TAKING FILM ABROAD

Scrulooose

Scrulooose

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Ollie
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I am heading out to Croatia next week for a month of cycling and festivals. I've got 12 rolls ready for the trip but i was curious what the deal was with taking film through the scanners at the airport.

Will they be ok with today's modern xray scanners?

Thanks in advance!
 
Hi,

I went to Fuertaventura a few weeks ago and took a couple of boxes of Velvia/Provia. Keep them in your hand luggage as I was advised the hold luggage X-rays are higher power so offer more risk but I had no issues with mine in hand luggage. The only other advice I was given was to remove the films (120) from their individual foil packets before you travel to save any questions around, "what's in the sealed packets?"

Cheers
Steve
 
wicked thanks steve!
I went to Dubai last year and i took some 400H 120 in my hand luggage and it was fine.

Looks like i'm gonna have to repack! ha
 
In my experience, I've never had any problems travelling with film in my hand luggage with films ISO 400 or slower.

I usually travel with my 120 film still in their original boxes and foil wrappers as well.
 
ive just got a fair few rolls to take and i'd rather take them in my actual luggage than hand luggage..
 
Scrulooose said:
ive just got a fair few rolls to take and i'd rather take them in my actual luggage than hand luggage..
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DO NOT put them in your checked luggage. The advice is absolutely clear on this one - if you put it in your checked luggage, it will be exposed to x-rays which will fog and destroy the film.

Hand luggage is completely fine - travelled with film many times with no problems with fogging.
 
freecom2 said:
DO NOT put them in your checked luggage. The advice is absolutely clear on this one - if you put it in your checked luggage, it will be exposed to x-rays which will fog and destroy the film.

Hand luggage is completely fine - travelled with film many times with no problems with fogging.
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^^^^ This! Definitely not in your checked luggage.
 
The advice regarding high ISOs, lead lined bags and all that stuff is still up for debate - and you'll find contradictory advice across the internet on it - but hand luggage only is pretty much uniform advice.
 
Just to add:- in the hand luggage I took Fuji 1600 asa to Spain and back with no problem.
 
excalibur2 said:
Just to add:- in the hand luggage I took Fuji 1600 asa to Spain and back with no problem.
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Hmmm... interesting... I've always wondered if I could get away with Portra 800 going through the x-ray scanners, but haven't been willing to take the risk of ruining my holiday photos to test it.
 
skysh4rk said:
Hmmm... interesting... I've always wondered if I could get away with Portra 800 going through the x-ray scanners, but haven't been willing to take the risk of ruining my holiday photos to test it.
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Well if it did affect the film I couldn't see "how" in my shots as they looked alright to me......maybe someone knows what are the effects of mild Xrays on a film. :shrug:
 
Never had a problem.

Always taken film through with hand luggage except for once when returned from the UK to France with a dozen rolls of unexposed 200 iso film which were transported in the hold luggage......again, no obvious ill effects from X-Ray....perhaps i was lucky.
 
I use hand luggage but there are some seriously large x ray scanners on the entrance to the chunnel these days - considerably larger than those that normally look at your hand luggage! I suppose they need to be to xray the lorries and coaches that go through but slightly overkill for me on a bike.
 
I always carried my film in hand baggage and some of it went through HB scanners several times before use with no ill effects (a mixture of brands and types from 100 print to 400 slide - all 35mm). I was once advised to avoid the lead bags since it was known that the power of the scanners was turned up to penetrate them or people were made to empty the bags for a hand search/check.
 
Wicked cheers. I will put all the film into my hand luggage for sure!
 
You could also ask at security check if it's possible for them to be hand searched rather than scanned - but that is possibly overkill since the scanning shouldn't hurt the films anyway! After all, dentists, radiographers (or is it radiologists?) all leave the room or wear lead aprons when their machines are running but the scanner operators seem to sit there for hours in normal kit!
 
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