Dodged a bullet! Lucked out, second time. Airport baggage non-scanner.

[dmr]

To make a long story long here ... and this is really the second time this happened to me ...

Quick trip to Chicago last week. Originally set up on Untied into ORD but changed to Southwest into MDW, which does not charge for checked bags.

I had my just-under-the-carry-on-limit bag packed with the film in a baggie, all ready for a hand inspection with all rolls out of the cannisters, ready for them to scowl at me for requesting a hand inspection. 🙂

Anyway, since it was now on Southwest, I had planned on checking the bag to avoid having to schlep it all over the airport and intended to transfer the film and P&S to my carry-on tote, but I was running late and spaced it off! I realized it when I was waiting at the security checkpoint ready to pull out the baggie for hand inspection, and realized that it was somewhere in the bowels of the airport probably getting fried by the mega-power x-ray and me powerless to do anything about it. 🙁

I was actually feeling sick and depressed. I had maybe 12 rolls, mostly plain Fuji 200 and 400, but some 800 and 1600 and Astia too. I really didn't feel like shooting at all, very discouraged by the whole thing.

Anyway, the P&S had half a roll in it, so I finished it up and took it in to Walgreens for a DO to see how bad the situation was.

Surprise, surprise! Perfect! No base fog, no streaks like have been reported, and the few frames at the end which I intentionally left blank were totally clear, no fog, no dark blotches, no nothing! Totally unexposed.

It was very obvious that my check-in was not x-rayed at all!

This is the second time this has happened to me.

 

[shadowfox]

Denise,

That is a lucky break 🙂

As for hand-checks, having gone through more than a couple security checkpoints with film in my cameras, now I'm quite convinced that fog won't appear (or become detectable) in lower ASA films.

I think the TSA cut-off is 800 ASA, so I'd still hand-check 1600 and higher, but I won't bother next time because I mainly shoot 100 and 400 anyways.

 

[dmr]

I think the TSA cut-off is 800 ASA, so I'd still hand-check 1600 and higher, but I won't bother next time because I mainly shoot 100 and 400 anyways.

That's the party line.

One security supervisor told me that the newest machines are ok for several passes with 1600 film, and he rattled off a few airports which use them, which I promptly forgot. 🙂

If they follow the party line, they are to cheerfully do a hand inspection on request no matter what the speed is. They will typically swab off a few rolls and use the Nasty-Stuff-Detect-O-Matic machine. Not often, but occasionally they balk, and I had to ask for a supervisor once.

What I've noticed more and more the past few trips is that the inspectors seem to be taking more time checking the images on the scanner. They will do such things as hold the bag there, chat and point at the screen, and often times roll the belt backwards for another look and then forward again. I don't know if the beam is on for all the time the bag is under the scanner, but it appears that many bags may be getting 2-3 doses of x-ray at one time.

 

[ornate_wrasse]

I just flew to Washington, D.C. a week ago for my high school reunion. On the way to Washington, D.C. from Portland, OR
I did not bother to have them hand inspect any of my film. Most of it was 100 or 400 and all rolls were in my carry-on. I had forgotten about the roll of Neopan 1600 that was in my M6. On the way back, I asked them to hand inspect this roll, which by then had been exposed and was out of the camera. I just developed it last Tuesday and there were no indications of any kind of problem from the x-rays. Naturally, I was very relieved as most of the images were of my old classmates who attended the reunion.

Ellen

 

[40oz]

Airports vary the power of scanning machines. The also used to vary the sensitivity of metal detectors. The intention is to prevent a person from being able to predict what level of scanning is going to be.

So a person could be fine with one trip and not on another. There's no way to know if you bags aregoing to be scanned with the max power or rushed throughon minimum power.

 

[Beemermark]

Surprise, surprise! Perfect! No base fog, no streaks like have been reported, and the few frames at the end which I intentionally left blank were totally clear, no fog, no dark blotches, no nothing! Totally unexposed. It was very obvious that my check-in was not x-rayed at all!

Has it ever occurred to you that they were x-rayed?

(1) In 40 years I've never heard of anyone experience fogging after being x-rayed unless their film went thru 5 or 6 foreign airports on one trip.

(2) X-ray scanners have improved a lot over the years. A typical chest x-ray has 1/10 of the dose of the same x-ray ten years ago - and yields a much better scan. It's a good assumption that baggage scanners have improved also.

I used to fly a lot. I always took lots of film, mostly Kodachrome and Pan F. Never had a problem.

 

[bensyverson]

X-Ray machines put out a tiny fraction of the radiation that they used to, and ironically we have digital imaging to thank. The X-Ray sensors have improved in sensitivity just like DSLRs. I experienced fogging once in the 90s with some 16mm, but haven't had a problem since.

That said, I usually try to have TSA do hand inspections of film if they're willing. I've carried 8x10 through Midway, LaGuardia and SFO a few times, and they usually just swab it to test for explosives.

However, at the O'Hare international terminal recently, they pitched a real fit. They wanted to open a factory sealed box of Kodak 8x10. I explained that the only way they could do that was inside my changing tent, but the fact that they wouldn't be able to physically see the contents made them nervous. They said "anything below 800 ISO should be fine." That word "should" is not very reassuring when you're talking about a $100 box of film. Eventually they gave me a damage report form in case of fogging, and I let them put it through the scanner. Luckily, it was fine. In the future I'll just let them scan it if they want to do more than swab it.

I still wouldn't check film if I could help it, out of an abundance of caution.

 

[samuelphoto]

I've had that miserable sinking feeling in the past too, I know what you went through. Frankly, I would like to see some data. I have a hard time believing what the highly paid intellectuals that I encounter from the TSA have any clue what they are talking about. We all know they are just repeating what they've been told to say. Oh, and also, the effects of X-rays are cumulative. How many scans can film tolerate before fogging? Which machines, what dosages, which film, etc., etc. Here is what the TSA says. Lots of ifs and buts with no data. So let's see the facts, not somebody from the government telling me to in effect blindly trust them. Yeah, right.

For what it's worth, I always carry a long expired roll of Neopan 1600 just to avoid arguments over hand checks, which by the way, we are entitled to by law within the USA just for the asking.