Ilford Film Airports

[Tin Can]

https://www.ilfordphoto.com/faqs/

Read

[diagonale-du-flou]

Thanks for this link
it will become complicated to make your films travel...

[Vaidotas]

To my experience inspection by hand for cabin baggage avoiding x ray scan is nonexistant in European airports.
Few weeks ago x ray scanning resulted moderate base fog on 120 Ilford Delta 100 (round flight Kaunas, Lithuania - Alesund Norway).
I was really surprised to see it on fresh film, processed in Xtol 1:1.

[martiansea]

I wonder if one of those lead-lined film bags will help? I used one while traveling in China - they x-ray your bags before getting on nearly any public transport in the cities. Maybe going thru once will be OK, but getting x-rayed a dozen times while traveling around Shanghai got me a little worried. My scissors for cutting roll film got confiscated. LOL

[callsign.BULL]

Samey-samey from Kodak Alaris. Downloadable warning labels here: https://imaging.kodakalaris.com/photographers/resources .

[r.e.]

Does anyone know if shipping film to your destination is at this point a way to avoid x-ray scanning? There doesn't appear be a problem with retailers shipping film, at least not domestically in the US.

[Two23]

I wonder if one of those lead-lined film bags will help? I used one while traveling in China - they x-ray your bags before getting on nearly any public transport in the cities. Maybe going thru once will be OK, but getting x-rayed a dozen times while traveling around Shanghai got me a little worried. My scissors for cutting roll film got confiscated. LOL


What I've heard is they just turn up the power until they can see in.


Kent in SD

[r.e.]

What I've heard is they just turn up the power until they can see in.

Or conclude that it's an attempt to prevent them from doing their job :)

[Graeme Hamilton]

Does anyone know if shipping film to your destination is at this point a way to avoid x-ray scanning? There doesn't appear be a problem with retailers shipping film, at least not domestically in the US.

My local post office says everything going out of major cities gets x-rayed. They said there is no way around it, and no such thing as a hand check request or similar that you have at US airports. They also told me the "do not x-ray" labels would flag the package as suspicious and result in closer inspection, potentially involving more powerful x-raying. Not sure how this increasingly common practice is going to impact all the mail service labs, since most of us do not have a local lab that does e-6, its a real problem.

[Dave Sh]

A similar topic is going on over on the Location and Travel section. Here's what I recently shared over there...



I recently returned from a family trip to France (June, 2022). I took four sheets of Ilford FP4+ in 4x5 (3 exposed, 1 unexposed) and ran a 'scanner fogging test' on our return flights. All four sheets were in a TMAX-100 nested box and bagged in the Ilford bag within the nested boxes. Outbound, both flights were US in origin, only went through security once - TSA readily accepted a hand check request. Return flights; Charles de Gaulle (CDG) and Heathrow - went through security at each airport.

At CDG, there was no way they were going to do a hand inspection - at least that was the impression they gave me when I asked if they'd hand-inspect the disposable camera my daughter had taken on the trip. Granted, I'm not fluent in French, but I did give an honest effort to make the request in French. At Heathrow, had I pressed, they seemed like they would have done a hand inspection. One of the inspectors at Heathrow even went to a supervisor to ask what film speed was safe to run through the scanner - he was told 800 and below. I'm not up to speed on the scanner technology, but these appeared to be a newer variety, presuming they were CT scanners at both airports.

I've developed and scanned two of the negatives; the blank/unexposed negative and the one attached. I can't see any discernible fogging/impact on the negative that would leave me to believe it was a result of being run through the scanners. The unexposed sheet looks consistency black, albeit with what looks like some dust and residual water marks during drying. Note to self; do a better job at removing the water when hanging the negatives up to dry.

228568

[Tin Can]

Some time ago, Feds claimed they could X_ray entire trucks moving slowly

[r.e.]

My local post office says everything going out of major cities gets x-rayed. They said there is no way around it, and no such thing as a hand check request or similar that you have at US airports. They also told me the "do not x-ray" labels would flag the package as suspicious and result in closer inspection, potentially involving more powerful x-raying. Not sure how this increasingly common practice is going to impact all the mail service labs, since most of us do not have a local lab that does e-6, its a real problem.

If that applies to film, every roll or sheet of film that people buy that has been transported by plane, if not truck, has been x-rayed at least once before the retailer receives it, and again when retailers like B&H send out an online order that is transported by air. If post offices are handling X-raying, then all film that gets transported via mail is X-rayed regardless of whether it's transported by air or ground. Yet photographers, as far as I know, aren't saying that they're running into X-ray exposure problems with the film that they purchase.

[Graeme Hamilton]

I have wondered about this, but here's the USPS statement on it and it is very similar to what the post office told me here in Dallas.

https://faq.usps.com/s/article/Mail-Security#:~:text=Is%20Mail%20X,being%20considered%20suspicious.

Since learning this I have been shipping via UPS, and telling them it has batteries so they don't put it on a plane. Not sure if I am successfully avoiding X-rays. The truth is, I have never had a problem form the mail, but am concerned about one possibly occurring.

[r.e.]

I have wondered about this, but here's the USPS statement on it and it is very similar to what the post office told me here in Dallas.

https://faq.usps.com/s/article/Mail-Security#:~:text=Is%20Mail%20X,being%20considered%20suspicious.

Thanks, from the link:


Is Mail X-Rayed?

Some of the mail that is sent through the United States Postal Service will pass through an X-Ray machine. There are no specific guidelines as to what may or may not be x-rayed, though mail sent to or through larger cities is likely to pass through an X-Ray machine.

If you have additional questions about X-Raying of items, contact your local Post Office.

Note: Marking a mailpiece "Do Not X-Ray" will not forgo the X-Raying of a mailpiece, and may result in the item being considered suspicious.



If we work on the assumption that there's a good chance that film has been X-rayed before we purchase it, with the probability increasing significantly if all cargo on planes is X-rayed, it becomes a matter of assessing the significance of additional passenger X-raying at airports. Personally, I'd be happy to mail film to my destination if I had confidence that it won't be X-rayed anyway.

[callsign.BULL]

My temporarily ex-pat grand-daughter will be coming back to CONUS for a visit next month, with her trusty K1000 (she's 13 and learning). The plan will be to have fresh film available here, and I'll process and mail the negs and whatever back to her in the UK. Awkward, but at least there is no COVID falderal involved. Patience is part of analog.

[reddesert]

I have carried 35mm film through US airports recently (most recently May 2022) and they've been wiling to hand inspect it, and not surprised by the request. The last time, they did swab each of the canisters. Not sure what would happen with a box of sheet film. From reports, I wouldn't expect to be as easy in a European airport.

Although mail can be X-rayed, the specific issue is with this new generation of CT scanners in airports (and the old generation of checked-baggage scanners, which have long been understood to be higher power). Whatever they use for mail is probably different. So it doesn't tell us that mailing film off to your lab is unsafe (I would have expected more reports of damage by now if it were a serious problem). Conversely, if mailing film is film-safe, that doesn't reassure us that airport CT scanners are film-safe.

[r.e.]

Whatever they use for mail is probably different.

That's supposition, and it doesn't address post office intentions. It also doesn't address the issue of cargo scanning with respect to either planes or trucks. I think that the fundamental problem is that there isn't enough information to come to any conclusions about what the current and medium term issue is, although makers of films appear to be pointing to an issue emerging.

[Willie]

What does this mean for those shooting LF X-Ray film?

Would letting the inspectors see that it is X-Ray film make any difference?

[reddesert]

That's supposition, and it doesn't address post office intentions. It also doesn't address the issue of cargo scanning with respect to either planes or trucks. I think that the fundamental problem is that there isn't enough information to come to any conclusions about what the current and medium term issue is, although makers of films appear to be pointing to an issue emerging.

Of course it's supposition, I did use the word "probably." What we know is that film manufacturers are warning us about new airport CT scanners for carry-on bags and have warned about checked bag scanners for a long time. We also have some known examples of fogging from the new CT scanners (Arne Croell shows an example in the other thread). I don't know of any examples of known fogging from mailing film, and people and stores mail film all the time. So my point is that one cannot reason from the mailing experience that the airport is safe, nor can one reason from the airport experience that mailing film is dangerous (for the film).

[martiansea]

I order film from B&H or Freestyle, and it's sent USPS Priority, and I've never had problems with it being damaged from x-ray.

[r.e.]

I order film from B&H or Freestyle, and it's sent USPS Priority, and I've never had problems with it being damaged from x-ray.

That's the point. That's also the case with UPS, which has its own fleet of cargo planes. Why? What's different, if anything, between the use of X-rays with dedicated cargo planes and trucks versus with cargo holds in passenger planes? And what's the actual significance of these new X-ray machines, and will they only be deployed for use with passengers?

[Henry Yorke]

I'm in Italy in the fall on a shoot - and was wondering if anyone has any intel about the kind of equipment that's in Rome–Fiumicino International Airport "Leonardo da Vinci". I'll be carrying sheet film - and by the looks of things will probably just Fedex it out of the country. But I was curious if anyone had any recent experience at the airport....