Help! Airlines advice needed

H

Huck Finn

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I'm flyint across country to San Diego tomorrow./ Anything I need to know about taking a camera with the new regulations?

Can I take it as a carry-on? Will film be ruined when it goes through the x-ray?

Am I better off taking my Zeiss Ikon of my Nikon FM3a SLR? The very compact 45/2.8P - as in "pancake" - lives on my FM3a so there is no size difference between the two. My real concern is whether a bumpy airplane ride will throw the rangefinder out of alignment. Especially if they will not allow it as a carry-on & throw it in with the rest of the baggage.

Any advice, info, or suggestions are welcome.

Huck
 
It is not a problem. Give your film to the xray man and ask him/her to hand check them. that is all. I do it all the time. Do not check them with your bags (really bad xray). You can check the rest but much better to hand carry the glass.
 
Shouldn't be a problem to carry on, Huck. Take the Nikon if you are worried about the bumps. Carry film
and camera with you. Use a single carry-on bag, camera inside. For 400ASA and less, no problems with
the film - even when they go through xray. For more sensitive film, have it hand-checked. Do not check
the film with your luggage. I fly from CA <-> Vermont all the time and have either M6 or XA with me
like this. They might ask you to take a photo or allow them to look through the camera.

Cameras are OK. What changed is that fluids (like tooth paste, contact lens fluid, etc) and a flash might
cause issues.

Have a good flight,

Roland.
 
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I recently flew from seattle to tokyo to guangzhou to chongqing, just ask for hand checks on your film. Rangefinders and bumps are not a problem, my bessa r2a, 2 yashica gsn's, and a olympus xa survived without any problems at all.
 
Hi... I used to fly to the UK a lot; have never had RF alignment
problems from normal air turbulence and landings. It is normal to
have a camera body or two+ lenses in carry-on luggage.

Re: film checks; yes the consensus from this and other posts I've seen
is; ask for hand checks of film. And, don't take any D-76 :rolleyes:

Safe travels and have a great time.
mike
 
Hi,

in the last months or so i flew twice back to europe.
The ZI survived both flights well (except me dropping it........). I usually try to put my jacket under the camera containing bag (in the overhead compartment)
So no worries and enjoy!

Ciao

joerg
 
The only problem I've ever had with flying was that the rear element of my Nokton 50 unscrewed itself on a transatlantic flight. Luckily, when I changed lenses I had the camera pointing up, so the rear element was sitting on the shutter blades and not falling to the pavement. I've taken ISO 400 film through many x-ray scanners, and even once put a few rolls in my checked baggage with no ill effects.

I haven't travelled in the US recently, but I think this good advice is applicable everywhere: be prepared, polite, and patient.
 
Just get a proper bag for it and you'll be able to take it as a carry one. On my recent flight, I took a LowePro Computrekker Plus bag, I put in there:

2 DSLR bodies, Yashica TLR, 4 lenses, flash, grd, laptop, hard drive, flash meter, 2 chargers, batteries... weighted about 25-30lbs..
 
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I've recently had mixed results when asking for a hand check of film. Sometimes they'll do it. Other times, if I don't have film faster than 400 in the bag, they'll ask me to just run it through the machine. Never had any problems from xray exposure myself, so no worries.

No harm in asking, but if they won't don't press the issue.

Btw - if you take MF film, they are likely to tear open the foil on each and every roll.

LF film I take readyloads and polaroid type55, and have one dummy/ruined one, so I can show them what it is and why they shouldn't pull them open.
 
I think this business of finders going out of alignment on planes is one of those internet stories that have mushroomed from a very small sample of people who have experienced it. I've flown back & forth to Europe several times with RFs and never had a problem, and I don't know anyone else who has either.
 
ferider said:
For 400ASA and less, no problems with
the film - even when they go through xray. For more sensitive film, have it hand-checked.
Click to expand...

What happens when you push film and then send it through x-rays? If I have a (hypothetical) roll of Tri-X that I rated at 1600, should it be checked (and refer to it as 1600EI film? or can it safely go through the x-rays?
 
I have had a Rolleiflex TLR gotten messed up on a flight from Japan to the USA. I took some photos of some friends just to find out a week later that the mirror below the focusing screen had moved and so I was focusing on wrong distances. The camera was nicely padded in a camera bag with me onboard.

Raid
 
I managed to run two rolls of 3200 Tmax through the carry on xray.. TWICE... and had no effects what so ever from it. Images turned out just fine. I wouldn't recommend that though! I run 400 through quite often though with no problems. I had a few rolls that went through 5-6 times and still developed perfectly fine.

Last weekend I had my camera around my neck the whole time and they didn't care. I was even using it on the plane!
 
Has anyone here ever had film ruined by airport x-rays? I ask because people say it fogs film, but does it make the whole roll turn out black, or does it make your images over exposed by a stop or two? I've never had it happen to me, and have started to put it into the "urban myth" category.
 
mpt600 said:
Has anyone here ever had film ruined by airport x-rays? I ask because people say it fogs film, but does it make the whole roll turn out black, or does it make your images over exposed by a stop or two? I've never had it happen to me, and have started to put it into the "urban myth" category.
Click to expand...
I've never had it happen to me either, but then I generally carry film between 100 and 400 ISO. I had some Neopan 1600 x-rayed in Madrid a couple of years ago but it was fine - only one pass through the machine. The effect is cumulative so you need multiple passes and higher speed films are more susceptible than lower. There may be other variables (such as make of machine) but I am not aware of them.
 
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