Experience taking sheet film thorugh airport security checks

This weekend I will be traveling to Phoenix, AZ and would like to

shoot some 4x5 while I'm there. I have traveled many times and had no

problem putting 120 film through the x-ray machine. But, for whatever

reason, TSA <a

href="http://www.tsa.gov/public/interapp/editorial/editorial_1035.xml">recommends</a>

having sheet film hand checked.<p>So here I am trying to anticipate

what going through security with sheet film in a triple lid box would

be like. In my mind's eye, I see myself taking the box out of my bag

and asking the agent to hand check the contents. Then I see the agent

telling me that they will need to open the box and check the contents.

Of course I have used several sheets from the box so the foil package

has been opened and for the contents to be checked, my film would have

to be exposed.<p>Having these thoughts, I contacted TSA via their toll

free number. Their response center told me that the inspecting would

actually have to see the actual film itself and suggested I carry the

sheets in a transparent bag (a slightly strange suggestion).<p>My

question is this. From actual experience can anyone here share with

me what I might expect if I choose to carry sheet film through TSA

security?

I've flown twice lately with 35mm camera. First trip, no problem. Get to St Louis, sign there says you can have camera hand checked, so I ask for it to be handchecked. Lady says, "Okay, but you have to take the film out first." Duh. I would not expect consistent competence. (It was funny but sad to me that when the TSA people first started in, if you went through the metal detector with keys in your pocket, because they didn't tell you to take them out, they would then insist upon xraying your shoes. Keys in pocket, xray shoes, that was the rule.) These people will highly motivate you to drive or take up digital.

Film is film, and its sensitivity to x-rays doesn't depend on whether it has been cut into a strip that is 35 mm wide, or into pieces that are 4x5 inches in size. I don't know the basis for the TSA's recommendation that sheet film not be x-rayed -- perhaps they know that LF photographers are more concerned about quality?

 

My experience is that the TSA inspectors are resistant to hand inspecting film. If the box sets off the metal detector (because of a foil lined envelope), they will insist that it go through the x-ray machine. Sometimes if the box doesn't set up the metal detector, they will be satisifed with the explosive check and skip the x-ray.

 

But it really doesn't matter. The normal machines for carryon luggage won't harm your film. But do not place your film in your checked baggage because some machines used for this purpose (e.g., CTX InVision) will ruin your unprocessed film. Perhaps in a few airports these machines are used for secondary inspection of carryon luggage. Whenever I have seen the dangerous-to-film machines, they have been so labeled, as required by law.

 

Some other recent discussions in this forum:

 

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00CAEl

 

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00BSU0

 

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00B0Jh

I don't have a lot to add to the extensive experiences in the linked threads. Here's my small addition:

 

In 30 years of photography and travelling I have only ever had one roll perceptibly damaged by x-rays. That was ISO 400, in Malaysia in 1984. Goodness knows what the machine was doing to the operators.

 

Velvia 50 seems pretty much impervious to the dosage given to carry-on luggage, no doubt due to its slow speed. On my last work trip I took a dozen rolls of 120 Velvia through ten machines and they all came out beautifully. A couple of years ago in the US I made the mistake of leaving a roll of Velvia in my checked-in luggage - which is supposedly the big no-no. I anticipated disaster but it too survived. I read somewhere that the high-powered machines take "slices" though the bags so maybe I was just lucky and it missed the film.

 

Of course the dosage is cumulative - I try to avoid taking anything higher than 400 through more than a couple of times, but like I said at the start, I've only been unlucky once.

 

Some years ago I was travelling overseas and started to get nervous about the number of times I had been through x-rays, so got all my films processed overseas. The lab did such a bad job with scratching and spotting that in retrospect I would much rather have taken the risk of bringing them home.

 

In a couple of months time I will travel from Australia to Europe. I intend to take 3-4 boxes of 4x5, and 30-40 rolls of 120. My usual practice is to put as much as possible in lead film bags, and place the bags and any spare film in the large pockets of a camera vest. I look like the Michelin Man which embarrasses my wife, but when I turn up at an airport with a bunch of cameras and lenses, wearing a camera vest, carrying lead bags marked "film", which contain boxes marked "Fuji Film", it seems to give my story of being a photographer a veneer of plausibility!

 

Final advice: never lose your temper, especially at Heathrow and Los Angeles. I don't know why they react so badly; presumably real terrorists would be as polite as possible :-)

i have been flying mostly out of NYC overseas for 5 years now (no domestic. i hear the domestic travels afir a bit worse) and i have had no problems. they have a swipe "patch" of fabric they wipe on the box/film box and put it in the machine. no problem and is aonly seconds long. as long as you were not reloading your black powder rifle near that bag you will be fine! lol!

so in all seriousness they are hardly even handleing the stuff now. i usually fly with 100 roles of 120 role film. when i ask for a hand check i hunorously add "i promise to go digital next year" this usually diffuses the situation and it becomes a fun process. i have yetto try LF film....but it is coming.

 

eddie

Hi there,.. same headaches, no? With exception of London, if you are polite and request hand checking, you will be fine. On recent trip from Cost Rica, I had 200+ rolls of film, there was no problem with getting hand checked.

 

Few tips: You have to lie a little. You have to say that you have 800 speed film ( although box says otherwise ) or just get some rolls that are 800 speed. X-Ray machines do effect film, so screeners have in their guidlines to inspect high speed visually.

Leave yourself plenty of time though. On one screening spot each roll was checked individually for explosives.

 

Lately, when I'm going on asigments, I ship the film to the hotel or place where I'm staying and I ship it back directly to the lab. Second day by USPS is $ 3.95, worth saving the trouble. Lately Fedex started to X-Ray packages, but only if they are suspicious

what i normally do with medium format and 35mm is just stuff them in my pockets....and walk through. With large format maybe not so easy.

I have travelled with sheet film in the US and have not seen a problem letting them scan my film. I have had at least 1 pack of Tmax 100 readyloads go through 10 times and no apparent damage. The carry on scanners are not as destructive as the checked luggage although I would worry about overseas travel because I heard that carry on scanners are more powerful there.

8 years ago I went through Xray in N.Y airport with 200 4x5 plats of Trix 400 and 200 plats of plus X.

when I got back to Israel and start trying to use these plates I found that I am going to put them in a nice bag and say few words before They go to garbedge!!! they where all usless!!!

Last time I flew, the TSA guy almost opened my box of exposed 4x5" transparencies. I told him to "stop" and tried to explain that it was film and pointed out the warning on the box. He relented, but insisted that it then be X-rayed. No getting around it.

One rule/procedure change is that you can't wear any sort of jacket as you walk through the metal detector. So that reduces how much film you can carry in your pockets. The brands of film in boxes that have paper envelopes with metal foil will be detected as containing metal -- my experience is that the inspectors will insist on x-raying these. They may notice bulging pockets and ask you to empty them for inspection, the default being x-ray inspection.

 

If you really don't want your film x-rayed, you could use Quickloads or Readyloads. I haven't tried it, but these should be easy to have hand inspected. The problem with a box is that an inspector will be concerned about what could be hidden in it.

 

Film in checked baggage is a matter of chance. The dangerous-to-film machines first do a regular x-ray. Only if the operator can't identify all of the contents do they proceed to the high dose, CAT-scan inspection.

Several years ago the local courthouse security gurus hand checked each box of unexposed and exposed Kodak Professional Copy Film 4125; which has an asa of 12 with tungsten.<BR><BR> We had a contract to photograph fragile century plus old, one of a kind land maps and city maps; and drum scan the negatives. They wanted a physical B&W archival processed negative; and digital file of each too. The documents had to be pieced together, and a piece of glass placed on top to hold the curled fragments down. Each image was shot with 3 exposures, and a note placed in the field documenting the shot.<BR><BR> The contract specified that our equipment and films were not to be messed with, and the guards instructed and coached. Their blunder cost a days work, plus ruined all our remaining supply of Kodak copy film sheets. You have to think guard, dont think, just ignore contacts and common sense and open and expose each box.<BR><BR> This whole affair was planned to the tee like a rocket launch, with meetings with security attending. Never underestimate how wrong folks can bungle up a security check. We were able to bring all our photo gear, film and lights in with no checks at all.<BR><BR>We later scanned the old work just with our Phase One 4x5 backs, and abandoned the film route. It was rather sickning to have our last batches of film ruined with a royal bungle.

"Film in checked baggage is a matter of chance. The dangerous-to-film machines first do a regular x-ray. Only if the operator can't identify all of the contents do they proceed to the high dose, CAT-scan inspection."

 

CTX also does this automatically, in addition to upon command of an operator. InVision (and TSA) GUARANTEES that film in checked baggage will most likely get damaged. It's simply not worth even trying!

 

Re: hand-checked film setting off the metal detector... one minor correction: If TSA agrees to hand-check, they don't run it through the metal detector, they had it AROUND the metal detector.

 

But I still find it interesting that the sometimes try to open boxes of exposed LF film... that indicates a total ignorance of what they are handling, or poor training.

"they have a swipe "patch" of fabric they wipe on the box/film box and put it in the machine. no problem and is aonly seconds long. as long as you were not reloading your black powder rifle near that bag you will be fine! lol!"

 

I don't "LOL" anymore. Not too long ago my camera bag was pulled off hte X-ray belt for hand inspection. The TSA agent was quite careful with my equipment (although she did admit to being nervous about handling such expensive professional equipment)while doing htis 'trace detection'.. Everything was fine until one lens "set off the alarm". My ticket, ID, and equipment was immediately confiscated. A supervisor disappeared with my papers... into a back room... presumably to 'check me out'. The TSA agent, meanwhile, guarded my equioment and carried ona bit of small talk. Then, the boss returned, asked me all sorts of questions: what do I do for a living, when was the last time I handled explosives, what kind of jobs do I do with the camera... Then they took every item out of my bag, spread them across the table, and swabbed EACH INDIVIDUAL ITEM. After determining that it was a false alarm, they apologized profusely, helped me pack my bag, and wished my a warm 'bon voyage'. It was only a 20 minute delay so I wan't too upset... but I don't laugh about airport inspections anymore.

One reason that I pointed out that the metal foil will set off the metal detector is because of the suggestions above to put film in your pockets. The metal foil will likely be detected as you walk through the metal detector. I have also found, when requesting a hand inspection of boxes of sheet film, that they may use the metal detector wands. These will always detect the foil. My experience is, if they detect metal, they will insist on an x-ray inspection, regardless of what the regulations say.

 

Re the InVision machines: my point was to explain why some people have had their film undamaged even though they sent it in their checked baggage. I was not suggesting that people do this. The first reason is that their film may not have gone through one of these machines. The second is that the not all bags are subject to the second high dose scan. The first scan shouldn't damage film, so I don't think these machines are guaranteed to damage film, but the probability is very high.

 

Reports of undamaged film sent via checked luggage should NOT cause people to use this method. The carryon approach is much safer.

http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hs=yNl&hl=en&lr=&client=opera&rls=en&q=film+x-ray+site%3Atsa.gov&btnG=Search

http://www.i3a.org/pdf/ctx-5000sp-camera_films_report.pdf

 

Here is some film industry research re: CTX and film fogging that you might want to read, if you haven't already. Anyone who thinks they can dodge the X-ray is much more of a "betting man" than I ever will be!

My theory why they say to handcheck sheet film: Isn't Xray film "sheet film"? I'm guessing they just don't know the differenece, and assume all sheet film is Xray film, therefore sensitive to the xray equipment (which I assume it is).

 

By the way, in the St Louis arch, you also have to do the xray thing. There, they had a sign saying it wouldn't harm film under 1600 ASA. I asked for a hand check, they said no, they don't hand check anything, and if you have film OVER 1600, then take it back out to your car. The security there was old-airport technology, no explosive sniffing stuff that I saw, no taking-off of the shoes. It did involve waiting a half hour in freezing weather to get inside to the security check. They need to redesign that whole layout so only the people going up in the arch go through the security, but that may be a while.

 

My gripe with the xray process in general is this: They'll tell you it won't hurt film, but the people saying that simply don't know- as pointed out above, they seem to be unaware of the difference between exposed and unexposed film, much less knowing what ISO ratings are. I do know that the Delta 3200 says on the box not to xray it, so evidently there's some possibility of damage. If it does fry your film, the TSA won't accept responsibility for it. These are people that won't trust you one iota, then tell you "trust me" and that just doesn't work well. I've got my film back from the arch, and results are not impressive. Is some of that due to that xray? I'll never know.

Note that TSA says to have both "large format film" and "sheet film" hand inspected, which indicates the depth of their knowledge about the films we use. I used to go through much agony in an effort to keep the x-rays off my TMax 100 and HP5+ films - sometimes I sent it by Fed Ex both ways (a real pain not to mention expense), sometimes I carried it on and argued over hand-inspections (most TSA people had no problem with a hand inspection but one wanted to take the boxes into their "dark room" and open them, another wanted to open the Readyload envelopes), and I carried it in my pockets after removing the foil from TMax (HP5+ didn't have foil and when foil is present it's there to protect the film from humidity, not as light protection, so you don't need to keep unexposed film in the foil if it's going to be used in the near future). Then I heard Ron Rosenstock talk about flying back and forth from the U.S. and Ireland five or six times a year, sometimes carrying the same box on two or three trips, and never worrying about carry-on xrays so I started doing the same thing. I no longer worry about carry-on xrays, I just put the film in a carry-on bag and let it go through the xray machine. I haven't yet had any problems with TMax 100 and HP5+ or color slide film.

I have done a fair amount of international travel and routinely take my 4X5 camera and film. I have lead bags for my film and if I stand the bags against the side of my hand checked camera bag, the x-ray machine does not see the lead lined bags, no further inspection. If I lay them down on the bottom of the camera bag, I will have a complete inspection of film, camera and accessories. My wife had 50 rolls of 35mm film wiped for explosives on one trip. It is the luck of the draw with TSA inspectors.

 

Paul

William,

I wish you all the luck in the world...You may need it!

A TSA inspector actually took my box of un-opened Fuji Velvia and gave me her vesion of a hand inspection:

She was behind a metal partition and - believe it or not, opened my film and ruined the entire 50 sheet box of film !!!

She put the film back in the box and returned it to me.

When I questioned her, she replied:

"You asked for a hand inspection and that is what I gave you".

Knowing that I would be in Portland, Oregon in 6 hours without any film to shoot, I had to worry during my entire flight about whether or not I would be able to find sheet film in Oregon.

Luckily I found a professional photo supply house in Portland and I was able to buy the film in 10 sheet boxes (for considerably more).

In order to make sure TSA did not ruin my exposed sheet film on the return flight, I decided to have the lab in Portland process my film and ship it back to me via FEDEX.

By the way, as a matter of principle, I submitted a claim to TSA for the damage and their response was:

"TSA regrets to inform you that your claim is denied. TSA is precluded from paying claims where the claimed loss was not a result of the negligence or wrongful act of its employees".

Incidently, they did not even spellcheck the reply letter to me.

I would love to know whether the TSA has ever reimbursed any US citizen for damage done to photographic film by their employees.

It is interesting to note that I also handed the TSA guidelines for handchecking film to the TSA agent prior to her act.

What do you think the chances are that she could not read English?

She had a very difficult time speaking our language!

 

Take care,

Mike Herring