Air Travel With Batteries - What You Need To Know

If you are a professional photographer/videographer and you are travelling with a large amount of gear, especially lighting gear and other equipment which requires pro batteries you should be aware of the regulation of the FAA (in the U.S.).

On the video above videographer Bart Johnson talks about travelling with large pro batteries and what you need to know. He also shows an interesting large capacity battery by Switronix called HyperCore 190Wh which you can split in half and carry with you on a plane.

You can find the guidelines of the FAA regarding batteries here and here but the basics is pretty straightforward:

All Li-Ion batteries should go with you to the plain in you carry on (not in your larger suitcase in the back of the plane.
Smaller (smartphone batteries, tablets and most laptop) batteries should not pose any problem. So does any larger V-MOUNT or Anton Bauer type batteries under 100W/h.
Larger batteries over 100W/h are allowed only with the permission of the airline and only up to 2 units.

At any rate remember that you have limitations on how much weight you can carry with you onto the plain (usually 8kg/17lbs on most airlines although this might change depending on which class you are flying, which airline, plane etc.).

You can check out many more helpful photography tips on our Photography tips section here on LensVid. You can find more video by Johnson on this page here on LensVid.

Iddo Genuth

Iddo Genuth is the founder and chief editor of LensVid.com. He has been a technology reporter working for international publications since the late 1990's and covering photography since 2009. Iddo is also a co-founder of a production company specializing in commercial food and product visual content.