How We Pack a Camera for the Trip from Japan
Buying a forty-year-old camera from the other side of the world comes with one question that has nothing to do with the camera: will it survive the journey?
So rather than describe our packing, here it is, photographed on the bench.
Short answer
Everything is wrapped individually in bubble wrap, packed into a box so that nothing can move, sealed, wrapped in plastic against rain, and marked as fragile.
1. Each item is wrapped on its own
Every item gets its own wrapping — body, lens, hood, caps, the lot. Nothing is packed touching anything else, because the most common way gear gets damaged in transit isn't the box being dropped. It's two metal objects rubbing against each other the whole way across the Pacific.
If an item comes with its original box, that goes inside the wrapping too. Original packaging is part of what you bought, and it's not much use to you crushed.
2. Packed so nothing can move
The wrapped item goes into the box and every gap around it gets packed out — usually with newspaper, worked in on all four sides and underneath. The test is simple: pick the box up and shake it. If you can feel anything shift, it isn't finished.
Empty space is the enemy. A parcel gets thrown, stacked and dropped onto belts many times over between here and your door, and a camera that can move inside its box will move every single time.
The card on top goes in last.
3. Sealed, then wrapped against rain
The box is taped closed and then wrapped in plastic. That layer is there for one reason: rain. Parcels sit on trolleys, on pallets and occasionally on doorsteps, and cardboard soaked through is cardboard that no longer protects anything.
It also goes out marked as fragile.
Depending on the carrier and service, that wrapped box may then travel inside a courier pak. The box inside is packed the same way either way.
About these photos
These are photographs of a real order being packed, not a demonstration set up for this article. That's the bench, that's the bubble wrap, that's the box.
What this doesn't promise
Careful packing lowers the odds of a problem. It doesn't remove them. Parcels are handled by a lot of people and a lot of machinery, and occasionally one has a bad journey.
What it does mean is that everything within our control has been done before the box leaves here.