Latest nightmares at the airport -- and a solution

[Greg Miller]

In January I flew from Newark to Lima Peru, Lima to Santiago Chile, Santiago to Balmaceda Chile, and all those same connections on the way home. I stayed overnight in each city so separate security checks were done on each city. I also had several flights on float planes. So in total there were 6 security checks (4 in South America) and well over 24 hours in the air.

My film (50 rolls of 35mm Velvia 50 & Provia 100 - no LF on that trip) went through x-ray machines at each security check.

End result = no fogging and happy client.

[Conrad Hoffman]

I avoid all air trips as the experience is just too lousy these days. No one has mentioned another approach- chance the carry on x-rays or ship your film, and carry a few trays as well. Process the film in your hotel room. The bathrooms almost never have windows. Once you have good negs, the return trip will be no problem. You could even process a sheet on arrival to be sure it passed through intact. Hint- put a half fogged sheet (masked) on top to be sure of detecting additional exposure.

[kreig]

I am currently traveling in China and have about 63 rolls of 35mm exposed film and another 25 unexposed rolls. I have asked for hand inspection every time. My cameras do go through x-rays and those films are exposed to x-rays but each roll will only get one exposure at the most. Have never had any problems from fogging in the past with this practise. In china they x-ray your baggage at airports, train stations, and bus stations. I dont trust any of the machines here and push hard for hand inspections all the time. Sorry for the misspellings, there are no characters on the keyboard here, all worn off.

[Dave Moeller]

My personal record so far is nine passes through x-ray machines during one trip (eight at airports and one at St. Chapelle in Paris) with no fogging. Film was all 120 size, with speeds ranging from 100 to 400. Airports were in the US, France, and Italy.

I have yet to fly with sheet film, but if I was going to do so I'd just let it go through the x-ray machine at the airports. I have a sneaking suspicion that things would be just fine. (I would, however, carry a changing bag on the off chance that someone wanted to open the box of film...I'd hate to have that happen, but I'd like to be prepared.)