Traveling with your camera

I've traveled for my photography extensively... 20+ countries and 5 continents over the past 3-4 years and quite a few within-country as well.

I've never had any piece of my kit taken from a checked bag. Dumb and lucky... maybe. But it's a data point for you. When you think about it, it makes sense that the people in charge of the chain-of-custody of your bag through a secured area in a post-911 world won't be stealing from you... but I also acknowledge that the majority of people advocate against it.

That said, I always keep enough ON my body in order to complete the shoot. For weddings, that means I've got bags and backpacks and all sorts of stuff I'm schlepping around as my carry-on... the only stuff getting checked is lightstands or other things I could do without (or easily replace before the wedding). For my 'travel/scenery/lifestyle' stuff I go much lighter -- often putting extra batteries, lenses, etc into checked bags and only keeping one body and 1-2 lenses with me. Worst case, it's all insured anyway.

Beyond the airport...One thing I should mention when traveling is to NOT use a photography bag. Carry your gear in something that looks like it doesn't hold anything valuable. A 'camera' bag just screams "mug me!". A beat-up collapsable 6-pack cooler you got as SWAG at a 3M business conference says "nothing valuable" to theives... even though when I travel it contains about 6-9k worth of stuff in a very small inconspicuous container.

When sleeping in a room with others (be in an airport or a hostel or something) I'll use a really thin steel cable and wrap it around and around and through all my gear and back and such and then around my foot. I've personally seen the results of a bag-lock-only option: the thieves just cut the bag and pull out what they want while you sleep.

If it's not for business, you can often get a rider on your homeowners policy for extremely reasonable rates. If I remember correctly, I insured about 3k worth of gear for a year (international travel theft included) for only $45 dollars.

Never check anything that you want to see again. I would get another bag and hold your camera and laptop while in flight.