Airport Trouble!

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timothyd

TimothyD
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Jan 14, 2008
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On my flight from Paris to Florence Air France would not let me go through the security without putting all of my film under 400 through the xray. Then they opened almost every film container of 3200 that I had.

My ilford 400 should be fine. But they made me put my Kodachrome 64 through the machine as well. Apparently Air France policy that everything below 400 be put through. Did they ruin my 20 rolls of Kodachrome? Has anyone xrayed Kodachrome and had nothing happen? Or does anyone know anything about this? Thanks.
 
nah, you shouldn't have any problems with stuff under 400 going through...but France is notoriously evil about shoving film through x-ray machines. I went through Paris on a return trip a few years back and they shoved all my 1600 neopan through the x-ray...good news was none of it was affected.

edit: from what i recall, i think anything under 400 can pass through the x-ray machines about 4 times before noticeable fogging occurs.
 
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My experience is that Airport in Frankfurt puts everything under 1600 through the x-ray machine. I've never had problems with this with 400 and 1600 films, always x-rayed max. 2 times. I wouldn't be worried about KR64 in your place at all.
 
I've had 400 go through with check-on six times without any problem. There again, it was exposed with a Holga.
 
One more note, as there is only one Kodachrome processing facility in the world, a lot of films are mailed to them and are scanned several times. I think someone would notice.
 
At any airport, normally i always get the reply that it is safe under iso 1600 and that's the end of the story - i have to obey.
Sometimes i have delta3200, they check that manually if i want but the rest still goes through the machine.
However i never - NEVER - had any problems with fogging. Even with neopan 1600 flying from Amsterdam to Maui and back. Five times through the machine.
I also had Kodachrome 64 with me. Kodachrome is very slow film. It's nothing magic, it just behaves like any slow speed film. Even less danger.
 
Buy a lead bag if you are going to be having these problems, because if they see it in there they will have to pull it out to check it, bingo, hand check.

But I have traveled all over asia with film, the only place I ever had problems was in Japan where after I requested hand check the person just shoved the dish through the xray anyway. I made sure he knew I was upset.

In the states and in China I have never had any issues at all.
 
sjw617 said:
I wonder if using the lead bags in your carry on luggage will cause you to be pulled out of line and subject to extra scrutiny.
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Its funny, I have film go through carry on xray multiple times regulary - max on 400 speed for me so far is 16x with nothing noticeable - and I use a lead lined bag just because i have one. Never ever been stopped or checked with film in it. But empty, Ive been pulled up and questioned a few times. I can usually get them to show me on screen what they're after and when I pull it out their response is always the same "nah! its not that!". After I manage to get them to pass just the bag though the machine again they eventually concede. (This is mostly throughout Asia)
 
cruz said:
Lead bag is bad idea, they will just increase the amount of xray to find out what's inside.
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What a complete load of rubbish! Operators cannot increase the level of xrays on carry on scanners. Know what you're talking about before you post useless information.
 
I've carried KR64 through airport XRay machines, in the UK and SE Asia, many times and have seen no ill effects.

France is notoriously evil...
Click to expand...
Many a true word is spoken in a quote taken out of context :D
 
Airport Trouble!

Just to share with you all my experience.

I always thought that getting a X-ray bag can solve all these airport trouble. So, I go ahead to get a Domke X-ray bag. During my last trip to Taiwan (from S'pore), I put my film in the X-ray bag, of course, and put my FM2 (without lense) beneath the X-ray bag.

When I put my hand-carried luggage into the X-ray machine, guess what. The officer detected the X-ray bag and show to me on the screen. Opps! I could see very very clearly my film rolls inside the X-ray bag and more importantly my FM2 beneath the X-ray bag!!

So, by now, I'm not so sure how much can the X-ray bag protect our film from the x-ray.
 
Thanks everyone for all your responses. Now I feel much better. I put off shooting more K64 worried that it was bad. Thanks again.
 
A valid concern, considering that the checked baggage scan can produce a uniformly black film after development. I've had several students place a camera or exposed films into checked baggage and end up with completely black films. Good students, who wouldn't look at the film before loading it to be sure it isn't dirty. SO there is exposure from x-rays given to the films, and it would seem to be a matter of strength and/or cumulative exposure. X-Ray film is silver based, so x-ray exposure can expose films. We are talking a matter of degrees.

Secondly, one persons 'fine' after thirty-five runs through a machine may not be another's.
 
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