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Any particular recommendations/experiences? I see the Pelican brand at B&H, but no real life experience with them.....
Some questions like this one are easy Pelican is the brand.
Have had video gear fall into white water river, had to fish it out. We where not even worried about it. Just swam the boxes to shore and set up the tripod and did the shoot. I've had my gear tossed in an open stake bed truck under a mountain of tool boxes, scuba tanks and what not then unload as if it were a dump truck unto pavement.
The boxes are not only tough bt had a no-questions lifetime warranty even if you buy the case used and have no receipt. Whoever owns the case can always swap it for a new case if damaged. I have damaged a few, one we used as a moving dolly over a mile of cobble stone road and the wheels broke. I told Pelican that we filled the case with 100+ pounds of lead dive weights and hauled it down stairs and over rough road. They gave me a new one explaining they changed the design so it will not happen again. The other time I bough an already broken case from a guy who force a latch with a pry bar. They fixed the damage free. YES I told them the truth they the damage was the result of some idiot's abuse. (but I did not tell the idiot he could get the thing fixed for free.)
If you are going to use this fro camera gear the best way to go is to buy it "bare" with no interior fittings, not foam, not dividers, no padding. Just a bare plastic box. Then you place you Lowe-Pro or whatever brand backpack inside the case. The case is used for shipping and you leave it at the hotel room or in the rental car trunk.
One bit of advice. SPRAY PAINT the box with a LARGE and UNIQUE design. Thieves know that Pelican boxes contain expensive gear and all black cases look alike. They do NOT take cases that can be identified for 200 years distance by there day-glow zig zag stripes. Of just cover it one all sides with bumper stickers. One guy I saw used a "biohazard" sticker on his and label it a "Sewage Samples" to deter theft.
They also make cases with "cube foam" that you modify by hand to form fit your camera gear. This offers even better protection but then only fits one set of gear. I like to be able to place anything in the case. Get one with WHEELS that fits the backpack.
The down side of these is the weight. If you are limited to (say) 50 pounds per bag and the box is 20 pounds empty then you can only cary 30 pounds of stuff. The non-wheel cases are lighter but harder to move a 50 pound case with no wheels.
The Pelican cases are made in California near where I live. So warranty service is easy for me. Others would need to mail the case and pay shipping. But either way it is a 100% no-questions lifetime warranty.
Everyone who works in the industry uses these same cases and has them shipped around using either airlines or FedEx. They CAN be damaged if a fork lift operator makes an error or it one falls off a truck at highway speed.
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how about splitting your gear in 2 bags?
I'd never send my gear out my sight
That absolutely does not work. It is hard to argue with a bus drive in Korea if you don't speak korean when he says "ALL luggage" must be stored in the bin under the bus, no exceptions." or when porters handle your gear. what if they don't allow you to cary one TWO bags, few airlines do. And what if you have lots of gear? There is no way one Earth I found even fit my underwater video gear under a seat. Buy insurance and don't worry about it.
Typically the smaller the vehicle the worse the problem, small vans, all the luggage goes in back or even in a pickup truck that follows or a propeller aircraft has very struck weight and balance requirements.
