Saw an interesting X-Ray system this week.

[Amedeus]

Well ... it all depends ...

The paranoia is not that an image of whatever in your bag will appear on your film ... the issue is fogging ...

I've often put 35mm film canisters through the hand carry scanner with no ill effects but this was mostly 100-200 or lower ISO.

The X-ray dose for checked luggage is significantly higher and even low ISO film can be fogged quite easily. This is contra what some travelers suggest ... this is, put your film in your checked luggage. My advise is, don't do it. Hand carry your film and in case of high ISO film (800+) ask for manual inspection. They may swab it, it may cost you some time, but you won't have a fogging risk.

Again, this is all depending on the dose you're getting, high dose or a very long term exposure will fog your sensitive film. Low ISO film can go multiple times through the current crop of carry-on bag scanners without an issue for those who are worried about multiple stops in airports on the same trip.

This applies also to Polaroid btw ... ISO3000 film does fog on the old machines, not sure what's happening on the newer machines that are much more sensitive and use lower doses of X-ray radiation.

The various film manufacturers have/had good info on this on their websites.

That makes me wonder why there is so much paranoia about putting film through airport scanners.


Steve.

[Jim Andrada]

About 25 years ago I took my nephew (then 11) to Australia and New Zealand for his birthday. Had a great time on a farm stay in NZ. We had the film developed in Sydney and it was totally fogged. Seems that the NZ x-ray systems were quite old and the folks in Sydney told me that almost everyone who had been to NZ came back with no photos unless they had them processed before leaving.

Things are better now (???) I think it varies depending on what cast off gear might be in use at some out of the way airports.