anne_pohli

Ellis, I can't help you with the 405, but I can't resist commenting on the 410 you used to own. It's still living happily with me, and that head finally made me a tripod user, after years of half-hearted attempts. I really like it. I have a decent ballhead, because I thought it would be easier to travel with, but I never became as adept with it. Probably a matter of needing practice, which I never got because I kept going back to the 410.

 

Regarding the discontinued notation, I think the "discontinued" only refers to the fact that Bogen (or B&H?) no longer uses the old Manfrotto number 3275 along with the Bogen name and #. It looks like just a matter of rebranding to Bogen 410 only. (B&H also shows the "discontinued" 410/3275 as taking hex plates, whereas the newer(?) 410 takes the rectangular QR plates.)

This is weird. Since I looked at the workspace an hour ago, the dead thread has moved to my forum post list, and I didn't post to it.

Is there any way to do this on the workspace page? I'd like to

delete an old, dead thread from that section.

Just wondered. I use them regularly, and my experience has been very different.

Mitch, have you had this happen to you when using a lead bag?

Last time I flew from DFW to London (a few months ago now), my checked bag was hand searched, in my presence, and I was allowed to relock it before it was sent through the X-Ray. I'm not really sure why it was done that way, but the security guys were next to the check-in counter and the CTX 5000 machine in the American Airlines terminal. This may be an unusual setup, but it's nice for the traveler.

Dallas Camera 1321 Chemical

In the photo district south of I35

(You'll pay less than Competitive Camera.)

 

Good Lab - BWC at Maple and Motor

Almost exactly opposite north of I35

To correct a misstatement above: all x-ray machines for checked luggage do NOT come with a certified photo friendly label. The CTX-5000 machines (or whatever the updated model number is) are known to fog film. And the ones in the American Airlines terminals at DFW have signs on them saying so. I suspect they are not the only machines that post the warnings up front. These machines are only used for checked baggage, not for carryon. So as others have said, don't put film in your checked luggage.

Light Tec is in the photo district. Ellis is right that it's closer to downtown Dallas, but it is very easy to get there from Irving. My favorite place for film is Dallas Camera, which is about 2 doors down at 1321 Chemical. They have good prices, and I think they usually have a better selection of film as well.

 

Competitive Camera on Irving Blvd., also in the photo district, is popular with local photographers, but pricing can be interestingly uneven there.

As I suggested in a response to a similar thread on the unarchived forum, I have thought for some time that airline "security" is a joke. I would certainly be grateful for decent security. However, as is usual in situations like this, the response seems to be knee-jerk overreaction.

 

I agree with Bob that some sacrifices are in order, and I'm perfectly willing to arrive at the airport earlier so that carryon baggage can be properly checked. I accept the fact that proper inspection means I will have to repack it. However, I wish the powers that be would approach this more reasonably.

 

If the new limitations are as restrictive as posts above suggest, we will be forced to choose between checking our film and having it ruined, or checking our equipment and likely never seeing it again (and we know how much responsibility the airlines accept for that).

 

If they really want to, they can insure safety and still allow reasonable carryon space. I suspect the airlines are using this as an excuse to restrict something they were tired of messing with in the first place, namely people who carry too much on board simply because they don't want to stop at the baggage carousel at the other end.

Scott and Marcelo both asked about lead bags which, for all the discussion about x-rays, are rarely mentioned on photo.net. I suspect that's because many participants fly mostly in the US and are accustomed to getting hand inspection (because there are regulations that require it). But outside the US, assume that you will NOT be afforded this courtesy.

 

If your film will only pass through x-rays once or twice, it probably doesn't matter (carryon, not checked). I travel out of the states quite a bit, and if I have more than one security check to go through, I use the lead bags. My experience has been that they work, by which I mean I believe they shield the film from x-rays and the operators don't turn the machines up to see through them. (Whether the film would have been fogged without the bags, or how many times through is "safe", I can't say.) I usually get through the metal detector before my carryon comes through the x-ray, and I wait where I can watch the screen. I see a deep black area where the lead bag is and the skeletal outlines of everything else in the carryon. I've never seen the operators linger over the bag, or seen any evidence that they "crank up" the dosage. The black hole remains a black hole. What they're supposed to do is ask to open the carryon if they see anything suspicious. Occasionally they've asked me to open the carryon, but it's always been my hair dryer they were interested in - they've NEVER asked to look in the lead bag. I've read that if they don't ask to look in the lead bag, either the bag isn't working or the operators aren't doing their jobs, but my experience is that the bags work and security concentrates on small electrical items (the Lockerbie bomb was supposedly in a small radio or tape player). Unfortunately, this doesn't give me much confidence in the whole system.