Harry,
I do quite a bit of business travel and have picked up the following tips when taking your SLR camera onbaord an aeroplane.
Aeroplanes in flight are pressurised to approx 8,000ft and oxygen is pulled out of the air via the engines (where the power is) thus the air is rather dry inside the cabin - great!
In the hold there is no pressurisation and most long haul flights cruise at approx 40,000ft in 'thin' air for fuel efficiency. Every 1000ft the pressure drops by 30mB (but this figure tails of at higher altitude). There is a great difference in atmospheric pressure at cruising altitude. Temperature also drops but 2 degrees per 1000ft.
Okay the science bit is over and now for the tips...
1, Take your camera and lenses in the cabin even though they may be heavy and cumbersome, it will pay off.
2, Expel all air from your toiletries, especially tubes of stuff and aftershaves/perfume the pressure may blow the tops off!
3, Put each item of your gear into a plastic bag and expel all air possible, this is protect from condensation forming inside your lenses and SLR camera at your destination.
4, At the destination do not touch your gear until at room temperature, approx 12 hours - be strict do no not want any moisture inside those lenses.
5, If you have to place your gear in the hold then follow point 4 but wait much longer.
I friend of mine went to Kenya a short while ago and produced some good photos using a polarising filter but be sure to get a circular polariser that works with autofocus.
Hope this helps
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