Incident at Denver Airport

In my travels, not only do I carry only ISO 400 film, but I pass it through the scanner (it's in ziplock plastic bags, together with my gear). Most FAQ I get: "Are you a professional?"

Never have I had a problem with film being fogged or ruined. And the one and only time I forgot to have a very fast film hand-inspected (it was a T-Max ISO 3200), the thing didn't show any sign of trouble either! 😱

I would never bother to ship my film back ahead of me. That'd be enough to make me chew my fingernails to the bone! 🙂
 
The decision to request hand inspection is often situation specific. You can be casual where your photography is incidental to primary purpose of the trip. But when the primary purpose of the trip is to make photos, care of your film becomes a different priority. No way am I going to spend two weeks of my time and expense traveling somewhere just to photograph and not look after my film as best as I can.

Many years ago, I was returning on an international flight and ran into a National Geographic photographer. He was guarding a Halliburton case with his life. I commented how he was watching his equipment. He told me that was only his film and that he had just checked all his cameras and lenses. He explained that NG could replace all the equipment but not the film he had shot.
 
Neare said:
What was the result of this? Did you get him to do a hand check or submit to the xray?
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In a later post she (Ellen) replied " I ended up deciding to send it all through the carry on scanner" She is less insistent that I would have been. I have never allowed my film to be x-rayed although that may not always be the case in foreign countries.
 
roboflick said:
send it through the carry on scanner and dont worry, Not worth the stress, I've had 3200 iso film through the scanner 5 times without any noticeable fogging,
Nik
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SolaresLarrave said:
And the one and only time I forgot to have a very fast film hand-inspected (it was a T-Max ISO 3200), the thing didn't show any sign of trouble either! 😱
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That's great news!

I'm in Colombia right now and here I can't buy P3200... Some days ago I found a roll of P3200 inside my vest, and I know I wore the vest the day I flew here, so my only P3200 roll passed through the carry-on machine... I was about to throw it when I discovered it! Today I saw it again in a drawer!

Thank you both!


Cheers,

Juan
 
I always had my film hand checked.
I never had any issues, to have been granted the XRay free handling … until this summer in Paris, when a friendly bunch of French security people decided, to take a not exposed brick of TriX400 (which I always shoot @ 3200) + my loaded cameras and exposed film and just shove it through the XRay machine, when I was not looking.

They indeed played, doing a hand check and were unfortunately too busy, chewing their nails and reading the newspaper, to actually do the check, instead just shove it through.

I was in rage. The unexposed brick sits now in the fridge, marked with big black crosses for exposure at low speeds only.

Next time I fly, I will print labels of "ISO 12800" film and will relabel all my film for the nice people at the airport.

In all other airports (except Istanbul) I only met the most friendly and helpful people, doing a little smalltalk and happily complying to a hand check (from GB to inner China).
 
PKR said:
They did a few years ago. It was very common in EU airports. Anything that was in a container that wasn't hand inspected that went through the scanner was seen. The output on those machines is variable. I've seen Demos. Maybe the newer units are different. RapiScan is making the newer units?

http://www.rapiscansystems.com/
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What you saw in the EU was most likely not the intensity being changed, but the contrast being changed in signal processing.

EU labour regulations won't allow anyone to work 8 hours a day with nothing but a bit of rubber between you and an X-ray source that is capable of piercing through lead bags.
 
I've had an inspector refuse once, but a supervisor then did the hand inspection and demonstrated the Detect-O-Matic nasty stuff detector machine.

What kind of convinces me that a hand inspection is (still) the way to go is that every so often when they check a carry-on bag with the x-ray, the agent will reverse the belt, scan the bag several times, then call a supervisor over, and they both sit there and scan it back and forth and stand there and point and such with the beam on.

I'm sure that in those cases the packed film will get many times the usual dose.
 
The funniest incident I have had was last month departing Havana Cuba. Although they have no provisions for hand inspection of film, I always ask and eventually receive it.

I handed a zip-loc bag of 50 rolls of 35mm film to the inspector saying I did not want it to be x-rayed and put my camera bag on the belt to the x-ray machine. They got so excited that the x-ray found a disposable cigarette lighter in my camera bag that they did not bother with the film and passed it through uninspected.

What is even funnier is that my camera bag contained 2 disposable cigarette lighters but they only saw one. And, this was my 14th time through their inspection, always with a lighter in my camera bag, but first time they found one.
 
Refused hand inspection at de Gaulle Airport

Refused hand inspection at de Gaulle Airport

I asked to have my 14 rolls of 400 ISO film hand inspected at deGaulle. Even though I was checking in a full two hours before flight time to JFK, the French woman security official refused to hand inspect my film and was quite rude, insisting that my films had to pass through the regular X-ray scanning machine. The developed rolls were OK, anyway, but I always thought that a polite verbal request wouldn't be denied. I was mistaken.
 
kkdanamatt said:
I asked to have my 14 rolls of 400 ISO film hand inspected at deGaulle. Even though I was checking in a full two hours before flight time to JFK, the French woman security official refused to hand inspect my film and was quite rude, insisting that my films had to pass through the regular X-ray scanning machine. The developed rolls were OK, anyway, but I always thought that a polite verbal request wouldn't be denied. I was mistaken.
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That can be a thankless job, but, how many of these TSA of similar agents are hired without a basic background in security. You know, hired [off the streets] and given a 1 hour video to watch and sign off on. It just makes it harder for the understanding customers that are trying to be civil in un-civil times
 
andredossantos said:
Ive always been granted a hand check. Well, once I was denied upon entering Cuba. Countless other times both domestically here in the US and outside the US I have never been refused a hand check.
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That's not been my experience flying through Heathrow (London) over the last 10 years - they flatly refuse hand inspection of film no matter what the ISO.

Until recently at least, I thought hand inspection of film was a passenger's right in the US, maybe things have changed
 
When I shot film regularly I have had airport security staff almost refuse to hand inspect my film. I vividly recall one old harridan sneeringly chastise me for asking for it to be inspected by hand and making some inane comment about hoping I was never subjected to terrorism. (The non sequiter of the year!) I reached the conclusion after a number of such incidents that these staff are probably a bit harrassed by the volume of people they have to process and are not trained to be customer service people. And maybe some of them are just a wee bit envious of all us people who swan off to foreign climes on holidays while they are stuck at the airport.
 
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What the airline employees think of TSA agents

What the airline employees think of TSA agents

Last year on a US domestic flight I realized I still had my little folding knife in my pocket while waiting in the TSA inspection line. So I went back to the airline employee who had checked my clothes bag, asking her if she could retrieve it so I could place my pocket knife into the checked bag.

This major US airline employee replied "those TSA people are dumber than sh*t" (her exact words) and told me to place my pocket knife into my camera bag right next to a camera body. She told me that they would not recognize it on the x-ray. She was correct. Oh yes, they did not x-ray my film.
 
Bob Michaels said:
In a later post she (Ellen) replied " I ended up deciding to send it all through the carry on scanner" She is less insistent that I would have been. I have never allowed my film to be x-rayed although that may not always be the case in foreign countries.
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Bob is very observant! Yes, I did decide this time to send the cameras and film through the scanner. However, on past trips, I have been extremely insistent on having my film scanned and have not taken "no" for an answer.

I am still of the opinion that this TSA employee was too lazy and that's why he told me that ridiculous line that a hand inspection had a greater chance of ruining the film than if it went through the x-ray machine .

Now, in my case, this story has a happy ending. I developed the two rolls of black and white film in the darkroom the other day and there were no signs whatsoever that the film had been damaged. One roll was medium format Fuji Acros and the other roll was 35mm Legacy Pro 400 ISO. Both came out fine.

As for the color film (2 rolls Velvia 50 in 120 and one roll of Ektar 100 35mm), I just mailed it off today to Precision Camera so I won't know until I get the film back.

After I made my original post, I saw the poll where folks were asked for their actual experiences. It seems that the great majority had no problems with film going through the carry on x-ray machine. Only a few people reported problems with damaged film.

Ellen
 
Bob Michaels said:
Ellen: you must tell us if you went to St. Augustine. Or, Fernandina Beach? Forget all that business stuff, how was the fun part of your trip to Florida?
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Bob, I apologize for not letting you know the outcome. I've been meaning to send you a PM to tell you what happened.

I ended up going to St. Augustine and the Spanish Fort in that city. One very small reason was that I have a Senior National Parks Pass and was able to use it at the Spanish Fort in St. Augustine to get in for free. I would not have been able to use it at State Park (Ft. Clinch?) near Fernandina Beach. But THE REAL REASON I went to St. Augustine is an interesting story as follows:

I got on the plane in Portland, OR and was seated near a man who I spoke with. He got off the plane in Las Vegas, as I did, and then he also took the flight from Las Vegas to Jacksonville. Then, when I checked in at the hotel in Jacksonville, this same man was also checking in ! We exchanged information, surprised at the coincidence, and found that both his conference and my conference ended at noon on Wednesday. To make a long story short, we ended up headed to St. Augustine together on Wednesday along with his brother, who had flown in from upstate New York to join him. They had a car and the whole thing just worked out very well 😀 I ended up admitting all three of us with my Senior Pass after he treated me to a delicious lunch. They had wanted to go to St. Augustine and I, of course, didn't complain, although, to be honest, I did mention to him what you had said about Fernandina Beach.

Ellen
 
ornate_wrasse said:
....................... I ended up going to St. Augustine and the Spanish Fort in that city. One very small reason was that I have a Senior National Parks Pass and was able to use it at the Spanish Fort in St. Augustine to get in for free. I would not have been able to use it at State Park (Ft. Clinch?) near Fernandina Beach. But THE REAL REASON I went to St. Augustine is an interesting story as follows: ......................... Ellen
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Ellen: Fantastic that everything worked out so well for you.
 
Bob Michaels said:
Ellen: Fantastic that everything worked out so well for you.
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Yep, it had an interesting way of working out.

As far as the fun part of the trip, I went to Denver on Thursday to visit my daughters and on Saturday we went to Rocky Mountain National Park. I got some great images at the Park and I'll be posting some of them here soon.

I mentioned in another thread that I found out my daughter in Denver is pregnant with her first child, so I will be a grandma for the first time in February 🙂
 
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