Film in airport X-ray machines

[Hogarth Ferguson]

I have been through HUNDREDS of scanners, airport scanners, subway scanners, hotel scanners, train scanners, etc with my film over the years, zero problems.

Has it affected people? Sure, but sharks also eat people, yet people still go the beach.

I think this is mostly paranoia from people. I see the question "traveling with film what do I do?" almost weekly online, it get so annoying.

 

[Rob-F]

My roll of Delta 3200 (true ISO about 1000) went through the carry-on scanner twice--once in St. Louis and once in Houston--with no ill effects. That was about 2005.

 

[skibeerr]

Never had any problems with carry on.
Once I accidentally left film in my checked luggage and there was banding on all of them.

 

[x-ray]

Just took a trip to Cuba and back to Canada, my film and cameras were in my carry on. After I put my bag through the carry on x-ray machine in Montreal he security guards told me not to do that, oh well. Arriving in Cuba the guards couldn't have cared less about my film and camera when they X-rayed it. When we left they were X-rayed again.

So naturally of course all my film was ruined and I'm a full convert to digital?

Nah, film was fine, I never did any digital imaging in Cuba.

Why all the fear and lead lined bags?

Film was rollei rpx100 by the way.

My Neopan 400 was ruined from a 10 day trip to Italy. There was no question that it was in Paris that it happened. Security ran my bag in and out of the machine for several minutes trying to figure out what was in my bag.

I work with x-rays and am very familiar with the effects. There was a shadow of the metal lid along the film. It was very apparent not a slight fog but a wavy pattern. My 100 Acros was fine.

Never again film when flying.

 

[pschauss]

Some years ago on a flight from JFK to Paris my wife accidentally left her camera, loaded with a roll of Tri-X, in her checked bag. We did not use that roll, but I developed it when we returned just to see the effect of the X-rays. There was no evidence of fogging. Either we were just lucky or they did not actually x-ray her bag.

I am not advocating this as a standard practice but it is an interesting data point.

 

[sepiareverb]

...There was a shadow of the metal lid along the film. It was very apparent not a slight fog but a wavy pattern...

I've had this as well with 400, back in 2008, film that went from Oakland CA to Boston. (W)couldn't hand check because they were "backed up", so it went through the scanner. I had four rolls from a brick of HP5+ with me. Only those four rolls showed the wavy lines. My bag went back and forth on the machine as well. In my case the fog, which looked just like the waviest image below, was only on the last frames, so closest to the plastic spool. I had a scan of it but can't find it.

This is from Kodak:

 

[Out to Lunch]

Has anyone taken Fuji Instax film through airport scanners? Issues?

 

[ProSimex]

no to flog a dead horse of a thread, but I forgot to add another personal film/x-ray experience. Im a truck driver and regularly have to cross the border into the United States, and of course I always have a film camera with me.

So some of you may have noticed large truck sized shacks at the border crossings, these are Giant X-ray machines for trucks. You pull into the shack, get out and wait outside and they nuke your truck to see if there are any hidden compartments that they should know about. Ive left my camera and backup film in my truck cab every time I've gone through these because hopping out of a truck with something metallic in your hand around border guards is just not something people with an aversion to being shot do. I can only imagine the level of power they blast away with those X-ray machines , but again, Ive never had a problem.

 

[dmr]

The one I always remember is about 10 years ago at Midway. The agent specifically mentioned photo film and asked if I had any in my checked bag, warning me that it would be nuked. I said no.

Then as I was walking to the gate I remembered that I had a partially-exposed roll of Fuji 800 in the Pentax in the checked bag. I felt kinda sick about it but I figured it was too late.

I took it in for a DO without shooting the rest of it, thinking it would be fogged beyond hope. Nope! Normal frames of what I had shot with totally clear base and unexposed frames. No fog, no dark streaks, no damage.

My guess is that they only did the full x-ray to some bags and mine was not scanned due to the luck of the draw.

 

[x-ray]

I've had this as well with 400, back in 2008, film that went from Oakland CA to Boston. (W)couldn't hand check because they were "backed up", so it went through the scanner. I had four rolls from a brick of HP5+ with me. Only those four rolls showed the wavy lines. My bag went back and forth on the machine as well. In my case the fog, which looked just like the waviest image below, was only on the last frames, so closest to the plastic spool. I had a scan of it but can't find it.

This is from Kodak:

The second sample down is exactly what mine looked like.

 

[x-ray]

no to flog a dead horse of a thread, but I forgot to add another personal film/x-ray experience. Im a truck driver and regularly have to cross the border into the United States, and of course I always have a film camera with me.

So some of you may have noticed large truck sized shacks at the border crossings, these are Giant X-ray machines for trucks. You pull into the shack, get out and wait outside and they nuke your truck to see if there are any hidden compartments that they should know about. Ive left my camera and backup film in my truck cab every time I've gone through these because hopping out of a truck with something metallic in your hand around border guards is just not something people with an aversion to being shot do. I can only imagine the level of power they blast away with those X-ray machines , but again, Ive never had a problem.

The machines you drive a truck into are backscatter machines. I'm not sure of the quantity of radiation but the energy level has to be quite high to penetrate the outer shell and contents.

 

[sepiareverb]

The second sample down is exactly what mine looked like.

Yep. (ten characters)

 

[x-ray]

After hAving it happen once I'm not willing to risk it happening again.

I used to fly to a lot of assignments and always removed my film from the boxes and canisters or foil wrappers (120) and put it in clear plastic bags. I often traveled with 60-100 rolls or more. Most of my film was 100 or 64 ISO but explaining I'm a professional and my jobs are critical and very expensive if ruined. Generally security was happy to hand inspect.

Sheet film was another problem. Mount back from San Francisco security insisted on x-Raying or me opening several 100 sheet boxes of unexposed and e posed film. Security was just being jerks. The unexposed film still had the factory seals unbroken. In the end they took me to a room that could be totally darkened and I with a couple of agents opened each box, tore open the foil packs and they felt the film in each packet.

The problem with taking a chance on a job like this is it could cost tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars to reshoot. That's not to mention missing deadlines and losing a multi million dollar client (ad agency) plus missing a deadline on ad space in magazines that can run in the six digets too.

I'm a pilot and it got to the point I'd fly myself to jobs if in the south east just to avoid security issues. Greater distances I'd charter a private jet. Fly private there's no security checks. You come and go at your convenience and travel in style and comfort.

 

[x-ray]

One thing about digital, it's made travel much easier. It's not easy but one worry you don't have is your film being ruined.

On all shoots, large and small, I carry a 13" MacBook Pro and review every image before leaving the job. If the client is there I get them to review them as well. I always backup my files to a large flash drive and if it's a major shoot I also back them up on a portable hard drive as well. I have them in 3 places before I leave the location. I've found that you can never cover your butt enough because there's always a gremlin out there ready to destroy you and your work. Even in the film days on big jobs I'd backup my work on another camera on the next smaller format. If I shot 4x5 I'd backup with 120.

 

[Hogarth Ferguson]

Has anyone taken Fuji Instax film through airport scanners? Issues?

I have, no issues.

 

[MikeMGB]

Has anyone taken Fuji Instax film through airport scanners? Issues?

Yes, I put some through three carry-on x-ray machines earlier this year, no problems at all. I have come across someone who has had Instax x-rayed 5 times with no issues, you really have nothing to worry about.

 

[Rayt]

Resurrecting old thread. Airports are now using the new 3D scanners which look like the CT scanners at hospitals. The 3D scanners take hundreds (?) of images of the carry-on to form a 3D image. And while I have never seen ill effects from normal X-ray machines I haven’t found anything online whether these 3D scanners are film safe.

 

[creenus]

People should not worry about this. I've traveled through many airports and never had any ill effects on my film: slide film, black and white, color print. Life is too short to fret about silly stuff like this, IMO.

 

[jamin-b]

People should not worry about this. I've traveled through many airports and never had any ill effects on my film: slide film, black and white, color print. Life is too short to fret about silly stuff like this, IMO.

My experience as well. YMMV.

Sent from my HTC U11 using Tapatalk

 

[Ted Striker]

Resurrecting old thread. Airports are now using the new 3D scanners which look like the CT scanners at hospitals. The 3D scanners take hundreds (?) of images of the carry-on to form a 3D image. And while I have never seen ill effects from normal X-ray machines I haven’t found anything online whether these 3D scanners are film safe.

It says right on them that they are film safe.