Bringing film through an airport!?

dazftw

Will it get ruined through the x-ray machine? Travelling with Aer Lingus through Cork and Barcelona.

Should I just ask for hand inspection? I have about 50 rolls

punchdrunk

personally I don't believe it does harm it

magicbastarder

i went to canada with about 40 rolls of sensia 100; dublin-heathrow, heathrow-seattle, and back again. no problems with fogging.

i asked about hand inspection, and as i'd been told to expect, no joy.

dazftw

Ive read different things.. some say it will, some say it wont!

I was thinking I could just put all the film in a zip lock bag and just hand it to a security guard! I'm sure its not as strict within the EU?

pete4130

dude, 1600 ISO neopan, slide, everything thru customs/x-ray and never a problem!

dazftw

Oh yeah all the film iv'e bought online must have went through some serious scanners!

Feck it ill just leave it in the bag.

Heebie

I have a pair of lead-lined bags that I put it in. They always pull the bags out, peek into the bags, close them back up & send me on my way.

(They are bags designed for putting film through x-ray machines.. they're pretty common, and not particularly expensive.)

shinikins

Brought 60 rolls of film back from my world travels in my hand luggage without harm. Just packed them all into a ziplock bag and kept them on the top of my bag. I was told that the Xray does no harm, but if you put film into the hold the temperature fluctuations can damage it.

artyeva

dazftw wrote: »

I have about 50 rolls

and one very important precious one

have a ball - can't wait to see the results!!!

dazftw

artyeva wrote: »

and one very important precious one

have a ball - can't wait to see the results!!!

Have it sitting here in front of me

NakedDex

The newer x-ray scanners are lower "dose" than the older ones. They are infinitely safer with film than the ones from as little as ten years ago.
That said, those lead-lined bags are still recommended. Dublin airport won't do hand-checks if you ask them, but they'll open a lead-bag after it scans. Once you're not carrying a half dozen combat knives in it, they'll be happy and send you on.
They're actually pretty pleasant there. The official policy is (or at least was) no hand checks, but they sometimes oblige if it's not incredibly busy.

DaireQuinlan

Yeah, i've had, amongst other things, several rolls of portra 800 and neopan 1600 put through quite a few xray checks over the course of a couple of trips with no ill effects.
The one important thing is to never ever ever put film into your checked baggage. Checked bags get a super strong dose of the x-rays. Mate of mine cam back from japan couple of years back with a box of rolls of fuji natura (1600) for me which was grand because he'd bought it that morning and tossed it into his carry on. All his shots that he and his girlfriend had taken on the trip though he had carefully packed with the rest of his checked baggage. All of them were ruined.

artyeva

DaireQuinlan wrote: »

All his shots that he and his girlfriend had taken on the trip though he had carefully packed with the rest of his checked baggage. All of them were ruined.

eeerrrgggh that actually makes me feel physically sick

sineadw

As long as you're bringing it in your cabin luggage it's all good. Even IR film is grand in that - asking for a hand inspection can completely ruin it. NOT in the checked baggage though!

Buckz

Agree with the above- From 1995 to 2006 I brought 35mm and 120 film through airports in Europe, Africa and Asia, up to 10 airports per trip and never a problem film was all slide- ISO 50-100 (most of it Sensia 100.) No issue at all, but memory cards are smaller....

dazftw

x-ray ruined nearly all the color film haha

it was all between 100 and 400 iso..

I sent off the black and white today.. thats 400 to 1600iso cant wait to see all that :rolleyes:

Some of its alright though ive salvaged a bit

DaireQuinlan

dazftw wrote: »

x-ray ruined nearly all the color film haha

it was all between 100 and 400 iso..

I sent off the black and white today.. thats 400 to 1600iso cant wait to see all that :rolleyes:

Some of its alright though ive salvaged a bit

That's not good ! Did you pack it in your checked baggage ?

Fajitas!

Really?

That's really wierd. I've never had a problem. That's rather annoying.

DaireQuinlan

Actually, what does the damage look like on the colour film ? Have you scans or contacts you could post ? X-ray damage is pretty distinctive (there's actually some kodak pub floating around the net that gives examples). Checked baggage aside, I'm in the same boat as fajitas, never had a problem with even fast film but I guess there might have been some freakishly strong machine at some airport somewhere ??!?
Could it be processing issues ? In-camera light leaks or something ? Thats why I'm asking about scans.

dazftw

Ill upload some now...



If the 1600 black and white is ruined i'm going be so pissed off! :mad:

all the luggage was carry on..

sineadw

You really shouldn't have had a problem with carry on. What airport was it?

Sleepy

I know Dublin has signs up at security stating that their scanners are film safe...

magicbastarder

is it just coincidence that the 'scan lines' on the image shown are perfectly vertical on the frame?
what i'm getting at is that odds are that the film would have been sitting at an angle relative to the scanner, either jumbled up in the bag, or the bag not going in straight. i wonder if that's an artefact of processing rather than x-rays?

magicbastarder

http://www.kodak.com/global/en/service/tib/tib5201.shtml

DaireQuinlan

dazftw wrote: »

Ill upload some now...



If the 1600 black and white is ruined i'm going be so pissed off! :mad:

all the luggage was carry on..

was that 120 or 35mm ? Cos if the latter then they look suspiciously like streak marks from agitation screwups. If its 120 then I'm at a loss, it is kinda wierd as MB said that they're so perfectly aligned. Are all the frames similar ? Where are you getting the B&W processed ? different place ? If that's screwed up in the same way then it's probably either camera (somehow) or x-ray I guess. If its fine then it's probably the place where you got the colour done.

magicbastarder

with 120, each frame will wrap around the spool approximately once, so to get such an even pattern is very odd - you should see the pattern change as the angle of incidence of the rays changes.

Tearaway

The marks on that film look like processing marks to me - agitation hasn't been carried out properly I'd say.

I've take hundreds of rolls through airport scanners over the years and never had a problem - I'd always hand carry but that's more for security than anything else

dazftw

Just noticed this morning lads its really only on the 120! The 35mm seems fine.

I google "x ray airport 120 film" and got this:



The funny part is its ektar 100 like my film. edit: nevermind I went through my negs there and the lines are on some of the portra as well.

:rolleyes:

Maybe it just depends on the airport? I went through Cork and Barcelona airport.

magicbastarder

still odd that the streaks are perfectly aligned with the film, and so tightly packed, where any other example i've seen has streaks much more widely separated and generally at some angle across the frame. are all your shots like that?

do you have any unexposed film? might be worth having one developed in a different lab to see if you get the same streaks, to rule out dev process.

DaireQuinlan

magicbastarder wrote: »

still odd that the streaks are perfectly aligned with the film, and so tightly packed, where any other example i've seen has streaks much more widely separated and generally at some angle across the frame. are all your shots like that?

do you have any unexposed film? might be worth having one developed in a different lab to see if you get the same streaks, to rule out dev process.

Yeah I was thinking the same thing, although 120 is a bit harder to screw up the agitation of, but if they're stuck onto a reel then conceivably the design of the reel could cause some of the same problems as you'd see with 35mm and the sprockets (which is where I've seen this problem before).

The B&W should answer this if it's being dev'd in a different place. If the B&W comes out with the 120 ruined in the same way and the 35mm ok then I'm going to point at the camera. If the 120 AND the 35mm are ok then I'm going to say processing at the original place. If they're BOTH ruined then I'm at a loss again

DaireQuinlan

Actually, just thinking about this a bit more, you were shooting with your SQ, right ? So the film transport is vertical. So these streaks actually run vertically down the entire length of the film. So if the film is rolled up they're like slices through the roll. That makes it a whole pile less likely to be processing, and much more likely that there was some freak X-Ray thing going on I guess . Maybe the 35mm was ok because of the metal canisters ? All told, not good though ... and it might mean the prognosis isn't good for the B&W either. Hopefully I'm wrong ...

dazftw

If 35mm black and white is fine ill be happy.

Plus iv'e still some good shots from the color. I'm going to wait for the black and white to come back before I start uploading anything online.

haha just remember a friend said to me last night about the streaks.. A bit of content aware fill in photoshop should fix that right up

magicbastarder

you'll probably find you can convert to greyscale by selecting layers in such a way that the streaks disappear.

dazftw

Just to update this..

Lines still appear on a roll of film I didn't use while I was away! Faint but you can see them. Sucks. I'm glad though I only have 4 rolls left so not much wasted.

magicbastarder

do you have any rolls you bought in the same batch but didn't bring?

dazftw

magicbastarder wrote: »

do you have any rolls you bought in the same batch but didn't bring?

No I brought all of it with me im afraid.

DaireQuinlan

did you get the B&W's back yet ?

dazftw

DaireQuinlan wrote: »

did you get the B&W's back yet ?

No I was hoping today.. Maybe tomorrow! Ive been charged by peak imaging so I hope its soon.

*PLEASE PLEASE 35MM BE FINE*

Simplicius

Dazftw....

I have hauled loads of 120 colour & B&W through. the lines cannot be explained by X-Ray machines as I understand them. I will ask at DAA as I know all the people responsible. The XRAy machines are not mono directional ( which might explain the lines) they have several beams these days to help 3 d the image. But I'll confirm this.

DAA will do hand inspection. you need to ring in advance, ask for Airport security and they will initially refuse and state all machines are film friendly. They all know 400ISO or lower is fine. Two things then to state. "I am a fine arts professional photographer and I agree the damage at 400 ISO is not noticeable ofr most people but trust me I notice as do my clients." "I am also carrying 3200 ISO film and this will certainly be damaged" this get's past the 'pat' response. unless it is exceptionally busy ..but come early enough.
Similarily Abroad -- with Ilford advisory notes etc I have managed to keep most film above 400 ISO out of scanners.

NEVER put film in the hold of an aircraft ..those scanners are murderous.

lead bags work in some countries but often they just pump up the power to get through ..defeating the purpose.

It also helps to have your film for inspection in the same bag as your film camera. pulling out an old folder and illustrating what the film is for -- automatically (especially if it is an antique) helps disarm the security somewhat.

These people have a job to do, remain polite, informative and positive. Appearance matters too. if you have just emerged after 3 weeks in a smelly darkroom -- in the same clothes, it isn't going to help.

magicbastarder

i'm suspicious that every roll so far has near perfect vertical banding. was the second shot processed in the same place as the first?

dazftw

I did get it done in the same place.. It was Sunday and no where else was open.

I got all my black and white film back today and the negatives seem perfect. I can't seen any lines on them like I could the colour. This is making me think the processing could have screwed it. Ill have to wait to see when I scan them how they come out.

Hmm very suspicious

ellieswellies

I ran some unexposed 800 35mm through a rake of xray machines once by accident on a trip that involved about a million connections and it turned out really grainy and flat in the end...not quite what was expecting but I actually sort of liked it But I've had no problemos with lower speeds and xrays.

enda1

Going through an airport in Japan before and it said if ISO was 1600+, to tell them about it.

So I guess there is a potential for damage to super sensitive film.
Guess it depends on the film and the scanners too.

dazftw

woohoo 1600 was fine

DaireQuinlan

dazftw wrote: »

woohoo 1600 was fine

well thats good at least. Time to petrol bomb the place where you got the colour done I guess.