To Ship Or Not To Ship - That Is The Question?

[Richard A Johnson]

Tonight I got to thinking - well it’s more early morning 12:30 am EDST. I’m going to visit a a buddy of mine who lives in New Mexico to take a much needed photo vacation in the beginning of August. Its been years since I’ve travel by airlines with the hole having to have your film hand checked through security thing, or is that a thing of the past?. For several years now I have traveled by car to vacation spots and this has not been an issue for me.
I have read in past post that some of you have had horror stories with airport security.
So my question are: what will I face at the airport checkin these days? Is it safe to put your film through those X-ray machine? Is it safe to have your film hand check? or will I find my Ready-Quick loads all taken apart before I can get my shoes back on? Or should I just ship my film to my friends house ahead of time? What about Shipping film - will they blast it so bad that with their security x-ray machines that it will be useless anyway?
So to all you world travelers out there WHAT WOULD DO?:rolleyes:

Thanks

[anchored]

Horror occurrences still happen to film. Case in point: About a month ago I went through Denver' airport. On the return trip, I turned in for handchecking loaded holders, exposed quick-loads, and a box containing about 30-exposed sheets of color film. No problems on the filmbacks or quickloads or unopened boxes of film. But... the TSA idiot in charge insisted upon opening the box containing the exposed film!!! After a needless argument... I had a choice of her opening the box or running it through xray... obviously the machine was chosen.

About running films through x-ray: I'm sure you will hear people insist that these machines do not harm film. However... I personally listen to Fuji, who puts warnings NOT to expose films to xray machines on their film boxes... and this warning even appears on super-slow Velvia 50. Now granted... the film I had to run through xray machine was not damaged as far as I can see... and I do not believe running film through one time will be harmful to anything but high-speed film. But... if you travel frequently, and the film is exposed to these machines multiple times... I do believe damage can occur.

On roll films, airport security will frequently insist upon cutting open the foil liners on film. On sheet film... if the box is factory sealed they usually strip test without opening... if the box seal is broken they usually insist upon opening (or xrayiing). Your QuickLoads should present no problem if in the sealed envelope or even after shot.

Security measures varies from "piece'a cake no prob" to "nightmarish events" depending upon the airport and the security and the security officers in charge. If you're lucky the inspector will know what sheet film is and all goes well... if not..... figure on xraying.

Normally due to these problems, and when time allows, I ship film and any equipment that cannot be carried on-board. I never put camera gear (except for inexpensive items) into the baggage hold. Reason for this: You cannot insure any camera gear... if it gets stolen or broken you're totally out of luck on making a claim.

As we've been repeatedly told by UPS... if you ship Ground Service the items will not be run through xray... unless it happens to be picked at random by security for a full inspection. But at least shipped items via UPS or FedEx or others can be insured against theft and damage.

[davidb]

Overnight the film to your friend.

Keep in mind, NM is blazing hot in August.

Don't take a chance with airport security.

[Ron Marshall]

A couple of years ago I was given the option of having my Readyloads X-rayed or hand checked, which involved pulling out the film.

I always opt for the X-ray check now.

[wfwhitaker]

Ship.

[Robert A. Zeichner]

If it's convenient to ship ahead, I usually do that. But, I have been to Greece and back with TMX, TMY and EPR being exposed to 7 rounds of X-rays without any noticeable problems and this having been done in May of 2004 just as an incident occurred at the Athens airport and with the Olympics happening later that summer. I had been hesitant to subject some leftover unexposed film from that trip to any further exposure to X-rays so I shipped some ahead and FedEx'd back to myself on a trip I took in April with again, no problems, 4 years after the initial 7x exposure. I had a few holders still loaded from that last shipment and so I decided to run them through X-rays again on a short trip I made at the beginning of May. It wasn't a critical project and I fully expected problems. What do you know? 9 rounds of X-rays and still no fog! I just recently returned from a trip to the Pacific Northwest and ran everything (fresh TMY type II) through X-rays there and back and again no problems. Either I've been very lucky or the problems with X-rays at major airports anyway, are not as big a deal as some have suspected.

[eddie]

i have had great luck with handchecks. this includes NYC,vegas,SLC, alaska, thailand, vietnam, myanmar, japan, korea, taipei, australia, NZ and lima.

when i have x rayed it they were fine (some i forgot in my bag and sometimes i am running late so this is faster).

now when i am traveling in the US or thailand i ship my stuff i do not want to carry with me. it makes it easier for me logistically and i am able to very easily insure it. i have been using the USPS cause it is easy for me. other carriers will work fine. i ship the stuff out priority mail to "my name " at the GPO (general post office) i show up and get it. what i do many times is i ship film to various locations along my trip. then i pick it up, put the exposed film back in the box and ship it home or directly to my lab for color and E6. so my processed color film is ready and waiting when i get there.

the USPS has an agreement with the other carriers. if you must ship stuff to the PO (cause you have no friends in the area and you need an address) and have to use another carrier you can address the package to the PO in care of "your name" and you can pick it up! how great is that? i just did that the other day. worked fine!

enjoy your trip.

eddie

[Don Boyd]

Last month I traveled from El Paso (closest airport to my home in Las Cruces, NM) to Las Vegas, NV and took along my Arca and some Quickloads. I asked for hand checking and the security folks asked me to open the foil wrapper before they checked the film. The guard seemed inexperienced but there were no problems. Same thing on my return flight from Las Vegas. One of the guards asked me questions about my lenses, etc.. I think it was a quick test to see if the carmera stuff was just a cover for carrying something verboten. You can count on this taking extra time so get there plenty early.

I would be more concerned about the film sitting or traveling in hot, dark brown UPS trucks all day than I am about getting it through security. Hot August nights are only slightly cooler than hot August days.

[Brian Ellis]

The U.S. xray machines are fine. I'm sure machines in some other countries are fine too but my only international travel with film has been to Ireland. I'd guess that Fuji's warning is there partly for liability reasons and partly because they have no idea what xray machines in what countries will be checking the film.

In my experience hand-checking depends on the particular security person. Some will just open a box of Readyloads and thumb through them or see that a box of film is still sealed and stop there. Others want to open the envelopes or boxes and at that point you just give up on the hand check and let them go through the xray machine, which will be fine. So I don't see a lot of reason to bother with the hand-checking in the first place but if it makes you feel better give it a try. I've never taken exposed film in holders on a plane but I can see where that would be problematical since most security types have probably never seen a LF film holder before. I used to ship film but it's such a pain to package the film and have to make three trips to Fed Ex offices plus the risk of loss that I quit doing that years ago.

[sanking]

This subject comes up a lot. People who work profesionally and can not afford to take any chances usually recommend shipping the film by FedEx or some other reliabel carrier. I can understand this point of view, but my own opinion is that the film is safer with me. Over the past ten years I have traveled quite a bit by air, both inside the US and abroad. I always carry my fillm with me on board and send it through the scanner rather than request a hand check. So far as I am able to determine not a single sheet or roll of my film has been damaged, and some of it went through the scanners as much as 10-12 times on some long trips with several stops. TSA signs state that the scanners are safe for films under ASA 800 and I have certainly found that to be the case.

I never ask for a hand check because, 1) I don't believe it is necessary, and 2) anything you do out of the ordinary when going through screeing will wind up costing you a lot of time and hassle.

Sandy King

[IanG]

I totally agree with Sandy, on a trip from Turkey to South America last year most of my film, Tmax 400, FP4, HP5 etc went through scanners over 20 times, some had already been through scanners before that.

"anchored" is right saying Fuji, Ilford, Kodak etc say don't put through X-ray machines, but the hand baggage scanners aren't X-ray machines, and use a variety of wavelengths to create their image which are specifically desighned to be safe for the operators and film.

In the UK there's a committee made up of the RPS, Film manufacturers and airport authorities to oversee the safe scanning of films. I was told reliably 2 years ago that the modern scanners were safe for all conventional films even the fastest for many multiple scans.

Most airports use the very latest machinery, the oldest I've seen and has been in the US, but at a major airport undergoing modernisation.

I've had hand scans, they run a metal detector over the box then put it through the scanner as normal, its rare to have any other option.

Ian

[Richard A Johnson]

Thanks everyone for your help in this matter. I feel better now about putting my film through the machines. I was really not looking forward to the hole shipping thing. I just want to get on the plane and RELAXES.

Thanks again Richard:)

[Bill_1856]

Stuff shipped to me by UPS or FedEx often turns up after at my front door supper, hot to the touch because it's been in their un-airconditioned truck all day, baking in the Florida sun. With color film, I'd rather take my chances with hand-carried/X-rayed.