Pelican 1510 Case with Foam (Black) Review

I purchased this case with foam to protect Nikon equipment used for wedding, location portraiture and sports photography.The Pelican cases are outstanding and are as good as equipment cases get.The waterproof neoprene O-ring gasket, pressure equalization valve and latch design set Pelican cases apart.The 1510's max-allowable carry-on size is a huge selling point if you have even a 1% chance of travel with expensive equipment - you want to keep it in your immediate proximity, not in some disgruntled and underpaid baggage handler's tender care.It's a bit on the heavy side if you're used to a soft-sided camera bag, but you would expect that from such a durable case.

The down side of this purchase for me was the "pluckable" foam (which you should cut and never pluck).The foam is a great concept and gives better protection (if cut with thick foam sections between items) than the alternative 1515 Padded Divider set Pelican sells.However, it's VERY unforgiving - once cut it's cut.(Tips on cutting foam are below).I recommend you SERIOUSLY consider purchase of an empty 1510 case (no foam) and additionally purchasing the 1515 Padded Divider set instead of the 1510 with pluckable block foam.This will give you much more flexibility and simplicity (unless you never plan on adding new equipment) while still protecting your equipment.For this reason I will eventually (probably very soon) trash the very expensive foam and will buy the 1515 divider set.

If you decide to stick with the foam, hey, it's your money, but here are some tips which will make you less dangerously postal after realizing your mistake:

0)The case comes with 4 foam layers, two thin ones for bottom and the lid, and two thicker ones with the grid of semi-pre-cut pluckable foam.I will be referring to "marking the foam" below.This is done in the thick layers with toothpicks.Gently work a toothpick in to the corner of where the little 1/2 inch foam blocks come together.I'll use the term "hole" for the space you cut out for your equipment.Notice I said cut not pluck.Use a serrated steak knife to gently saw through the semi-pre-cut pluckable blocks for the neatest appearance.Let's make this look professional, OK?

1)Take all the foam out and look at the bottom of the case.See those intruding wheel wells and the intruding handle well?(Pelican had to intrude those into the case's interior to make it fit the airline's luggage size requirements).You don't want your $2000 camera setting on that wheel well as it vibrates while rolling over asphalt or grouted tile.Use the thin bottom foam pad to mark these areas off on the thick pad and only put in shallow holes (no cutting into the bottom thick foam layer) for items such as a flash or 50mm lens in these areas.You don't want tall items like a camera body here!I cut out areas so the bottom layer of foam sits better on the wheel wells - optional, but now the top layer of foam doesn't ride up on these corners.

2)Plan on leaving at least 2 to 3 foam blocks (1" to 1.5") of space between all your equipment.Thin foam will be VERY flimsy and will tear when your equipment is being inserted into the holes.

3) Make sure you clearly mark both thick layers with toothpicks, masking tape or something similar so you always know which side is the top.This is way more important than it sounds.

4)Get all your equipment out and arrange it on one of the thick layers, and start marking the foam while arranging your equipment.Remember you may be buying more equipment, so keep your holes grouped fairly close and leave unused space as contiguous as possible.For this step you're looking at everything from above and thinking in 2 dimensions - width and depth.Just marking, no sawing yet...

5)Now for the 3rd dimension of height - measure to see if the equipment is taller than a single layer of thick foam.These holes will have to be extended through both layers.

6)OK, it's time to get your steak knife and get ready to start sawing.Try to saw out the holes in complete blocks and set them aside to store them.This will greatly aid in fixing problems later on.Tell little Johnny to get away from them - give him some bubble-wrap instead.Don't drink alcohol until you're finished.You'll probably need some when you are finished though - I suggest The Glenlevit & water on the rocks, but without the water...

7)Think you're done?Wrong.Now work your equipment all the way into the holes and get the cut-out blocks you set aside earlier.Put the cut-outs on top of the equipment so they are level and mark how deep they go down into the hole with a toothpick.Measure from the bottom to the toothpick with a ruler to determine how deep it inserted into the equipment-filled hole.Now transfer that measurement to the TOP of the block instead of the bottom.For instance, if the bottom of the block inserts .75" into the hole, mark off .75" from the TOP of the block.Now saw through that plane with your serrated knife, perpendicular to the semi-pre-cut cuts.Try to be as neat and even as possible.Still looks bad when you're done, right?Since you follow directions well and measured this from the top and not the bottom, the ugly side will not be visible when impressionable clients look into our custom camera case when the equipment is removed.Remove the equipment from the hole, take the top piece you cut with the ugly side down and insert it into the bottom of the hole, then reinsert the equipment, and - Hey Look! - It's flush with the top!

8)How many mistakes did you make?OK, now move all your equipment a safe distance away, like the next room.Go get some Elmer's glue and put tiny super-thin lines of glue on your mistake blocks, glue them back in very carefully inserting them from the bottom so we don't get any glue on the outside visible parts of the foam.Set the two patched thick foam layers on their tops so the glue you still managed to smear on the bottom doesn't stick to anything (a wet washcloth will help with cleaning up excess glue).Now wait until tomorrow for it to dry so you can go back to step 4.It is now safe to grace a few ice cubes with the gentle caress of some Glenlevit while you wait for tomorrow's adventure in foam cutting.

FINIS) Well, painful though it was, I promise it was less painful than if you would have wouldn't have followed my awesome instructions.Now that it's a couple of hours (or days) later and you're nerves are completely frazzled and that bottle of The Glenlevit is a number of inches lower than before you started, don't you wish you would have listened to my advice about purchasing an empty 1510 and the 1515 Padded Dividers?

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Product Description:
Pelican Protector Cases are made with Copolymer Polypropylene, using an open cell core and solid wall construction, which is stronger and lighter that the competion. You can tell it's a Pelican case by the distinctive "twin-ribbed" top surface. Stainless steel pins are used for hinges and handles. The new Double-Throw latches are much easier to open.

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