New airport screening rules

TSA announced they will phase in new screening requirements, but not ban electronics from passenger airplanes.

 

New airport rules will mean separate screening for iPads, e-readers and other large electronic devices

 

What's missing from the announcement is whether cameras are included.

 

However, people who have gone through the TSA's Trusted Known Traveler pre-check will be exempt from the new screening requirements.

more info and, more importantly, user feedback on the TSA pre-check service which, apparently, ain't available at every airport.

 

New TSA procedure requires cameras to be placed in a separate bin

Pre check has never worked for me -- I always get the "treatment" usually with my entire camera bag unpacked. I fly as little as possible, since for so many reasons it has become quite unpleasant.

i'm seriously thinking of making one last trip stateside and these checks bothered me until i realised i need not take any tech stuff with me. i can buy it there, cheaper. Kerching!

If you are signed up with GOES, you can skip some of the more onerous rules, like removing your shoes and separate trays for large electronic devices. This waiver is not absolute, and you may be screened more rigorously at random intervals. GOES also lets you through the short line for reentry throughout customs into the U.S.A. You sign up on line, pay an $100 fee, and schedule a personal interview with a customs agent. You enter the registration number when you book an airline, online or at the ticket counter.

 

I had to wait 6 weeks to get the camera of my choice, and 2 months for a ball head. Purchasing at the destination is not an option, nor is tripling (or more) the cost of the trip. My immediate concern is whether I can pre-qualify for drone licensing in UK and the EU.

 

Purchases outside of the UK may be cheaper, but you still face VAT and import duties on return. Somebody has to feed the monster ;)

When I traveled by air a lot as a sports photographer the cameras & even the lenses had to be "proven" by removing lens caps, working apertures & winding & firing the shutter. Some even insisted the lens be dismounted so they could look through it & the same with the mirror/shutter.

 

Oddly enough I dumped the 2 Vivitar 510v High sped battery packs in the x-ray bin.(I wasn't worried about x-ray damage to them.) Years later I saw the image of one. I've never seen anything that looked so much like a "MacGuiver TV Bomb"! Coiled wires mysterious dark rectangular shadows & obvious printed circuit boards! Yet I was never, ever asked to open them for inspection, or explain what they were.

:rolleyes: