Airport security and photography gear

A friend of mine flew to Florida last week and the security at our

local airport actually took out each roll of film from the canisters

and wiped down the canisters with a cloth?! Checking for drugs,

apparently? Then they took the lens cap off his lens (he had it

attached to the body). He didn't notice this when they took it off,

but he saw them put it back on. He thinks they might have even

wiped the lens (UV filter) with the cloth, but he isn't sure and

couldn't see any obvious marks on it afterwards.

 

Is this standard practice these days? I'll be flying later this

summer and will be taking some Canon "L" lenses that I'd prefer they

not even touch. Any suggestions if this happens, other than get

insurance?

 

Thanks.

Looking for drugs ? I don't think that's the case. These cloth pieces are analyzed for explosives, although as it has often been said, explosives search is better done with density. If a film canister feels much heavier than it normally should, that should give a clue that something's wrong.

<<I'll be flying later this summer and will be taking some Canon "L" lenses that I'd prefer they not even touch. >>

 

Ship the cameras and lenses FedEx?

 

You don't have the luxury of telling the TSA folks not to examine your carry-on or checked gear.

 

Yes, the swabs test for residue of explosives. That inspection (by hand with the swab) of film canisters is preferred by many photographers to the alternative, which is running the film through the carry-on X-ray scanners. I have never had film harmed in the carry-on scanners.

 

Don't put film in checked bags. The very powerful scanners for checked bags will fog film.

 

Be well,

I just flew from Iraq to JFK & back with a full bag of gear hand carried on. They did nothing of the sort to me, just ran my equipment through the x-ray machine. I shoot only digital, so I don't have to sweat film issues. I suppose that what they do to you is going to depend on how the screeners feel that day. Good luck on your trip.

I travel a lot and always have a full backpack of digital gear and lenses. My observation has been that the smaller airports will examine your gear much more closely than the larger ones. I think the inspectors in Atlanta, Miami, NYC, Paris, London, Amsterdam, etc. have seen everything go through their machines and recognize photo gear as just that. Inspectors at smaller airports don't have as much experience seeing that type of gear on the xray monitor so they tend to be more cautious. My advice is to expect some sort of additional search and plan ahead by arriving a little early and being patient with them. Also, if you think they might be about to cause damage to something, don't hesitate to ask for a supervisor.

I have always carried by bodies and lenses with me at all times, however, I find it increasingly frightful that I may be told one day at the boarding gate that I have too much to carry on. As I purchase more and more lenses I am not sure what to do if that ever happens.

 

FedEx lenses is not a bad idea, but sometimes you don't always have a trustworthy place to ship one or more $1,500+ lenses to.

 

Has anyone had problems at an airport gate with a large amount of gear? Have you ever been told you have to check a camera bag? Thanks for the input.

 

dG

Standard hand screening for camera and lenses is to look through the optics. If you keep film separate from the camera bag, and you aren't flying one way, you have a good chance that the bag will go through xray and not require a hand check.

 

Other than the time taken, the only issues I've had with hand screening is getting the bag repacked.

 

The other alternative is to check the camera bag. TSA insignia locks on checked baggage aren't a guarantee they won't be cut off. I've had some cut off even when they were just stored on one end of a zipper.

I don't fly a whole lot but have done so about ten times since TSA took over and I found them to be MUCH more knowledgable about photo gear than the former rent-a-cops the airports used. They can spot it on the xray and don't get all excited at the cylinders attached to boxes

 

They don't seem offended or even bothered when I stand over my gear like a mother hen and explain what each thing is

I fly all the time and always with a lot of equipment but for the last 30 flights (or so), the

only thing that ever got swiped for explosives (that's what the swiping is for) was my

laptop while all my photo equipment is usually ignored or simply inspected visually.

I think it really depends on the aiport, the people on duty and stuff we have no clue about.

 

They've swabbed the outside of my camera bag but never individual rolls of film. They've swabbed the outside of my regular backpack for no apparrent reason either.

 

I don't *think* they can make you check photo gear. At least the one time I was told my carryon was overweight (Quantas) they still let me take my gear onboard.

 

The only problem I have ever had was last year in Tulsa OK when they xrayed my carryon, they kept insisting I had a video camera (even if I did, what did it matter to them? I was confused) They wound up taking all my gear out and finally decided a 80-200 2.8D lens looks just like a video camera in the xray. HuH?

 

'shana

Last couple of times in Toronto, swabbing equipment is the norm. Which is an

improvement from before. They used to be totally baffled by my Mamiya 7! As for

film, I just let it go through the carry on xrays there.

when I flew from Prague the last time [2003] and asked for manual film inspection the officer sniffed with this little electronic "nose" the films and I asked him what is that machine good for and he simply answered "it's for explosives",I think that for drug detection they still use junkie dogs

From my most recent air travel/TSA encouter, I'd recommend a personal article policy to cover camera gear...zero-deduct, all-perils, new equivalent replacement. My policy is with the same company but entirely separate from my homeowner ins. For about $60 per year I have nearly $4000 worth of gear covered. *** March 2005 I flew from Honolulu to Orlando, FL. Typically I check that noone is stopped at the scanner doorway ahead and I put my photo pack on the conveyor, quickly step through the doorway, and I proivde the TSA attendee a tour of my gear showing them on/off functionality of camera bodies and removing lens caps as requested. This time, I passed through the doorway without a beep but was never-the-less recalled to remove my shoes. When I was let through, the TSA personnel handed me the gear pack unzipped with everything just kind of piled up and not set into their fitted slots. Upon testing I found: The EOS-5 on/off command dial (you must press a lock-release AND rotate the dial simultaneously) had been stripped of its gears. The 17-35mm wideangle lens had a locked down aperature that could neither be opened manually nor electronically and a dent in the side of the barrel, the flash unit was just plain dead and the Mini DV video camera's LCD does not function. My guess is that they forceably rotated the camera command dial to prove it could turn on and also dropped the entire bag on the concrete. How else could they damage so much so quickly? I'm now getting repairs and replacements, over $1000 worth... all covered by the insurance.