Film and Luggage X-ray -- what now?

[john_n._wall]

OK, I had a mix-up on a trip -- lost track of a bag of 6 rolls of exposed film

-- and the worst thing happened. It came home in my suitcase. It went through

two airport baggage x-ray units, one in Bologna. Italy, and one at London

Gatwick. Fortunately, this was not all the film I shot, but enough to have some

significant images on it.

 

All this film is 400 speed, both B&W and color. Should I throw it away now, or

is there a chance it came through unfogged?

[larrydressler]

I bet it is fine process it,

[waltflanagan]

Develop one roll and see if it's good. If so then develop the rest.

[ronald_moravec1]

Develope only-no prints Luggage scanner damage appears as streaks, not fog, so it should

be readily viewable

[ShunCheung]

Why don't you get them processed. Besides the processing cost, you have nothing to lose.

 

Back in year 2000, I once flew back to the US from Tanzania via Amsterdam. I deliberately put a roll of unprocessed film in my checked luggage, with totally unimportant images from that trip, of course. After I got home, I had that processed and there wasn't even a trace of X-ray fogging. It was a roll of slide film, and I even removed the mount to inspect the unexposed area; it was as dark as normal.

 

Is that typical result? Probably not. But you can get lucky sometimes.

[john_shriver]

If the baggage X-ray's scanning beam hit the film, there will be a streak. But while the scans are high intensity, they are scanned as lines, not everywhere. (Think of the laser in a supermarket checkout scanner, but with X-rays.) So there's some room for luck.

[ian_mazursky]

I vote for processing it.

 

I tested 2 sheets of 4x5 film through 4 international airports in italy, london and the us.

 

I didnt see any problems at all.

[CharlesBecker-Toronto]

I agree with Walt-have one roll processed then take it from there. good luck, cb :-)

[ShunCheung]

I too would develop one roll first. If you know which roll contains what, I would develop the roll with the most important images.

 

If that turns out to be fine, obviously develop the rest of them. If that turns out to be not so good, depending on how important the remaining images are, you might still want to get the rest of them developed, at perhaps the cheapest option. Unless you really need to save the development cost, why give up without a fight?

[larrydressler]

Every image is a once in a life time shot. Remember that. you can always try to repair any damage in PS.

 

Larry

[roseberry guitars]

I've had film go through the airport luggage xray machine a few times and have had zero problems. Twice by accident, like you and once just after 911 when nothing could be carry on.

 

Well, not quite true that I've had no problems. I had one roll of 3200 ISO that was messed up but I was never sure if it was the xray or not. It didn't look like xray damage that I have seen, maybe just an incompetent camera operator.

 

Your film should be fine. It usually takes more than one trip or many times through to develope any issues.

[dawn_kelly]

According to the TSA website, though they recommend removing film from luggage, you should be fine if your film is less than 800 speed. Link and info below.

 

http://www.tsa.gov/travelers/airtravel/assistant/editorial_1035.shtm

 

At the passenger security checkpoint, you should remove the following types of film from your carry-on baggage and ask for a hand inspection:

*Film with an ASA/ISO 800 or higher

*Highly sensitive X-ray, medical or scientific films

*Film of any speed which is subjected to X-ray surveillance more than 5 times (the effect of X-ray screening is cumulative)

*Film that is or will be underexposed

*Film that you intend to 'push process'

*Sheet, large format and motion picture film

[kev_400d]

"At the passenger security checkpoint, you should remove the following types of film from your carry-on baggage and ask for a hand inspection"

 

Good Luck asking for that at LHR! It goes through the machine or it goes in the bin! They have a major infastructure just for carting off the tones (and thousands of pounds worth) of confiscated items every day!

[carbon_dragon]

If it went though those new cat scan type machines (CTX 5000?) then it probably has streaks on it, but I don't think even today they scan every bag, so you might get lucky. Like someone said above, don't get prints, and do them one at a time.

[craig_shearman1]

Developing just one roll is not a test of whether everything has been ruined. As others have noted, this type of x-ray has lines or "fingers" of beams that make a clear streak without fogging. It might have "sliced" through one roll but not the others, every other roll, every third roll, or any combination imagineable depending on how close the beams are and the positioning of the rolls in relation to the beams. So you could develop the first roll and it's trashed, but the other rolls might be fine. I recommend that you develop all of them. As a teenager, I had a roll of film that got soaked in melted ice in the cooler in the trunk of my parents' car and I was debating whether to get it developed. An old portrait photographer who was my mentor at the time said "if it's worth shooting it's worth developing." I still stand by that. (And that particular roll turned out fine.)

[john_n._wall]

OK they are all being processed; results come in tomorrow. I decided that those of you who said if its worth shooting its worth developing were right. If I threw them away I would never know what I had. Worth the price of processing to find out.

 

I also went to some of the more dire websites and saw some of the possible effects. My thought was, even if I have a mess, maybe it will be a fortuitous mess; maybe it will turn out with some weird alternative process type effect and I will love it in the end. After all, I sometimes shoot with a Holga; why not treat this as a kind of Holga experiment.

 

Will let everyone know. And thanks for your support and advice.

[john_n._wall]

Ok, the results are in. Or, at least the B&W results are in. Got back today the film and contact sheets for my B&W film that was in my luggage under the plane for two plane flights.

 

And (drum roll!) the news is GOOD. I can't see a sign of damage to the film I've gotten back so far. Everything looks perfectly normal, perfectly fine. I think I dodged a bullet. I would not deliberately put film under a plane now (still going as a rule with hand-carrying film) but I'm deeply relieved. I get the color film back tomorrow, but I see no reason why the results should be any different.

 

Thanks again for your support and advice! It is good to be part of this photographic community.

[terence_spross1]

Baggage x-ray is a gamble, it all depends on the machines and what luggage is next to it. Some machines have the sensitive sensors, like carry-on x-ray, than requires much less x-rays to obtain an image. Secondly, the amount of xray is increased substantially when something appears opague such as a lead lined bag holding something. The adjacent items perhaps in another bag get blasted. The instructions to the operator are to view all luggage and when they can't see something the x-ray levels go up. Although not allowed, when they are behind with all the pressures of making the flight, some items go through without being scrutinized.

[terence_spross1]

<i> Dawn - though they recommend removing film from luggage, you should be fine if your film is less than 800 speed. </i> <p>

 

Your phrasing implies slow film in checked baggage is OK- thats not what the advisory says. Like you list after the link, it applies to only carry on checkpoints.