takeda72
Established
I was wondering if someone here had any experiences on film in checked baggage in the US.
Thank.
Thank.
brachal
Refrigerated User
Never put unprocessed film in checked baggage. Those scanners are guaranteed to ruin it.
takeda72
Established
newsgrunt
Well-known
yep. pooched. good for testing lenses and such but that's about it.
dmr
Registered Abuser
Yes, unfortunately, but I lucked out!
This was checking in at Chicago Midway, post-911, during the days where you checked in at the counter and then dragged your bags to the scanning area for scanning and/or inspection.
When I handed in the bag, the agent there asked if I had any film inside. I said no, not remembering ...
When I got home and unpacked, I realized that there was a mostly finished roll of Fuji 800 or 1600, forget exactly which, still in the Pentax which was in a camera bag inside the suitcase. I got this sick sinking feeling, thinking that the film was toasted, and that it represented the better part of an afternoon, and I would not be returning for several months.
I took the film to the lab where I take my semi-important stuff and asked them to develop it, then see if it was fogged, and if it was, don't attempt to print or CD it.
Surprise, surprise! It was perfect! No fog, no streaks or anything unusual. It obviously had not gone through any x-ray. I figure they either x-rayed a certain amount of the bags, or else hand inspected mine. This was before they started putting those "inspected by number 12" slips inside.
Bottom line, I was LUCKY! If you google, you can see examples of film that was intentionally or unintentionally scanned by those baggage x-ray machines.
Gumby
Veteran
Yes, Jon, that is a fact... but my statement remains factual - nobody is fighting.
Gumby
Veteran
The baggage scanners are quite the crapshoot these days. The newer baggage scanners don't use CT on every bag every time. They use regular X-ray, like the hand-check scanners, and upon "need or operator-request" hit the bag with CT technology. It is the CT that ruins the film. One never knows whether the baggage scanner our bags are headed to is an older one or newer one, or if the CT will be applied or not. You were lucky!
dmr
Registered Abuser
At the time, the one at Midway near the Southwest check-in was definitely the circular tunnel type and looked similar to a clinical CT or MRI scanner.
What you say makes sense now, they probably didn't see anything in there on the conventional x-ray and didn't have a need to CT it.
Very!
