Putting 4x5 film holders in checked in luggage

[xkaes]

Sorry about your trouble/problems. I've taken REDEYES from Denver (MIDNIGHT) to JFK several times and never had a problem. Maybe you should contact the TSA to wake up their drunken checkers at EX-LAX. It might/could (NOT WILL) lead to a disaster.

[Fred L]

A friend was covering fashion in Milano many moons ago, and this was when we carried hundreds of rolls of film in bags for inspection. Exposed film was in labeled manilla envelopes.

So it's the crack of dawn at Malpensa Airport and my friend asks for a hand inspection. Of hundreds of rolls of film. So they go back and forth over the hand inspection until basically, iirc, heavily armed security says film goes through scanner or no flight to Paris. He got on the flight.

I've had my 320TXP sheet film go through security scanners with no ill effect that I could see. I'll ask for a hand inspection if I can but won't put up a fight if they say no. Last time I was hand inspected, they swabbed the Ziplock bag which promptly set off alarms. Guess the bag had a lighter or similar item in it previously.

[Mds88]

I have asked for hand inspections of 120 and 4x5 sheet film (both exposed and unexposed) in Las Vegas, Ottawa, Toronto and Calgary on several occasions. I had the film boxes and rolls in clear zip lock bags. I requested a hand inspection and without exception my request was granted. The TSSA agents used the "sniffer" machine after swiping each box and roll.

[LabRat]

Sorry about your trouble/problems. I've taken REDEYES from Denver (MIDNIGHT) to JFK several times and never had a problem. Maybe you should contact the TSA to wake up their drunken checkers at EX-LAX. It might/could (NOT WILL) lead to a disaster.

Thanks for making any input from anyone into their own personal problems, and that you are above it all...

BTW, this entire forum is for discussion, not a personal platform for your questionable statements and attitude... Take some responsibility that what you post is to be helpful to all, and not just self serving, ego driven, defensive tirades, and that you will bash someone if any opinion or experience does not reflect your world???

Have you noticed here that no one flames each other, and the discussion is civil??? You don't seem to care about anyone else but yourself...

Steve K

[Jim Andrada]

I had film badly fogged going through the hand carry scanners in Auckland but that was a long time ago. Never seen any problem with modern equipment.

Outgoing inspection in Japan will not be a problem - I've flown in and out of Narita/Haneda over 300 times and it's the only place I've had them apologize for asking me to put stuff in the inspection basket. Hong Kong on the other hand...

Just be nice and they'll be just fine. Why not get your film in Tokyo, though? Or get a small changing bag and carry everything in your carry on - it's how I usually do it. Let's see now, last trip to Japan I had a 4 x 5 Linhof Technika, a Mamiya 645, a Canon 5D, a Canon C-100 video cam, a Minox B, and a Zeiss Super Ikonta 120 folder. As well as a couple of dozen rolls of 120 and 3 Grafmatic holders along with a couple of regular 4 x 5 holders. Took quite a while to figure it out but I got it all in a Temba carry on bag. Gitzo tripod went in checked luggage. Granted the Temba weighed around 50 pounds but nobody gave me a hassle about it.

[Willie]

X-ray film is exposed by light, not x-rays. An x-ray machine uses x-rays to excite a light emitting substance which then exposes the film.

Thank you for the clarification. Shows how much I don't know. Maybe I will have to try a box of the X-Ray film one of these days.

[xkaes]

BTW, this entire forum is for discussion, not a personal platform for your questionable statements and attitude...

I don't know how you can possibly take my SUGGESTION that people actually READ the FAA RULES instead of making incorrect assumptions about them, as anything but THAT -- a SUGGESTION.

[BrianShaw]

PM sent

[John Olsen]

X-ray film is exposed by light, not x-rays. An x-ray machine uses x-rays to excite a light emitting substance which then exposes the film.

X-ray film is sensitive to x rays. Modern x-rays machines may do as your quote says, however, back in the good 'ol days we used x rays to do the job. The film needed to be loaded in the dark, and kept in a light-tight holder for the exposure to x rays. There was no light-excitation layer involved. The sensitivity curve for each film was based on the voltage of the x rays, no visible light involved. (But a converter layer is a clever idea.)

[LabRat]

Another big problem during air travel is dehydration, as the film is open (even in darkness) to excessive drying in the bone dry atmosphere, where if uneven, the thickness/hardness of the emulsion will develop unevenly later... Film flatness can be distorted, leaving a wave or bump resulting in OOF areas on the image... Better to keep the film in a sealed box that resists humidity change, rather than a holder...

I have seen some people's film that they thought were damaged by X-rays, but seeing different density areas on the roll film was a clue to areas that were subject to more dry exposure (like the frames around the camera gate, and gaps inside a film cassette where the roll could be partially loose in part of the core and tight on the other part etc) during long flights...

Sealing in the rH beforehand helps, and if excessively dried in flight, B/W film does well with a 5 to 10 min pre-soak before the developer, and using dilute solutions that develop the film more slowly have a chance to "fluff" the emulsion thickness and develop more evenly...

Steve K