Sheet Film and Airports

[mervynyan]

I think people are really overthinking this, and I would love to hear of a specific first-hand report of a TSA officer insisting on inspecting the actual film and ruining it. Remember, they are looking for suspicious and threatening items and a box of film just does not seem threatening. I shoot velvia and fp4+ and always let it pass through the scanner. The scanners will not harm film below 800 and that should give them a good look inside the box, dispelling any suspicion.

As for shipping to destination/home, this just seems to be too much of a hassle for such a self-manifested fear.

Not really. TSA got the bad rep when they were under staff and under equip few years back, regardless of the politics. Now it took only half of time to pass through the queue in the busiest airports. Initially, I mixed 35mm 400-1600 iso films in one bag but they went through every single roll, and there was no clear guideline about the hand inspection about the ISO either.

Now they just wipe the items and put it in the bomb detector, no arguments, no need to read through the labels.

[DJGainer]

Per your request: TSA cost me a box of 4x5 Tri-X. Airport is RDU. This happened in late 2004 IIRC.

My Tri-X film box was factory sealed. I asked TSA for a hand inspection, explained that it was unexposed photographic film and that light would ruin it. I showed the TSA woman a processed sheet so she could see what sheet film was and see an image on it to make it more "real" to her. I even offered her the use of my Harrison Pup Tent if she really wanted to open the film (which she seemed to really want to do -- she asked me if there were "film canisters" inside my sheet film box and I assured her that my film wasn't 135 roll film but was instead individual sheets of 4x5 film -- that's when I gave her the example sheet to look at).

She insisted in taking my box out of my sight. I wasn't like I could stop her. When it came back one (not both) seals had been broken. Needless to say I didn't risk using this box of film on my trip. When I got home I took this box into my darkroom. When I had loaded nine sheets of exposed film in my Jobo 3010 tank, I opened this suspect box like they did (one seal still in tact) and found both foil bags were still sealed. I opened the top bag and pulled a sheet of unexposed film as my tenth sheet in the 3010 for my development run. All the other sheets came out just fine, the "unexposed" sheet had one edge that was fogged but was otherwise clear.

Now it might not have been TSA's fault. It's true that it could have shipped from the factory like that. Or I could have managed to load ten sheets into a 3010 tank while fogging the edge of exactly one sheet somehow. Or maybe it got X-rayed while standing on edge (?) by a delivery company between me and the Kodak manufacturing plant. Or something else...

I can't prove that the fogging originated with TSA. I'm just sayin' that there's strong circumstantial evidence that TSA played a (really big) part in crushing that box of Tri-X.

TSA's security theater isn't worth the risk to me. When I have to travel by air I always take my camera equipment in my carry-on and ship my film by FedEX or UPS. Better safe than sorry.

But you requested a hand inspection and then said she could not inspect it. If ran through the machine this wouldn't have been an issue.

So I guess my follow up question is, how many people have put it through the scanner and subsequently been pulled aside by TSA for hand inspection?

[DJGainer]

Not really. TSA got the bad rep when they were under staff and under equip few years back, regardless of the politics. Now it took only half of time to pass through the queue in the busiest airports. Initially, I mixed 35mm 400-1600 iso films in one bag but they went through every single roll, and there was no clear guideline about the hand inspection about the ISO either.

Now they just wipe the items and put it in the bomb detector, no arguments, no need to read through the labels.

If I am understanding you correctly, you are saying that issues that were present in the past but seemingly have been corrected should be cause to continue to distrust TSA?

[jnantz]

i have travelled a few times from boston logan to france.
some via heathrow to basel, some via zurich.
i travelled with boxes of sheet film, and a graflex slr/leicam, and
a currier bag filled with 300 sheets of 4x5 film and hundreds of rolls of 120+35mm film.
i asked at every airport to hand inspect my film, they never did.
they never opened my film, just looked at it 6+ times / leg of trip
in the xray machine. they did the sniffy-thing often, and several times
they asked me to demonstrate the big wooden thing with all the metal
on it ( that means graflex slr ).
i have never had trouble with film, and some of it has been on all 3 trips...
(15-18 xrays ) some was 800, 400, 200, 100, 25asa color and b/w..
maybe i just was lucky ... in any case nothing was damaged that i could notice ...

[adrian tyler]

Oh I don't bother labeling film if I ship it, I gave up. And I get film by UPS or mail all the time. But it would be just my luck to have the job of my life ruined by some a-hole who decides to mail some white powder to those precious politicians and then then everything would be getting zapped in a heartbeat.

I wouldn't be surprised if our packages are x-rayed more often than we think and we just don't notice any fogging because they aren't cranked up.

I still think keeping your film, especially the exposed film, in your possession is the safest and most professional way to operate.

i don't send many packages UPS/FED-EX say ona a month, however two of them have come back with "X_RAY INSPECTED" stickers on them, the film was NOT fogged however.

that is a prettyhigh x-ray percentage over what i send, and i CERTAILY label everything "FILMSAFE X-RAY ONLY PLEASE".

[Ross Chambers]

FWIW Tri X, Arista Ultra and APHS from Freestyle all arrived in Australia via USPS and Australia Post with no harm. Maybe it was because they were unaccompanied.

Regards - Ross

[ki6mf]

I did check a box of HP 5 in Luggage- not carry on. I shot several test exposures when home. I shot un X Rayed film too and compared the two negatives. I did not use a densitometer. I got about 1 to 1.5 stops of exposure added to the image. This was clearly visible on the edge of the film.

[nelson_chan]

I think people are really overthinking this, and I would love to hear of a specific first-hand report of a TSA officer insisting on inspecting the actual film and ruining it. Remember, they are looking for suspicious and threatening items and a box of film just does not seem threatening. I shoot velvia and fp4+ and always let it pass through the scanner. The scanners will not harm film below 800 and that should give them a good look inside the box, dispelling any suspicion.

As for shipping to destination/home, this just seems to be too much of a hassle for such a self-manifested fear.

I let my film run through the carry-on x-rays no problem now. I am actually in Asia at the moment with around 100 sheets of 8x10 and 100 sheets of 4x5 all happen to be Kodak 400NC. Surprisingly though, in one of the US's most busiest airports, Chicago O'Hare, a TSA security guard tried to pry open my 4x5 boxes clearly labeled KODAK FILM. Just put the film through the x-ray and don't think about it. I've had film go through an x-ray a dozen times before processing and have had no trouble.

Good luck.

[Bruce Watson]

But you requested a hand inspection and then said she could not inspect it.

Nope. She said she would hand inspect it. This one she apparently opened -- by hand. The other three apparently were "wanded" with a nitrogen detector. So all my film was, in fact, hand inspected. One box was destroyed in the process. Lesson learned.

[Martin L.]

I probably don't carry as much film as many of you but I have found that wearing military style fatigues with their 6 pockets can hold 50 sheet 4x5 boxes very comfortably. I have gone thought the metal detectors many times with no problems. The 2 times I asked I was denied hand inspections in spite of informing the TSA agent the regulation allowing it and asking for a supervisor. Obviously this won't work for 5x7 or 8x10 unless you have REALLY big pockets....