advice on transporting film

[phule]

<< The airport security now routinely take out every roll and wipe every roll to process in the explosives detector machine >>

 

In my experience, if you pack the film in zip lock bags without canisters or boxes, they'll swab the inside of the bag, not each roll.

[johnny massey]

Matt, I buy Acros from 7dayshop.com (to which I am not related) for 1.89UKP per roll, this is probably cheap even by US standards. I think they can probably spell all your destination addresses, but if they have to send it to the cardholders address then all you need is some willing helpers in UK/rest of Europe. Unless my idea is fatally flawed then perhaps LF forum can provide? PS They do a large range of other films as well. Enjoy your trip, Johnny

[EricM]

i'd like to see a photo of all this juicy slide film...can you post one?

[matt_chamberlain]

lol, i will post one when i get the order in. i will be placing the order next week so stay tuned. should i make a pyramid out of it? maybe i could arrange it in some sort of Asphere.

[doris_chan]

"it looks cool to be carrying such vast amounts of film in full view. You can tell women

you're a war photographer - nothing like it for getting laid"

 

Women are smarter than you think, they know that real war photographers use digital......

[EricM]

good one...

[skeeter]

just got back from two weeks in australia. i went through security six times. the process varied significantly between airports even within the same country. at my departure in austin, they meticulously opened and swabbed every single cannister (only 26) including the brick still shrink wrapped, and replaced the film in each cannister and box. a couple (lax and sidney) opened every cannister to look at the film cartridge and in one they looked at the ziplock bag and waved me through. in melbourne (en route to sidney) they made me "take a picture" with my m7 (with the security agent refusing to be the subject of the photo).

in sidney (en route to melbourne) they refused to inspect the camera an required me to xray it, and swabbed the inside of the bag.

 

i personally would not try to take a huge quantity of film with me overseas, as i would not entrust this investment to chance with xray machines and inspecting every roll would be impossible. i would try to find a source there and process as much as possible prior to returning.

 

when you think about it, inspecting a film cannister, either with or without the leader protruding is relatively useless if you are concerned with explosives. the only way to effectively screen is to swab for trace elements, and this was only done in two of six airports.

[nesrani]

"Women are smarter than you think, they know that real war photographers use digital......"

 

Damn, so that's why it never worked. Oh well...

[ben_smukler]

I read a suggestion in a recently-published travel photography book that you can check with the shipping companies (UPS, FedEx, etc.) and try to make sure that, if you ship your film, it will go on one of their cargo planes (unscanned) rather than as cargo on a commercial airliner (scanned like crazy). The bottom line is that the shippers will no longer promise that. You are likely to end up with lots of interesting-looking cannisters with no known use. If you really need that much film, I would suggest trying to pre-arrange bulk purchases along your route--or something similar--so that you neither have to carry that much film through the airports or risk having it fried as luggage. By the way, you can also pre-register your photo gear with Customs prior to your trip so there is no question that you owned it to begin with and are not trying to import it on the cheap.