a customs officer opened my film!

[Antonio Corcuera]

Hi,
I usually mail order all my film from Germany but last week I bought 5 50-sheet boxes of Fuji 160s from Freestyle. When the film arrived today, I got an unpleasant surprise –the package was inspected by a customs officer and one of the boxes had the seals broken.
The foil package inside has not been opened. How lightproof is this foil? Will the film be fogged?

[David A. Goldfarb]

The foil is lightproof. A disturbing discovery, for sure, but as long as the package is closed, the film should be fine.

[Antonio Corcuera]

The foil is lightproof. A disturbing discovery, for sure, but as long as the package is closed, the film should be fine.

Phew, that was close.
Thanks David!

[Rory_5244]

Welcome to the club.

[Antonio Corcuera]

Welcome to the club.

Do you mean the club?

Yeah, after all I paid duty & vat for the film, the package was marked as "film" and there was an invoice to go with it, the guys opened the package and saw the factory sealed boxes... probably also went through x-ray.
I might still try to file a claim and see what happens

[Rory_5244]

Yes, customs officers in my country routinely open my film boxes in broad daylight too. I had to switch from Ilford films (not sealed) to Kodak (sealed). Thankfully, both Kodak and Fuji sealed packets are light-proof. I filed 2 claims, 1 year ago. I'm still waiting for a response.

[turtle]

reminds me of the time when airport security at Dubai X-rayed my Leica M, looked at me as if I had just tried to sneak an H-Bomb thru security and then proceeded to try to stuff their fingers inside it (until I grabbed it off them and explained that this would wreck it). I have no idea what they thought it was (despite having Xrayed the thing). Maybe they never saw a metal camera before in the world of digital and plastic. I think I was about 1 millisecond away from fingers thru the shutter.

Mind you, have you not seen photo printing paper for sale on ebay laid out for the pictures

[eddie]

phew! that was close. good thing they stopped at the foil AND they only opened one box. do not worry about the x ray. all will be fine.

i just flew in from thailand. talk about a circus. i have been flying in and out of thailand for 7 years but it was not till this year that leaving was so difficult. first we had our stuff looked through for liquids, then x rayed, then they opened all the bags going to america. i turned around for a split second to help my wife pick up her bag (it was heavy from all my photo crap!!!) i looked back an the thai man had one box off of the 3 box system for 4x5 film! man! talk about just in time. i grabbed it and speaking thai i explained to him that it was film and not to open it and he could x ray it one more time if he wanted but not to open it. it worked he let me go! all my film survived.

eddie

[Gene McCluney]

I wonder if Ilford could be persuaded to start using sealed foil on its sheet-film packaging? Even Forte used seal light-tight packaging inside the film boxes.

[Rory_5244]

I sent Ilford an email detailing the problem. I have low hopes of them changing their packaging, though, as that may entail a big expenditure on their part to facilitate, well, just me.