Hand inspection of film (airports) in East Asia

[kaiwasoyokaze]

I thought there was a thread on it, (but i didn't really search too hard)

I wanted to share some experience on requesting hand inspection for airports that i went to in (south)east asia.

hong kong is great for requesting hand inspection regardless of speed. they check them all and you're past the gate really quick. really efficient.

korea

incheon airport (seoul) and gimhae (busan) sucks for hand inspection, regardless of your film speed they tell you to put it through the scanner.

taiwan

taipei and kaohsiung (2nd largest city) both have a sign above their scanner, they will hand inspect film above iso 3200 but anything less they tell you to put it through.

indonesia

jakarta, surabaya, and bali airports all require you to put your film through irregardless of film speed.

canada

in tmy hometown of vancouver YVR airport, all film speeds are scanned irregardless.

 

[noisycheese]

I passed through Incheon airport x2 in September of 2013. I put my film through the x-ray machine - in Domke lead film shield bags. The scope dopes saw the big black squares and then hand inspected them.

On the second pass through, I opened one of the Domke bags, pulled out the ziploc bag inside and showed the security guy the film. He said "ok" and let the other two pouches go through without inspecting them. 😱

I'm glad I wasn't a terrorist with bombs in my two unchecked film pouches...

 

[v3cron]

Tokyo's Narita and Haneda are both very cool about hand inspection of 400 speed film. No problems.

Not Asian, but NY's JFK has also ALWAYS hand inspected my film when requested with no pushback at all. Paris's CDG was very rude and adamant about putting my exposed 50 rolls through the machine. Luckily there was no visible damage, but I will get my film developed before leaving next time.

 

[magicianhisoka]

Singapore's Changi Airport doesn't do hand inspection of film either. So that can go onto the list 🙂

 

[Spicy]

I've had no issues at Incheon (Seoul, South Korea) - they've been fine about hand inspections. I've been through there 8 times in the past 3 years and every time I have asked for a hand inspection, they have obliged me.

 

[craygc]

indonesia

jakarta, surabaya, and bali airports all require you to put your film through irregardless of film speed.

Never had any trouble (when I'm bothered to ask) and I travel there regularly. Just came back through Jakarta yesterday and they were obliging on only FP4 still in canisters. Last time in Surabaya was no issues either.

Singapore's Changi Airport doesn't do hand inspection of film either. So that can go onto the list 🙂

Strange, again, I live here and I've never had any trouble requesting a hand inspection.

 

[Spud10]

Korea:

Incheon, never had any problems with hand inspections. They've always complied. Average about 4 times a year.

Jeju Island, no problem here with hand inspections either.


China:

Beijing, only once, they allowed a hand inspection but made a big fuss of it. Had to wait a while and they thought my rolleiflex was a rocket launcher (no kidding).

Shanghai, always had to toss it through scanners


Vietnam:

Hanoi, Danang and Saigon always required scanning, EVEN when I was carrying 1600 Superia and 3200 Delta. I was not a happy camper...

Cambodia:

Phnom Penh, allowed hand inspection but this was 2009. Things may have changed.

Bangladesh:

Dhaka allowed hand inspections but they seemed mildly annoyed by the extra work required and seemingly only hand checked it because I wasn't going anywhere.

India:

Kolkata, allowed hand inspection but were not happy about it and were considerably confused by the concept of film. Had to wait for 15 minutes for someone to show up and fondle my rolls for a few minutes before letting me pass.

Whew, hope that helps 🙂

 

[Pikapig]

Singapore Changi is okay w hand inspection..so is KL airport. U just got to tell them

 

[kaiwasoyokaze]

hmm, seems to be differing experiences to the one i had when i was in incheon, i showed the lady the film box (from JCH) and said hand inspection in korean, but she kept pointing at the machine. same with gimhae at busan.

must have been cranky 아줌마.

 

[Pablito]

you really can't predict...

 

[jacobjuul]

I've had no issues at Incheon (Seoul, South Korea) - they've been fine about hand inspections. I've been through there 8 times in the past 3 years and every time I have asked for a hand inspection, they have obliged me.

I know this is an old thread. But I recently had to go through airport security in Incheon Seoul with 20 rolls of Fuji Natura 1600. I requested hand inspection and they were very annoyed. Eventually the manager came over and shoved a piece of paper in my face. The paper said that for any items that can't go through the x-ray machine, you need a special permit from the government ahead of time. Had to put my film through 🙁

 

[Rayt]

I do ask for hand inspection but won’t sweat it if they won’t. When I travel with 4x5 and sheet film I do not want to draw attention to it and never ask for hand inspection fearing some idiot will open the light trap to look inside. If there is any X-ray damage I would see it plain as day on a huge negative. Very anticlimactic I am happy to say.

 

[sara]

From my own experience:

Malaysia - You can request for hand checking but they won't listen to you and you have to put it through anyway ALTHOUGH, I did have oner person hand check my film before.

So thankful for Hong Kong because they do hand checks and I had Fuji Natura with me at that time.

Bali...went through the scanner standard procedure. Didn't want to ask.

Thailand...needed to request for handcheck if not it would've gone through the large bag -ray. Had to take some time to explain that it was film and my film would be destroyed if it went through the large scanners.

Taiwan...I also let it go through the standard scanners.