Flying with exposed film.

toadstool

toadstool

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I just remembered I'll be flying tomorrow and coming back on Wednesday with exposed film. Just Edinburgh - Belfast with hand luggage. Will the film be fine going through the scanner? :help:
 
Yes
 
Okay, first time flying with exposed film.. managed to avoid it for ages so wanted to be sure. Thank you!
 
toadstool said:
Okay, first time flying with exposed film.. managed to avoid it for ages so wanted to be sure. Thank you!
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The most important rule - never put film (exposed or unexposed) through checked luggage. The baggage scanners are much more powerful for checked luggage, and will damage the film. Hand baggage scanners are film-safe across most of the world.
 
freecom2 said:
The most important rule - never put film (exposed or unexposed) through checked luggage. The baggage scanners are much more powerful for checked luggage, and will damage the film. Hand baggage scanners are film-safe across most of the world.
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Agreed...
 
Just to add:- I've taken Fuji 1600 ISO film to Spain and back and had no problem in hand luggage.
 
toadstool said:
I just remembered I'll be flying tomorrow and coming back on Wednesday with exposed film. Just Edinburgh - Belfast with hand luggage. Will the film be fine going through the scanner? :help:
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Yeah, I've always just put my film through the scanners and I've never had a problem.

That said, I'm about to go away to Asia for several weeks and I'm estimating that I could have some rolls of 120 film that could pass through as many as 8-12 x-ray scanners, so I'll really be putting this to the test.
 
skysh4rk said:
Yeah, I've always just put my film through the scanners and I've never had a problem.

That said, I'm about to go away to Asia for several weeks and I'm estimating that I could have some rolls of 120 film that could pass through as many as 8-12 x-ray scanners, so I'll really be putting this to the test.
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H'mm 8-12 scanners :eek: lets hope the Asian scanners are modern and not too powerful :shrug:
 
Thanks everyone!

I read somewhere when I was googling (before I gave up and asked here) that higher ASA/ISO films can be hand checked? It was a guys blog, saying even 200 film.. he put a bit of masking tape on the film canister saying, for example, "pushed to 1600" and they hand checked it. Not sure how that might work out..

I probably won't bother but might be worth a try if it's going through 8-12 where, like Brian pointed out, they may not have the more modern scanners?
 
The only country that has hand inspection as a proper rule is the TSA of the United States - but they can still put it through the scanner if they want. You can ask for a hand inspection of film in other countries, but you'll probably just draw a blank look from most places, since they have absolutely no allowance for it.

Not sure why we are instantly assuming Asian airport scanners would not be modern - many Asian airports put UK airports (indeed, Western European airports) to absolute shame in terms of how modern and up-to-date they are, but that's a discussion for another day.
 
toadstool said:
Thanks everyone!

I read somewhere when I was googling (before I gave up and asked here) that higher ASA/ISO films can be hand checked? It was a guys blog, saying even 200 film.. he put a bit of masking tape on the film canister saying, for example, "pushed to 1600" and they hand checked it. Not sure how that might work out..

I probably won't bother but might be worth a try if it's going through 8-12 where, like Brian pointed out, they may not have the more modern scanners?
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In the USA I believe that TSA staff are supposed to honour any request for a hand check (a written rule), although they will still argue with you that film is safe under 3200, so some folks will have a dummy roll of fast film to preempt any such discussions.

Outside of the United States, however, there is no such guarantees and it's wholly at the discretion of security staff at the airport on the day. I'll try to get past some of the x-ray screenings, but it's inevitable that a number of my films will be going through quite a few times. I've heard that a number of Asian airports are more amenable to hand checking film though.

I'd planned to only travel with one film, Fuji Pro 400H, but I'm now going to go with mostly Fuji 160NS, which I hope is less susceptible to x-ray damage, and just pick up a bunch of 400H when I get to Hong Kong.

Edit: It seems Freecom2 has beaten me to the punch with the bit about the inspection rule in the USA
 
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Well X-rays are accumulative on film and if you can believe what you read on the net, this guy says:-

Kodak has done tests with slow and medium-speed films (rated at up to ISO 200) and they were found to be able to handle up to 16 passes through the X-ray machines used to check hand luggage at modern Western airports. Faster films, starting at ISO 400 are much more sensitive to X-ray damage. They probably won’t handle more than four or five passes – less if you already exposed them. If you push film – for example exposing an ISO 400 film at ISO 800 within your camera – the problem will be more severe as well. The X-ray machines in remote regions of the world will most likely emit a much higher dose of radiation.
 
excalibur2 said:
Well X-rays are accumulative on film and if you can believe what you read on the net, this guy says:-

Kodak has done tests with slow and medium-speed films (rated at up to ISO 200) and they were found to be able to handle up to 16 passes through the X-ray machines used to check hand luggage at modern Western airports. Faster films, starting at ISO 400 are much more sensitive to X-ray damage. They probably won’t handle more than four or five passes – less if you already exposed them. If you push film – for example exposing an ISO 400 film at ISO 800 within your camera – the problem will be more severe as well. The X-ray machines in remote regions of the world will most likely emit a much higher dose of radiation.
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Yeah, I've read that before and I've switched to predominantly carrying ISO 160 film for this trip because of the cumulative effect, but I will still need to carry a few rolls of 400 from the start.

That said, many of these accounts are a few years old, especially anything released by Kodak, and many airports have modernised their x-ray scanning equipment in the years since.

I'm going to try to minimise the number of exposures my rolls are subjected to and buy some fresh film while I'm out there, but it's also going to be a bit of an experiment for me: How many scans can ISO 400 film take before you can see any effects? Hopefully the answer is a whole lot of 'em. If all of the rolls come back looking fine, I'm never going to worry about handchecks or x-rays again.
 
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How many are you carrying? Could you not stuff the faster films in to your trouser pocket before security.
 
skysh4rk said:
Yeah, I've read that before and I've switched to predominantly carrying ISO 160 film for this trip because of the cumulative effect, but I will still need to carry a few rolls of 400 from the start.

That said, many of these accounts are a few years old, especially anything released by Kodak, and many airports have modernised their x-ray scanning equipment in the years since.

I'm going to try to minimise the number of exposures my rolls are subjected to and buy some fresh film while I'm out there, but it's also going to be a bit of an experiment for me: How many scans can ISO 400 film take before you can see any effects? Hopefully the answer is a whole lot of 'em. If all of the rolls come back looking fine, I'm never going to worry about handchecks or x-rays again.
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Don't forget to let us know :thumbs:
 
skysh4rk said:
Yeah, I've read that before and I've switched to predominantly carrying ISO 160 film for this trip because of the cumulative effect, but I will still need to carry a few rolls of 400 from the start.

That said, many of these accounts are a few years old, especially anything released by Kodak, and many airports have modernised their x-ray scanning equipment in the years since.

I'm going to try to minimise the number of exposures my rolls are subjected to and buy some fresh film while I'm out there, but it's also going to be a bit of an experiment for me: How many scans can ISO 400 film take before you can see any effects? Hopefully the answer is a whole lot of 'em. If all of the rolls come back looking fine, I'm never going to worry about handchecks or x-rays again.
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This is what Gatwick Airport say on their site:

"Q: I’m a photographer and I’m worried about putting my film and camera through the x-ray machines. Can you help?
A: Don’t worry – our x-ray machines won’t harm your film or equipment. The British Photographers' Liaison Committee (BPLC), have given the all-clear to our hand-luggage x-ray inspection systems saying that it is safe for all normal film types (up to and including ISO 400) as well as for digital storage media.
Specialist film (ISO 800 and above) can sometimes be affected – but the effects are barely noticeable to the naked eye and do no become clearly visible until film is exposed around 32 times. But we can make special arrangements for photographers carrying professional film (ISO 800 and above) – just contact us our your airline before travel.
Professional photographers requiring more detailed information can contact the BPLC on +44 (0)20 7739 6669"

I've travelled with 400 speed film from Stansted to Bodrum, Turkey (where the bags are scanned again) and back (so total of 4 passes) and have seen absolutely no defects when they were developed.
 
steveo_mcg said:
How many are you carrying? Could you not stuff the faster films in to your trouser pocket before security.
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I've done this before between Paris and Glasgow, but that was for one or two rolls of ISO 800 film and a quick trip there and back. I'll be away for a few weeks this time and I'll be carrying far more rolls of film, so it's a strategy that won't work on a larger level for me in this occasion.

excalibur2 said:
Don't forget to let us know :thumbs:
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Yeah, I'll be sure to let everyone know how it goes. :)

s162216 said:
This is what Gatwick Airport say on their site:

"Q: I’m a photographer and I’m worried about putting my film and camera through the x-ray machines. Can you help?
A: Don’t worry – our x-ray machines won’t harm your film or equipment. The British Photographers' Liaison Committee (BPLC), have given the all-clear to our hand-luggage x-ray inspection systems saying that it is safe for all normal film types (up to and including ISO 400) as well as for digital storage media.
Specialist film (ISO 800 and above) can sometimes be affected – but the effects are barely noticeable to the naked eye and do no become clearly visible until film is exposed around 32 times. But we can make special arrangements for photographers carrying professional film (ISO 800 and above) – just contact us our your airline before travel.
Professional photographers requiring more detailed information can contact the BPLC on +44 (0)20 7739 6669"

I've travelled with 400 speed film from Stansted to Bodrum, Turkey (where the bags are scanned again) and back (so total of 4 passes) and have seen absolutely no defects when they were developed.
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Yeah, I've seen that and I hope that their estimate of 32 scans is accurate, but I have no way of knowing for certain. Moreover, I don't know if the other places where the film will get scanned along the way have x-ray machines of the same specifications.

I've thought about contacting the airport ahead of time, but I'll actually be flying out of Dublin and the airport website doesn't have any information about film or whom to contact in that regard.

As I've said, I've flown with film previously with no problems, I'll just need to see how it goes with the additional screenings the film will encounter on this trip. Fingers crossed that there are no visible effects.
 
steveo_mcg said:
Could you not stuff the faster films in to your trouser pocket before security.
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:lol:

Good luck with that, I was asked to show my dirty hanky to security when flying to Belfast at the weekend :)

The only time I had a bag of films hand-searched was flying out to NZ from Australia in 1999 and they refused to do the same once they were exposed on the way back.
 
I've been poking around Beijing for the past week and they've been very accommodating toward film, which is good news as x-ray scanners are absolutely everywhere here.

I even travelled through Beijing Capital Airport today and security staff actually insisted on hand checking once they saw I was carrying film.

Good stuff.
 
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