Airport CT scanners

t I only use an iPhone anymore when traveling that includes riding on an airplane.

It’s easy to use and I can keep it in my pocket when out and about.

I never did much with the negatives anyway.
 
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AAlfano said:
I know airport security is necessary, but I have to believe the absurd level of government surveillance, intrusion, and general overreach in airports is conditioning people to accept more authoritarian government in general. Certainly the political spectrum in many countries has shifted far to the right in the years since 9/11. Sorry for the OT rant.
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This is the worst bit - it isn't necessary. The rise in airport security is completely non-sensical.

The rule allowing only 100ml bottles of fluids, for instance... if those bottles contain sarin (which has been used by terrorists before), just one bottle is more than enough to cause some serious issues (from Wikipedia: "Sarin has an LD50 of 550 micrograms per kilogram (0.0039 gr/lb), corresponding to 38.5 milligrams (0.594 gr) for a 70-kilogram (150 lb) human"; I don't know the density of sarin, but if we assume it's comparable to water at 1g = 1ml, 100ml is enough to kill 168 average adults if "correctly" dispersed).

Then there's explosives: airport security still checks shoes after one idiot tried to smuggle a bomb into them, and you're not allowed to take a "hoverboard" on a plane, but a fully-charged laptop battery still has more than enough energy to cause a lot of damage if intentionally shorted out. No one will take laptops away from business travellers, though.

The whole industry is just security theatre and nothing else.

Anyway! I just got back from a flight from Heathrow Terminal 5 to Berlin's new Brandenburg airport (Terminal 1). Neither end had CT scanners - just old fashioned x-ray machines. Staff at Heathrow said they would only hand-check anything that was 800 ISO or higher; anything below had to go through the machine. The Berlin airport hand-checked my film when I went through last year, but now just shrugged and said it was "safe". I was only carrying 100 ISO film, so I don't think I'll have any issues either way.
 
I am flying out of SFO to Tokyo with a few day’s layover in Hong Kong in a few weeks and want to bring 10 rolls of Portra 120 with me. So TSA has to hand check if requested? Maybe I should buy fresh film when I arrive. This is all giving me some anxiety. The film is short dated so I really want to use them up.
 
Rayt said:
I am flying out of SFO to Tokyo with a few day’s layover in Hong Kong in a few weeks and want to bring 10 rolls of Portra 120 with me. So TSA has to hand check if requested? Maybe I should buy fresh film when I arrive. This is all giving me some anxiety. The film is short dated so I really want to use them up.
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That is correct. TSA is required to hand check if you request it. Flying out of Tokyo or Hong Kong? Who knows! That info is probably available online, somewhere, though I would prepare for the worst in Hong Kong.
 
Retro-Grouch said:
That is correct. TSA is required to hand check if you request it. Flying out of Tokyo or Hong Kong? Who knows! That info is probably available online, somewhere, though I would prepare for the worst in Hong Kong.
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Before retiring I used to organize professional seminars in Asia so have flown out of Japan, Hong Kong, various cities in China and they all will hand inspect when requested. Poorer countries don’t have new scanners so it didn’t matter. Countries with terror issues will scan your film a dozen times in various stages so I stuffed them in my pants and I went as far as buying cargo pants for that. Narita didn’t have the CRT and I was there last year. In China I have flown out of the major cities and they seem to hire mostly 20 year old women for such checks regardless of airport and some do not know what is film. I show them a roll of 120 and they have never seen it before. I have brought sheet film through these airports and imagine me telling them not to open the boxes let alone alone explain what is film. I had to show them the camera so they knew what I was talking about. Honestly I would make a scene in a Chinese airport but I wouldn’t dare challenge authority in the U.S.
 
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A friend in China was telling me it was normal to handcheck his film on public transit like trains, etc. Did mention it gets annoying doing it so much, but routine.
 
AAlfano said:
I know airport security is necessary, but I have to believe the absurd level of government surveillance, intrusion, and general overreach in airports is conditioning people to accept more authoritarian government in general. Certainly the political spectrum in many countries has shifted far to the right in the years since 9/11. Sorry for the OT rant.
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Mute-on said:
Couldn’t agree more. So much hysterical, nonsensical BS. It is not logical, yet most are compelled to accept the intrusion without rebuttal, since you would quickly be vetoed. It is the ultimate form of oppression under the guise of protection. A very slippery slope.

I had a security staff query my M262 scan because it presented as ‘very dense’. I just explained it was all aluminium and he took another look at the scan and let me move on. I can’t imagine what a brass camera and lens combination would cause. I was just thrilled my camera stayed safely packed in its bag!
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I sort of mentioned this to Tokyocamerastyle, not airport related but he was sent 3 bulk rolls and one was open to inspect by DHL. There goes the film...
As a member of a younger generation (kid when 9/11 happened) and do live now in Scandinavia which has been historically relaxed in security matters. It's a bit of a side rant, but in lieu of terror there is even a total bag ban in large events; When 2 years ago I could bring all the photo equipment I wanted through in the same event. I was asked by a local radio about it, and just mentioned that to me it looked like what 2001-2007 was like during the war of terror. It's not as if such heightened alert was new, just another cycle. /rant off

About dense cameras, most of ours can alert some of the agents. Both my GW690 and Super Ikonta have been flagged (not many times) as "a lot of metal" shown. The super Ikonta gets interesting reactions because of its vintage.

As an entretainment lately I am watching travel videos, and being not so developed / new airports doesn't mean that much. Manila has some CT scanners in customs and departures (T1) while being one of the most outdated capital airports of Asia.

Rayt said:
I am flying out of SFO to Tokyo with a few day’s layover in Hong Kong in a few weeks and want to bring 10 rolls of Portra 120 with me. So TSA has to hand check if requested? Maybe I should buy fresh film when I arrive. This is all giving me some anxiety. The film is short dated so I really want to use them up.
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From what other forumers have written around, HKG seems to be quite cool. I actually chose to do a layover in HKG for my upcoming trip, also there are labs with quick turnaround there and will be able to develop before return. Or easily buy more, if hopefully there is stock. HK seems to have a lively film scene.
Another alternative I considered for the trip was through Beijing, and taking a hurried visit of the city; but it is mainland china being much more intense in security monitoring.
The most direct routing is through Dubai or Doha; the latter has CT scanners and mixed experiences. Anyhow with a lower fare, less X rays and a more interesting stopover I went for HK.
Had this discussion over at Photrio and another member gave the tip that HK might scan luggage on arrival, unknown tech. For customs I would as well request a hand check.
Have gotten somehow a Domke lead bag, but still, not enough for CT protection. For the minor and frequent trips within Asia, the Domke is for the traditional X rays.
 
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We have very courteous while still efficient TSA employees and service in Orlando (MCO) airport now. In 2016, the Orlando Aviation Authority notified that it was not going to need ANY TSA employees or service in the future because of their treatment of passengers. TSA had told the Airport Authority that it answered only to the Federal government, so tough luck. Orlando said that tourism was so key to the economy that the Airport Authority was going to take over all TSA functions with local employees that understood the need to be courteous. That meant ALL TSA employees would lose their job. Now, THAT got the attention of everyone at TSA and they asked for a period to become nice. They have been very pleasant while still effective ever since.
 
I just returned from a couple of weeks in Portugal and Barcelona. I can report that airport security in Porto refused to handcheck my film, telling me that I would have to fill out a form and get it certified if I wanted a handcheck in the future. I understand that Lisbon airport is the same, as both airports use the same machines to scan carry-on luggage. However, it may well be that those airports are using x-ray scanners instead of the CT scanners that will ruin film in a single pass. I’ll be dropping my color film off tomorrow for processing and will report back on the results.

We flew home from Barcelona. Airport security there also refused to handcheck my film, but pointed me to a plaque on the scanner that said it would not harm film under iso 1600. Again, we’ll see…

For those of you who are fans of the “I Dream of Cameras” podcast, co-host Jeff Greenstein was in Portugal a couple of weeks before we arrived, and encountered the same refusal to handcheck his color film (Portra 400 and Portra 160) at the Lisbon airport. He reports that he got his film processed at a lab at his next stop in Europe, and the film did not appear to have been damaged by the airport scanners. I’m keeping my fingers crossed …
 
As a long time and now former film shooter this is just another reason for me to be glad I left analog behind. I just do not need the hassle and grief. Weeks of photos fogged because I did not fill out a form? Come on. Air travel is unpleasant. This just makes it even worse, I am sorry you had to put up with this pettiness.
 
Bingley said:
I just returned from a couple of weeks in Portugal and Barcelona. I can report that airport security in Porto refused to handcheck my film, telling me that I would have to fill out a form and get it certified if I wanted a handcheck in the future.
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Barcelona is one of my frequent airports and they do not have CT scanners yet, but are planned to implement this year. Fun fact is that the T2 security area encountered a technical incident and they had to handcheck everything for a day. In all honesty, I never bothered with handchecks intra EU as have not encountered CT scanners yet in my routings, and shoot up to ISO400.

The Portuguese approach is fine, paperwork and bureaucracy? But there is a possibility and process. Sure that the US puts the final decision on the TSA agent, but it has the terms.
Linna Bessonova started an initiative to get the USA TSA like policy: Handcheckfilm
 
I was told by a photography store in Singapore that now all the airport scanners there are not safe for your film since they upgraded to I guess what you mentioned.
 
I've used the lead-lined film bags when traveling with film cameras ... Always pull them out and have them hand-inspected. But of course, I haven't flown anywhere with film cameras much in the past 20 years. I think 2003-2004 was the last time I went to the the Isle of Man with a film camera.

G
 
Retro-Grouch said:
In the past, TSA scanned carry-on luggage in airports with x-ray machines, and stated that films below ISO were safe to be scanned. My experience confirmed this. However, a number of airports are converting to CT scanners, and Kodak/Alaris has stated that these scanners are unsafe for any film; their recommendation is for hand inspection for all films when CT scanners are in use, or when you don't know what's being used.
I'll be traveling soon, and tried to research what type of scanner is in use in the airports I'll be passing through. It seems that TSA is not eager to share that information, for whatever their inscrutable reasons. I did find out that one of the airports I'll be using, Greene Airport in Providence, does have CT scanners in use. I propose that RFF users post here whenever they can confirm that a given airport uses CT scanners. Of course, it seems that CT technology is the next wave and will become universal.
Remember, in the US, you always have the right to a hand inspection of your film. Bear in mind that you may be required to open 35mm canisters or 120 foil packs, a bummer if you like to keep film frozen until ready to use. Once exposed to atmospheric humidity, re-freezing is not a good idea. Have your film in a zip-lock bag, and, depending on the whim of the TSA agent, they may just wave you through. Always be cooperative. There are many good TSA agents, but also many Neanderthal bullies with chips on their shoulders, and you don't want to antagonize them.
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I just flew Memphis to Atlanta to Cancun and back. It gave me a chance to go through security with my Contax G1 and film. It’s the first time I remember taking film on a trip. Security was accommodating at all 3 airports and clay hand checked my camera and film. I through it all in a ziplock in my camera back and just handed it to them and asked nicely.
 
p.giannakis said:
Any updates on this?
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The color film was unaffected by airport scanners. However, I have not yet encountered any of the new CT scanners in my travels. Apparently neither Porto nor Lisbon has installed them… yet. For now, summer of 2024, the Portuguese airports appear to be using older scanners, which do not affect film under 800 iso. But travelers to Portugal should be vigilant if they’re carrying film…
 
A quick update: Birmingham airport is now using the new CT scanners. I spoke with a security staff and said that they can damage film so we need to have them ready in a plastic bag and request hand check. He swiped them and gave them back to me.
 
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