How To Ship A Camera Lens

Eventually well-nigh everyone who takes pictures is faced with the prospect of shipping their prized cameras off to a distant location—to accept them repaired or adjusted, trade them in, send them to eBay buyers, etc. Since virtually cameras, lenses, and related equipment are valuable and can be easily damaged, proper packing is essential to ensure they arrive at their destination unscathed. While the U.Due south. Postal service (USPS), UPS, FedEx, DHL, and other services practice a reasonably adept job in handing packages, you can't assume they'll always be handled with kid gloves. In fact, the mindset backside proper packing assumes exactly the opposite—that they'll exist bounced around, or even fall off the back of a truck! Follow all 10 packing suggestions below and y'all can be almost 100% sure your camera equipment won't exist damaged in transit.

i. Use a sturdy box of the correct size

The almost robust boxes are made of reinforced cardboard that has a corrugated layer sandwiched in between their inner and outer surfaces. Unmarried-layer cardboard is less resistant to impact damage. You can obtain suitable boxes for free at your local Post Function providing you use them to send via USPS Priority Mail, which includes costless tracking and $50 worth of insurance. Other aircraft services tin can also provide sturdy boxes at nominal cost. You lot tin re-employ any suitable boxes you have on manus, merely make sure they're not damaged or dented in any way.

The packing box you employ should be sufficiently large to accommodate at least i-1/2 to 2 inches of soft pliable packing cloth on all 6 sides of the wrapped object, to provide maximum impact protection. Using too small a box and/or insufficient packing textile are main contributing factors in items that are damaged in shipment.

2. Wrap each item in bubble wrap

Yes, bubble wrap is a petroleum-based production that'due south non smashing for the environment, but information technology's convenient to apply, provides excellent touch protection, and information technology can be re-used if it hasn't been damaged. Wrap each item separately and tightly in two to three layers of bubble wrap and secure them in place with clear or opaque packing record using a handheld roll-blazon tape dispenser. Use bubble wrap with pocket-sized- or medium-sized bubbles that folds easily. Ship your cameras and lenses in their cases, if possible, to provide an additional layer of protection.

three. Utilize soft pliable packing material

The object of proper packing is to immobilize and insulate your wrapped photo equipment in the center of a protective cocoon of touch-absorbing fabric. Suitable packing materials include bubble wrap, make clean rags, cream rubber, Styrofoam peanuts, excelsior (wood shavings), packing harbinger, and tightly packed, crumpled newspaper. All these materials are compressible and attenuate impacts to the outer box. Avoid difficult materials like big Styrofoam sections, hard cardboard blocks, forest or other substances that volition transmit impact.

4. Pack it the right mode for maximum protection

Place a two-inch or thicker layer of packing textile on the lesser of the box, then place the wrapped object in the box, wedge-in packing material evenly on all 4 sides of information technology, and finally comprehend the superlative of the item evenly with sufficient packing cloth to completely make full the box. There should be slight tension on the flaps of the box when yous shut it, simply none of the sides of the box should bulge out when it's fully closed. Make sure the wrapped object is totally immobilized in the box earlier you seal information technology, and that it cannot move effectually in transit. If you're sending more than 1 item at a fourth dimension, yous can place wrapped items right next to each other so they're held in identify as a unit of measurement by the packing material. Before yous fully seal the box, secure the package with a single strip of packing tape and test it by shaking it to make sure that everything is deeply in place.

Embrace all seams of the box securely with packing tape. And before yous seal the box, place a copy of the packing characterization in the box so the shipping service can identify the sender and receiver if the box is severely damaged. Utilise a handheld roll-type tape dispenser to seal the airtight package. Double-tape the primary closures on the lesser and top of the box, and seal all edge openings with pieces of tape folded 90 degrees over each seam. Tape over any pieces of record that practise not adhere completely to the box.

5. Label it legibly, and tape over the label

The best way to make a label is to print it out from your computer with an attached printer, but you tin can exercise information technology by hand with a magic marker if you write legibly in block letters. Make sure to list the full address, including zip lawmaking and country (for overseas packages) of both the sender and receiver, and include both telephone numbers, if possible. Apply a large 22- or 24-betoken font if possible. Make sure to list the sender after "FROM:" and the receiver afterward "TO:" and then in that location's no confusion. Yous can also print out your ain "FRAGILE, HANDLE WITH Care" stickers in large cerise type or buy them set made. The Post Office volition be happy to stamp "Fragile" on your packages, merely the ink can rub off if information technology's on packing tape.

Attach the characterization to the package using articulate packing record, and tape over the unabridged label with strips of clear tape that achieve over the sides of the box for maximum security and to forbid the characterization from being obliterated if the package is subjected to wet.

vi. Select the best aircraft options for your item

Anybody has a favorite shipper, so by all means, utilize the one with which you experience most comfortable. Later on aircraft thousands of packages for more than 3 decades, I have institute USPS, UPS, and FedEx all to be very reliable, with FedEx having a slight edge. Still, UPS and FedEx charge for home pickup, and this adds actress toll if in that location'southward no nearby depot where you lot can driblet off the package. Also, be aware that if you're shipping to a remote location, USPS may make the terminal delivery anyhow. If you're aircraft internationally, use USPS Registered Mail or DHL. Both are more expensive but they're the final word in reliability and they track your package every step of the fashion. USPS Registered overseas delivery also requires the bundle to be signed by the recipient.

7. Bring the package to the shipper yourself

The best way to ensure that your package has been shipped is to bring information technology to the shipper yourself, and get a receipt proving that y'all sent it. This is piece of cake if y'all drop information technology off at your local Postal service Office or there'due south a nearby UPS or FedEx depot. I exercise not recommend leaving valuable packages in UPS or FedEx boxes considering you accept no proof you lot shipped them until they're in the system.

8. Insure the bundle for its full value

As mentioned, you automatically get tracking plus $50 insurance if you lot ship via USPS Priority Mail, but that's often not enough to cover valuable camera equipment. The all-time rule of pollex is to insure what y'all're sending for the corporeality you lot paid for it, and can prove it with a receipt. Collecting insurance on items damaged in shipment is a daunting process, and quite challenging if the outer box is in perfect condition and non dented, perforated, etc. Nevertheless, full insurance is well worth the extra cost in the unlikely upshot your bundle is lost.

9. Always include tracking

It'southward an extra-cost USPS pick if you don't ship USPS Priority, and is automatically included with most UPS and FedEx services. If tracking is not included in your shipping option, add it and then you can know when your packet has been delivered to its destination. Tracking alone does non provide ironclad proof of delivery (run across beneath).

10. Add signature confirmation when shipping valuable items

If you're shipping a camera that'southward worth upward to, say, $200, you can save a few bucks by not requiring the recipient to sign for information technology, and then receive a return receipt. But if you're sending a $ii,000 camera to someone y'all don't know, it's a worthwhile precaution.

Exercise you have any tips for shipping sensitive, delicate photographic camera equipment or horror stories almost gear that arrived in less than "perfect" condition? Experience free to share them with us in the Comments section, beneath.