film and airport scanners

Kev M

Kev M

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I'm off to spain on friday and this time I will have room for my camera but what's the score with x-ray machines and the effects on film?

Cheers,
Kev
 
Alledgedly the scanners are meant to be so weak they don't affect film. If it's not busy sometimes you can ask for them to be manually checked but I've tried that at busy times and they just chucked my film onto the belt with everything else. It was fine actually, I'd only worry nowadays if it was very fast film.:)
 
In my experience the scanners used for hand luggage don't have an appreciable effect except with very fast film.

The shielded bags which can be used to protect film are not a good idea. I had a conversation a few years ago with one of the security chaps at Stanstead and he confirmed my suspicion that they just turn up the power to see what is inside.

The machines used to scan hold luggage are routinely set at a far higher power and can cause problems.

Short answer: Film in hand luggage will be fine unless it is very fast indeed.
 
Cheers chaps, I won't be taking anything faster than ISO400 so should be alright.
 
You should be fine taking your film as hand luggage. I've had ISO 400 film go through multiple scans without any issue.
 
I put ISO 400 film that had been pushed to 1600 and it got completely ruined, bar the first shot.
 
Liam said:
I put ISO 400 film that had been pushed to 1600 and it got completely ruined, bar the first shot.
Click to expand...

But that doesn't change the actual sensitivity of the film as by setting your meter to ISO1600 you're just telling it to underexpose ISO400 by 2 stops, pushing is done during development.

Unless I've totally muddled things up :LOL:
 
Yes, but I put the film in the developer for 5 minutes longer, so any light recorded will show up hence why the scanner affected it. I may have a scan of one of the shots.
 
X-Ray machines aren't supposed to affect photographic film but your best bet is still to ask them to hand search the items. If they refuse or bung it on the belt then ask to see a supervisor. At the end of the day it is your property and they have no right to damage it.
 
Just say your film is 1600 and 3200. Did this in new york and it was hand checked but said 3200. The guard knew about this and if i had said 400 it would of gone through the machine. In spain from my experience good luck, they tend to not speak English and saying it in Spanish you will get pushed through.
 
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