabbed away from you. Keep it under a jacket or in a discrete bag when in areas where you feel concerned.

 

Most importantly, get insurance and remember that if someone threatens you and tries to steal your camera, the camera can be replaced, your life can't.....

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I would be more concerned in Brazil where strongarm robbery and violent snatch and grab are not uncommon tactics. I know someone who had a Rolex ripped off his wrist at a street corner in Rio. (Why he didn't do his homework and leave expensive jewelry at home is beyond me). Elsewhere in S. America I never ran into that kind of thing, just the same sort of thievery one encounters in Europe, so the same street sense applies. Insurance is great, so is having a point and shoot backup, which you can carry if you go out sightseeing in the cities, while leaving the M240 locked in the safe at the hotel.

 

At Machu Picchu I wouldn't be terribly worried, as there will no doubt be others there with far more extensive, expensive (or at least more expensive looking) kits than yours, who will present themselves as more lucrative and easier (burdened-down) targets.

 

You also have an advantage traveling two guys together, as you present a more challenging and potentially confrontational target to the typical thief. Again, not talking about armed robbery.

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Take a look at the Pac Safe antitheft camera strap Pacsafe - Carrysafe 100 anti-theft camera strap and their lineup of camera bags Pacsafe - Pacsafe Camera Bags – Secured Camera Bags to Protect your Camera and Lenses The camera bags have built in anti-theft features: Slash proof straps, secure closures for zippers and their exomesh weave in the bag itself. This is a stainless steelwire mesh that prevents a thief from cutting through your bag with a box cutter and stealing cameras and lenses while you are wearing the bag.

 

Also - get camera insurance if you don't have it. ASMP Prosurance is the best coverage you can get, bar none.

 

A lot of times, camera insurance that your insurance broker or agent gets you has huge gaping loopholes in the coverage called "exceptions to coverage" which let the underwriter off the hook or minimizes their payout for a claim. As always, read all of your policy and understand the fine print. Know the exceptions to coverage. If you can't get the coverage you need from your insurance agent, get ASMP's Prosurance.

 

Lastly, leave the Rolex/Omega/Breitling/Cartier/A. Lange & Söhne at home if you wear one. Get a $50 plastic digital watch for travel use. When traveling, low profile is the key. ;)

Edited by Carlos Danger
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Pacsafe products are very nice! I have a small backpack of theirs, which I put my small camera bag into. It's great for navigating trains and stations where someone could slash an ordinary backpack. And if the hotel room doesn't have a safe then the backpack has an internal drawstring (braided cable) that ingeniously secures the contents to plumbing pipes or the bed frame.

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ASMP Prosurance is the best coverage you can get, bar none.

 

The special rider to my premium home policy covers my gear under ALL circumstances, without deductible, and without limits based on listed replacement values (that I determine). Not only that, but escalators up to 50% above listed values automatically apply in the event gear appreciates or is replaced by a new model. And accessories (light meters, tripod, etc) are covered without need to list in advance.

 

Plans vary greatly by location, by company, by plan and by individual circumstance. I wouldn't be so quick to label any policy, as you did, as "the best, bar none." People need to do their own careful research.

 

Jeff

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The special rider to my premium home policy covers my gear under ALL circumstances, without deductible, and without limits based on listed replacement values (that I determine). Not only that, but escalators up to 50% above listed values automatically apply in the event gear appreciates or is replaced by a new model. And accessories (light meters, tripod, etc) are covered without need to list in advance.

 

Plans vary greatly by location, by company, by plan and by individual circumstance. I wouldn't be so quick to label any policy, as you did, as "the best, bar none." People need to do their own careful research.

 

Jeff

It sounds as if your rider provides essentially the same coverage as ASMP Prosurance, with the exception of the escalator clause, which IIRC Prosurance does not offer. I can raise the replacement costs of my gear under Prosurance, though. If a lens or camera goes from $7200 to $7500 new replacement cost, I simply resubmit a new itemized list of covered gear with the new replacement costs.

 

My insurance broker researched camera equipment coverage for two weeks and came up empty handed. It was always a case of "yes, we will insure your cameras for depreciated cost as determined by our adjuster" (screw that) or else the underwriter would not touch my situation. Some underwriters would insure, but only if I operated out of a brick and mortar storefront as a commercial, portrait or wedding studio does. Being a documentary photographer, I do not maintain or need a storefront.

 

My comment about Prosurance being "the best, bar none" was based on my personal experience; YMMV.

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My insurance broker researched camera equipment coverage for two weeks and came up empty handed. It was always a case of "yes, we will insure your cameras for depreciated cost as determined by our adjuster" .

 

I'm surprised at that: replacement cost as-new is not uncommon. I've no experience of specialty photographic insurance, but as an add-on to household insurance I have been through this thoroughly over the years. I have had a Leica stolen from hold baggage in Africa (it was there because I had stuff of more commercial value in my cabin baggage), and a Pentax MX stolen from a river bank in Italy (my own carelessness). In both cases my main problem was convincing the insurers I really did not want an expensive new equivalent, but would rather have identical used replacements (both models had been superseded). In the end they agreed to let me find replacements on the s/h market, at a lower cost to them.

 

Perhaps it's a pro insurance thing (I'm an amateur), or perhaps it's a national practice thing.

 

Truly, YMMV.

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Don't leave your hotel with camera gear hanging off you, and put it way before you return. Thieves like to hang around hotel lobbies and look for marks. A bag that doesn't shout that it's a camera bag helps. Keep your head on a swivel when you're out shooting, and not just for pictures.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Take a look at the Pac Safe antitheft camera strap Pacsafe - Carrysafe 100 anti-theft camera strap and their lineup of camera bags Pacsafe - Pacsafe Camera Bags – Secured Camera Bags to Protect your Camera and Lenses The camera bags have built in anti-theft features: Slash proof straps, secure closures for zippers and their exomesh weave in the bag itself. This is a stainless steelwire mesh that prevents a thief from cutting through your bag with a box cutter and stealing cameras and lenses while you are wearing the bag.

 

I have (and use) a similar type of strap, with a ring that screws on the bottom plate of the camera and enables it to slide up and down on the strap but the drawback is if a 'scooter' thief tries to snatch it you're likely to be dragged along and risk major injuries. So, depending on where I travel, either I use it or not. Most of the time I wear it under my jacket or coat so that it's not immediately visible.

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When I was in Peru several years ago I followed the following precautions: if I wasn't in my room and didn't have my camera with me, it was kept in locked safe. In Cuzco, where tourist garrotings aren't uncommon in certain areas (according to the State Dep't bulletins), when you have your camera with you, don't go into remote areas at dusk - even tourist sites like Sacsayhuaman - which are too large to be effectively policed. I never had a problem in downtown Cuzco even at night, although I was a little apprehensive at first. No problems in Machu Picchu or Agua Calientes. Lima, again a little apprehensive in evening and very early mornings, but just followed normal precautions when I had my camera with me, and didn't walk long distances in areas with which I was unfamiliar or had been warned against. All in all I found the people warm and welcoming...but also be sensitive to their desires for privacy.

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Just have a friend walk behind you....

 

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I am in Cairo at the moment which unfortunately has some pickpocket activity around tourist areas, so before I left I bought a pacsafe V18.

 

Very satisfied with it. Using this bag and basic common sense I have had no trouble so far.

 

 

Common sense is important: Some Egyptians like tourists so much, that they sometimes

drag a foreign photographer behind, who got stuck at the bag´s reinforcements ...

 

Have a good time and a safe journey home!

 

 

Best,

GEORG

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