EPISODE 30 DESCRIPTION We take a look back at how film was handled at airports from 1977 to the year 2000. Do X-Ray machines really harm film? Lina Bessonova's Ultimate Airport Scan Film Test • Travel With Film: Are ...
Lead box about the size of a cigar box. Made of 3mm thick lead. When x rayed it shows up as a solid black rectangle. If they need to check the contents they have to hand check it.
I've sent film through the hand luggage scanners multiple times over several years, and I've never seen any degradation of my films. Not saying that my testimony is the correct answer, but the claims of "one pass though an x-ray machine will ruin your film" is definitively exaggerated in my experience. I'll continue not bothering the security staff with hand checks until I'm proven othervise.
@@AzrielKnight I'm sure there is a small difference, but it's likely so small that you don't notice it besides during side-by-side comparisons. At least I haven't. And I will certainly not call that "ruined". My experience has been with 35mm color film of 200 and 400 speed. I certainly wouldn't send 1600 iso film through the X-ray machine.
Last August I flew on a domestic flight out of a major Airport ( Charlotte NC )and they hand inspected my film. I finished the film and mailed it for processing prior to my return flight.
great video start to finish! the issue i heard with lead bags is that if something is obscure or cannot be seen on the x-ray monitor, they up the dosage until they can ascertain what's there, thus rendering the lead bags pointless... I've never really had a noticeable issue with x-ray machines but putting film in the hold will definitely fry it - they use cat machines for checked-in luggage. Obviously just like with humans, the more you expose film to x-rays, the greater the damage...
I’ve actually heard that, at least in the US, the x ray intensity is constant. However, if they can’t see something, there’s a possibility they might make it spend a longer time under x ray or even pass is through the x ray machine multiple times to confirm what they are looking at. So dose increase because of time increase. However, this is just what I heard from a couple guys that claim to work in TSA.
As far as I'm concerned, Lina Bessonova has the final word on this now. There is no doubt that CT-scanners cause damage to all films. And that is also what I have experienced here in Europe. Lead lined bags help for me though.
Thanks. This video just came at the right time. I travelled with film a year ago and had no problems so I thought I would be OK. Prompted by this video I have now found out that airports have updated their CT scanners so laptops and toiletries can now stay in your carry on luggage. This means that the X-Rays are more powerful and film will definitely get affected. I enquired with my local airport which confirmed this.The only solution is a manual check and not going through the scanner. They actually said film would be better in checked luggage (No way!) but qualified that by saying that may not be the case in all airports. Also don't have film in your cameras because the cameras must be scanned not just hand checked and the film will be damaged. All good to know. Cheers and regards!
I've only flown with film twice, once to (and from) Greece from the USA, and once on a short one-way flight to Washington DC. I never bothered with a hand check, but I never noticed any issues with any of the developed film, most of which was 100-400 iso but I did have one roll of 800T and some HP5 pushed to 800. I'm sure I just got lucky now that I see the results of Lina's tests
Just regarding the section with your STD joke, the way to avoid x-ray machines affecting your undeveloped film was to only travel with developed film. I travelled Hong Kong and Japan a few times in the late 80's and everywhere I went, there was a 1 hour photo lab on literally every street corner. Drop your film off, and an hour later you'd get a little book of 6x4 prints with the negatives in the back cover. So long as you didn't need to shoot exotic film stock like FujiChrome 1600 pro or whatever, you could also just stock up on new film while you're in there.
I remember going through Amsterdam in 1995 and asking for a hand check of my film, they asked if it was a high speed or low speed film? When I answered correctly, they did a hand check.
i'm anxious when traveling anyway so I'd rather leave my film cameras at home. x-rays can lead to 'dead' pixels for those of us who shoot digital too so don't forget to clean/remap your sensor after each pass of the x ray machine.
I don't fly with film too often, but the few times I have (in the US), I've had no issues with lose film canisters or loaded in my SLR. The TSA agents never bat an eye. (One did comment once; they probably don't get too much coming through.)
The problem is that many airports in Europe refuse to do any hand inspections, and insist their scanners are film safe, which they are not. I have had lucky and unlucky encounters with these machines. On my last trip to Helsinki, Finland (they refuse all hand inspections routinely, no way around this), all mu 400 ISO films were okay, so were 100 ISO slide films, but a single roll of Ektar was totally destroyed, All films were in the same bag. Cat-scan type equipment in use at this airport.
Hey everyone. Really interesting subject!. I definitely fall in the "(hand luggage) scanners don't hurt your film" group. I did have the film I was carrying hand checked once or twice but stopped bothering at one point because I didn't want to cause unnecessary delays and was curious is the film would be affacted at all. I took all kinds of film on trips to south america, Turkey (where the 35mm rolls were scanned like 5 times at arrival, due to the increased security measures at the time), Spain, Portugal, Latvia and China. The films ranged from 100ISO color negative and slide film to Cinestill800T (500T) all 35mm. I develop (Tetenal kits for both color and slide) and scan (DSLR methode) myself and never noticed any adverse effects. For me fortunately, the dreaded horror stories of hazed, color shifted or simply ruined film never came true to (so far at least). Cheers:)
In Lina's video she says that it's not always obvious unless compared to a control. A slight colour shift could be chalked up to developing issues, or exposure, but when compared, it's shown to be the scanner.
I wonder, are the metal detectors bad for film? What if you pass through a metal detector with film in your pockets, when it goes off, be apologetic and show it is just a bag/ rolls of film?
I was all too blase about this, and last year I took a roll of 800iso film through metro and airport scanners well over 200 times, loaded in an awful Kodak M35 camera. out of the 36 exposures, 16 were pure solid smog, and the remaining were so bad to look at it was painful. But still the hand check issue continues. I had a heated discussion with the security guards at Delhi airport a few weeks ago, and he deliberately put a dozen films through the scanner to spite me... I'd say really, really don't take film to airport or metro scanners at all unless you can near guarantee that the security guards won't be dicks and scan it anyway.
I was doing a year long project on the M35, and the metro system here in Shenzhen requires they scan all your stuff. That plus about 40-60 flights made sure that Fuji 800 was fried like dirty old bacon😢@@AzrielKnight
Another pointless anecdote, i left a roll of 200 c41 in my camera in my daily carry back during a three period 2018->2021 through that the bsck probably got scanned a dozen + times as i was flying in and out of london a lot. However i loaded the film incorrectly and id didn't advance though the camera, it jist sat unexposed... for 3 years, getting xrayed again and again. The film however, was completely blank (transparent) after development. I saw no evidence of dark streaks or lines or other damage that could be atributed to xray. Or maybe we just screwed up development.
