Review Film and airport scanners

[Kell]

Just an update after my trip to/from the States.

I hadn't even realised that there were new scanners or that they could affect film, but after asking for advice in another thread about film - I was warned about them and advised to ask for hand inspection.

This is what I found.

In both Heathrow on the way out and Newark airport on the way back, the advice was that the scanners would only affect film rated at '900' and above.

In Heathrow, there were no signs, so you'd have to be aware ahead of time.
In Newark, there were signs saying that only >800 would be affected, but that if you felt more comfortable, you could ask for a hand inspection for all film.

Newark is quite small airport and wasn't super-busy. Maybe this affected it, but they were really happy to help.

I had several rolls of ASA400, plus one roll of ASA800.

In Heathrow, they were nice about it, but basically refused to take the ASA400 for a hand-inspection. But did agree to do it for the ASA800.

In Newark, they were not only happy to hand-inspect it all, we also had a chat about what I'd shot and he did ask if I'd left any in my camera too as he didn't want that going through.

Haven't got anything back yet, but that's the latest from last weekend.

 

[MarkWalker]

Heathrow - I find it must depend on what side of the bed the security guy / girl gets out of bed...I've had all film hand-checked and also refused but I always ask regardless.

So after multiple scanners, no issues with My Kodak 100s & 400 film in medium and 35 format

 

[skysh4rk]

Traditional scanners aren't really much of an issue unless you have faster films or your films are going through scanners 10+ times.

The new CT scanners, however, will noticeably affect film after one scan and that is what you need to watch out for.

To increase odds of hand checks, you can rehouse boxes of slower films within old boxes of faster film (e.g., Portrait 400 in a box of Delta 3200). If you don't have a lot of film, you can also leave a roll or two in your pocket when going through security yourself.

I find North American, middle eastern, and Asian airports more accommodating of hand checks than UK/European ones.

 

[FishyFish]

I emailed Manchester Airport recently and received the following guidance.

Our advice from security is as follows: any camera film under ISO 1600 can be processed through our conventional X-Ray machines, Polaroid film must not be placed in any X-ray machine and no camera film should be screened using a CT machine.

If your camera film cannot be put through the CT or X-ray scanners, you can let the security staff know and they will be able to perform a manual search.