Film exposed in hand inspection

[Tim Povlick]

I hope the film works out for you. If the person only opened the 1'st layer of box you may be alright.

I traveled to China and Tibet last year and took a 6x7 and film. I had them hand check the roll film. It wasn't to much a hassle for them or me. I used my backpack for 4x5 to carry the 6x7 and gear. I accidentally left two 4x5 film holders loaded with Tmax-100 in a side pocket. After about 8 passes through various x-ray machines I realized they were there in the backpack. I decided to let the experiment run it's course and let the film be xray'ed and not hand checked for the remainder of the trip. It went through 20 xray machines if it passed through one. Some were for rail travel too, not just for the airliners. One of the sheets from this trip was then shot along with a new piece of film, exposed and developed identically. The differences were indistinguishable to my eye. From now on I will just let film pass through the hand carry machines.

Best Regards,

Tim

[patrickjames]

Just put it through the xray, or better yet, send it to yourself. If you are the paranoid type, you can send it via registered mail. If you go that route and it isn't placed in your hands, someone has a huge legal problem. Registered mail is supposed to be kept under lock and key all through its journey.

[Tim Meisburger]

I used to carry a dark bag and try to get hand inspection, but it just confused everyone. I now normally put my exposed and unexposed film in a lead-lined bag and put it in my carry-on (never put any film in checked baggage! I ruined a whole trip's worth with that mistake). I have always expected that the lead bag would raise eyebrows passing through the scanner, but only once out of about twenty times have I been asked to take out the bag. In that case I let them scan the film boxes. I have used the bag in US, European and Asian airports with no problem. Not sure if they still sell them, but I bought two at a local thrift shop last time I was in the US.

[eddie]

i fly alot all over the world with film.

i get there early. my experience has been they do NOT open anything until you are there to watch....then they ask.

i have had perfect luck so far. now i do not care to do all the explaining and what not so i just let them x ray it. no issues (still hand check my high speed butt they are more used to 35mm and 120).

when i do x ray my sheet film i put in in an inconspicuous pocket. they always go for the main pocket (this will give you time to catch up....but as i said they always wait for me). on important stuff i tape the inner box closed and then the outer boxes closed (3 lid boxes). i write on it "do not open in the light. film inside.)

i have all kinds of bigger lenses with me and no one even bats an eye.....

sorry for your lose.

e

[amac212]

Ugh, my heartfelt sympathies to you!! At the VERY least, I hope you get a free trip out of it - - you should tell them that your trip was solely for shooting this film. That will emphasize and make perfectly clear that losing these images, would be like throwing the money for entire trip down the drain and that if this occurs, you expect to be fairly compensated. Good luck on all fronts!

[goamules]

I got my 30 rolls of 35mm hand inspected at the first airport in the US, heading to France and Ireland. They just swabbed a few rolls, and took any that were still in canisters out (do this at home and it's really fast). But - every other airport I gave up. In one I asked for a hand inspection, and gave the ziplock clear bag of film to the worker. He smiled and set it on the x-ray conveyor belt. It's all ISO 400, and the couple I've developed so far were fine.

Eddie, I thought someone in the many airports would want to inspect my giant, bubble wrapped and taped brass lenses, but no one did. You could put a lot of stuff between the glass in a giant petzval, but they never unwrapped one.

[Drew Wiley]

Last trip they went through absolutely everything but very carefully repacked it. On
the return flight, I just let the film go right through the X-ray (twice) and it developed
perfectly. But that was ASA 50 and 100 film. Wonder if sheets of TM400 will do as well? Never had them actually open live film, however.

[Alan Davenport]

Don't let TSA touch your film. Ever. Get to know UPS and FedEx.

Sounds like knowledge gained through a graduate course at the School of Hard Knocks.

Also perhaps the best advice yet offered.

[rdenney]

At the VERY least, I hope you get a free trip out of it

That might have been a possibility back when security was run by the airlines. But now that it is a federal agency, they have no authority and no mechanism for that sort of compensation, even if they are sympathetic (which they probably will be).

The best you might get is some instructions on how to avoid the problem in the future.

It could be worse. You could be a professional musician with an instrument too large to carry on. Tuba players buy expensive insurance to make repairs when, not if, their one-of-a-kind instruments are damaged. They get damaged even when packed in an Anvil case, and that's after paying god-knows-how-much in excess baggage fees because of the weight and size.

At least we can ship the film to ourselves.

Come to think of it, I think I'm going to take the Pentax 6x7 to Idaho with me in a couple of weeks. I think I'll ship the film to a colleague in advance, and then ship it back to myself from there. No need to risk it.

Rick "unwilling to fly with the Sinar" Denney

[eddie]

Eddie, I thought someone in the many airports would want to inspect my giant, bubble wrapped and taped brass lenses, but no one did. You could put a lot of stuff between the glass in a giant petzval, but they never unwrapped one.

the x ray machine could see through them. i watched at the brussels airport as i walked by. they did a couple of manipulations that turned the screen a few different colors. kind of cool really. now i know you can not fill it with "coffee" from holland....