X-Ray Paranoia - Fact or Fiction follow up poll

[Ezzie]

Travelled a lot lately, both with film exposed and not, though only in my Carry-on luggage. Never noticed anything untoward.

 

[Richard G]

Never had a problem, but I was annoyed to have my camera bag sent through the X-ray machine twice at my home airport on the way somewhere, just because the density and compactness of two M bodies was unfamiliar. I should have the film in a separate bag for that exercise. I don't know whether two rolls of 3200 in my trouser pockets would set off the metal detection machine.

 

[Thardy]

Never had a problem, but I was annoyed to have my camera bag sent through the X-ray machine twice at my home airport on the way somewhere, just because the density and compactness of two M bodies was unfamiliar. I should have the film in a separate bag for that exercise. I don't know whether two rolls of 3200 in my trouser pockets would set off the metal detection machine.

Now that they have that body scanner thing, they want EVERYTHING out of your pockets, even a Kleenex tissue.

 

[randolph45]

yes? and No?

yes? and No?

I still don't know if my two rolls of aps were over radiated or not .

This happened on a round trip flight to Las Vegas from Sacramento
a few years back .This was carry on baggage.
Both rolls came back with no images at all just complete exposure across the whole film.
I thought the camera had failed but the next test roll was O.K.

Was it radiation? was it the processor ? Or was it just me?🙁

 

[x-ray]

I work with x-ray imaging and am quite familiar with the effects and appearance of x-ray exposure on film. Two year ago while traveling to Italy my 400 Neopan was damaged beyond salvage in my carry on camera bag. My guess is it happened on my return flight going through Paris. You can do a search and find the scan of a segment of my film.

Even though these machines are supposed to be set for minimal exposure the degree of exposure on my film was indicative of a substantial dose of radiation. It wasn't a tiny bit fogged but rather heavy exposure at fairly high energy. The metal body and metal film cassette were penetrated by the x-ray creating an image of part of the camera.

No more film for me going on flights but will only take digital in the future.

 

[Bingley]

I voted "no," but I did have a scare over the summer while on vacation, which led to a frantic thread here. I inadvertently forgot to remove about 40 rolls of film, some exposed, most not, from a bag that I checked on flight from Stockholm to Oslo. Fortunately, the bag does not appear to have been x-ray'd, b/c the film all turned out fine (I had a couple of rolls processed in Oslo to make sure). For the remainder of the trip, I made sure the film was in my carry-on bag and I asked for hand inspection at every airport. The only airport that refused to hand-inspect was Heathrow.

From the responses to my thread in July, I understand that x-ray damage to film in carry-on bags is minor but cumulative, in that repeated exposure to x-rays at security check points may over time result in detectable damage to the film itself (but see x-ray's post above). If your film goes into checked luggage, it will be a goner unless you luck out like I did and the airport did not x-ray the bag.

 

[Matus]

I did not travel all that much by plane, but on one longer trip my ISO100 and 400 color films were scanned 9 times (!) and I could not see any effects.

Of course, the film was always in CARRY-ON luggage. Never put your film to CHECK-IN - that is asking for troubles.

I have read once that one guy had problems with film being xray-ed too much in his carry-on luggage (somewhere in US), but nobody else form the forum (I thing it was LFF) could confirm that experience.

So - for now I consider that to have my films X-ray scanned as CARRY-ON is safe.