Cameras To Heavy At Airport Security

urdygurdy

urdygurdy

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well today was eventful to say the least, i was flying back from cologne to manchester when i got stopped at the security & bag scanning area before departure lounge.

I have done plenty of flying and have never been stopped so i guess it was going to happen one day....... The alarms went off as i walked through the scanner / metal detector, After having a full pat down and body scan & that big thing you stand in, they seemed happy so i went to collect my hand luggage out of the trays from the x ray scanner, now my tray went down a different channel to most i was taken to one side and asked to open my bag which was my lowepro 200 slingshot with Nikon D7100 with 16-85mm, 50mm, 10-20 & Fuji X T1 & 18-135mm, it also had my wallet and iphone in. i was asked a few questions and they were most concerned that how heavy the cameras where, i was asked to prove they all worked, take off lens & battery compartments and then they wiped them over with swabs and and went to process them, i asked they what the was looking for and they just said illegal substances.

Obviously they found nothing & there tests came back negative and i was allowed into departure lounge and nothing more was said. Now i 100% agree with their strict security policies as i had nothing to hide, but found it odd that the reason they gave was that the cameras were to heavy, not for the allowance as hand luggage but for there physical size & the size of bag i guess. Now maybe something as innocent as a camera could be used to hide things inside to try smuggle things in & out of countries & has probably been tried 1000s of times.

Just wondering has anyone else experienced anything similar ?
 
You could fit a reasonable amount of dangerous substances in a lens for example. Your average person wouldn't have a clue how much a multi glass element L would weigh.

Only thing I can think of.
 
I've had mine swabbed a couple of times - and strictly speaking my bag is too big as the 'extra personal item' but no comments have ever been made about it. I open my bag as I put it in the tray and unzip the top of the front pocket so it's very clearly a camera bag [ holds my passport phones etc etc , but I take the iPad or lappy out so they go through separately.

Flight to the USA this summer was normal - and the one home from JFK was equally good.

Suspect you were just unlucky
 
I've had mine questioned at check in and weighed and told it's too heavy, but I just explained it was expensive camera kit, was within the accepted size for a carry on bag and I'd like to take it on the cabin with me. They've always given me a carry on label for the bag.
 
I get stopped at airport security every time i travel, even the few times i've travelled without any bags i still get the full treatment, my daughter says it's because i look dodgy.
 
It's an explosive swab (they're usually quite open about it when I've asked) and I'd guess I've been stopped and had cameras swabbed at security on about 20% of flights I've taken - if this is the first time it's happened to you and you fly regularly with your camera gear maybe this is a sign you've lost your look of youthful innocence? ;)

Bear in mind that in recent years "threats" have included small quantities of explosives in shoes and underpants, so the body of a camera is quite large in relation to this. Although I have thought that when I've been travelling with film cameras it's often a sign of camera enthusiasm by a bored security agent - I've had a couple of camera chats when my kit included an old TLR. I always try and carry the TLR without film loaded when flying because I know that the very large internal void may interest security.
 
Lots of people fit some bloody awful images deep inside a flashcard.... :beer:
 
Swissy said:
I get stopped at airport security every time i travel, even the few times i've travelled without any bags i still get the full treatment, my daughter says it's because i look dodgy.
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Not surprised looking at your avatar :D

Many, many years ago (pre digital) I was asked to remove the zoom lens from my Nikon FM so they could check it over.
It was Leeds/Bradford airport, so maybe they just wanted to see how much equipment had moved on since the box-brownie. :LOL: (only kidding, all you Yaaaawksher ites ;) )
 
neil_g said:
You could fit a reasonable amount of dangerous substances in a lens for example. Your average person wouldn't have a clue how much a multi glass element L would weigh.

Only thing I can think of.
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Either that or the camera body, could flip the mirror up and fit a packet or two of "gear" in the cavity and flip the mirror back down.
 
OldCarlos said:
Many, many years ago (pre digital) I was asked to remove the zoom lens from my Nikon FM so they could check it over.
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I've had this too, again quite a few years ago. "Sir can you take the lens off the camera and show me the inside please". This was a fairly large 70-200 style zoom so yes I suppose the possibility of it being stuffed full of something other than lens glass could be quite high.

David
 
It's been going on for a while, and is mainly about the risk of explosives concealed in the gear. There was a time, a few years back, when security sometimes asked people to take a photograph or boot up their laptop and open a programme to "prove" that it was bona fide...
 
Been swabbed a few times (well, my kit has!) and had to redistribute the weight a few times as well. Still, would rather that that be spread over Europe...
 
should go through Belfast security with a DSLR. That's mightily entertaining....especially as the Barbour jacket I was wearing had traces of gunpowder from a shoot a couple of weeks earlier! Oh how I laughed! :-(
 
Istanbul airport seems to be quite strict as well. Sometimes when going there to photograph the ships I also take a spotting scope, and every time I have gone through security on the way home they have asked to look through it to prove that it is an optical instrument.
 
Swissy said:
I get stopped at airport security every time i travel, even the few times i've travelled without any bags i still get the full treatment, my daughter says it's because i look dodgy.
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Well looking at your avatar ;)

Joking aside - I also get stopped and frisked every time I travel.
 
dinners said:
Well looking at your avatar ;)

Joking aside - I also get stopped and frisked every time I travel.
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You haven't seen me without the mask mate, not a pretty sight :D
 
Had my "hand" luggage weighed at Melbourne for the first time, 13kg!!!!:eek: (think the 14 inch stone kookaburra might have had a bit to do with it!)

I said it was all my camera stuff that I didn't want to put in my hold bag, and all that was said was it was too heavy to go in the overhead lockers as it was, but they were happy for me to split it onboard.

All fine in its entirity through all the security scanners, not asked to open anything on three international and one Aussie domestic flight (even with my Giotto Rocket blower!) (y)
 
The last 5 trips from Heathrow have had all my gear spread out - I'm sure they have never seen a 300mm 2.8 lol... At least (due to flying BA & going early) they haven't weighed the hand luggage yet - think last trip was 18kg - lol
 
Its just they pay a lot more attention to the bags that are heavy...
 
A lot of it also depends on the airport you're flying through, and even which security point in that airport you're going through. There was one check at Amsterdam that used to absolutely tear my camera bag apart - no other check in the airport did, just this particular one which was a real pain as I was flying through there 2-3 times every week. They must have realised they were basically costing huge amounts of time and screwing the flow of people through the airport though, I flew through there the other month heading to the US and it was absolutely fine.

It can be the airport, the individual officer on duty, or just plain luck of the draw whether you get an additional search or not. It could be worse, in Russia they generally scan all your bags literally as soon as you walk through the front door and then again when going through security which is a massive pain!
 
Strangely enough I was also at Amsterdam last month - they didn't blink an eye...;)
 
It can be the airport, the individual officer on duty, or just plain luck of the draw whether you get an additional search or not.
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Depends on more than that. In the UK the CAA Security branch dictate that 1 in x is searched for example. Also depends on what the current threat level is and from what. It's not always from the middle east for example.

Then there is airline security, who can and do mandate what you can take in the cabin,depending on which one you fly with it can be 100% checks, El Al for example often is. The US airlines can and do often go for 100% checks as well. But those checks are separate from the airport authorities.

As someone said, cameras are something that can have a void in them, and sometimes are heavier than you'd expect, especially if you aren't into photography.

In the 80's, a Sunday Magazine from one of the papers had an advert for a compact camera. It was touted as being autofocus, which it wasn't, it was just a very narrow aperture and was reasonably expensive. Anyway, at least one person was daft enough to buy one and got stopped by security at Heathrow. They weren't happy, as it was a. much heavier than a normal compact and b. on xrays it had a solid mass in it. So I got called, and yes, it was a lot heavier than a normal compact. It turned out it was just a solid lump of something heavy inside to make it 'feel' more expensive. All was well punter went on his way with some advice about buying cameras.
 
I flew out on the first flight morning after Lockerbie (26 years ago today) never seen so many security people or had my baggage so heavily scrutunised.
Ended up leaving three hours late and had every bit of electrical equipment tested plus all luggage searched

Remember that night well, stayed in watching a film on TV, it was Magnum Force and lasted about six hours with all the newsflash breaks.
Got to the airport about 4.30am, armoured cars and armed police plus loads of extra staff brought in to check every passenger thoroughly

We were flying to Munich and I believe the Lockerbie flight had also originated from West Germany, just as much security there too.
 
PMN said:
Tell 'em to get stuffed!
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I had the pleasure of standing behind someone at security in Amman once who tried a similar course with security.

He didn't make the flight :-)
 
PMN said:
The weight of your carry on has nothing whatsoever to do with security. How much weight you can take is decided by the airline, not them.

Tell 'em to get stuffed!
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Wasn't security who weighed it!

It was the airline check in staff who asked to weigh all our hand luggage after weighing in our hold bags so I thought it would be a good idea to be polite! ;)
 
Not had my camera swabbed but when he went to the USA earlier in the year they swabbed my little ones Special Needs buggy and his toy that hangs from it!
 
Oh, and had my camera bag swabbed at Tiree "airport" flying back to Glasgow on the 19 seater! :rolleyes:
 
I regularly fly out of Manchester to Europe (often the Rhine area but not Cologne to date..) with a 400 2.8, 70-200 2.8, 17-40, two 5D3s, small monopod, laptop, chargers.. clothes.. all in my hang luggage and very rarely even get a second glance. Not once been quizzed one it's weight, especially at security! Indeed, no problems ever getting it on the budget airlines either, with it being in a compact looking backpack :)
 
PMN said:
The weight of your carry on has nothing whatsoever to do with security. How much weight you can take is decided by the airline, not them.

Tell 'em to get stuffed!
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missing the point somewhat - they arent concerned about carry on weight - they are concerned that a camera weighs more than it should, possibly indicating that its jammed full of semtex and detonators. Hence the swab for explosives

Telling security to get stuffed is rarely a good idea
 
big soft moose said:
missing the point somewhat - they arent concerned about carry on weight - they are concerned that a camera weighs more than it should, possibly indicating that its jammed full of semtex and detonators. Hence the swab for explosives

Telling security to get stuffed is rarely a good idea
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I did miss the first point, however if they were concerned about how heavy the cameras were they clearly need more practice at being security. They see these kinds of things on a daily basis, they should know how heavy they are.

And again, it's about how you tell them to get stuffed. I've come across enough jobsworth airport security flying 200 times a year to know how to deal with them, I'm not a beginner with all this flying stuff.
 
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Some of these staff are not all that switched on!

In April this year someone mistook a Rocket Blower in someone's gear for a grenade - the air space void inside it must of looked very dangerous !
 
Thanks for the tipoff, I'll look for other ways to smuggle my stash now ;)
 
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Blank_Canvas said:
Some of these staff are not all that switched on!

In April this year someone mistook a Rocket Blower in someone's gear for a grenade - the air space void inside it must of looked very dangerous !
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I've only once had a rocket blower gain any attention going through security (although I rarely carry one to be fair), remarkably the guy actually knew what it was! :D
 
Belfast is my home airport and every time I go through it is the same. Camera, lenses, chargers, cables, tablets all spread out, checked and swabbed. We are used to it now, always know to leave an extra 10 mins for security.
 
Never had that in Dublin :) Though last time was a bit traumatic - I had a 'jobs worth' who was determined that it was my watch setting off the alarm, it wasn't , I know what it was and I'd told her but that wasn't good enough . Strangely enough they weren't interested in my camera bag at all -next time I'll stay in the wheelchair instead of saying I'll walk through the arch.
 
I've never had issues in Belfast, in fact it's one of the quickest check-ins and to go through security I have ever experienced.
 
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