Airport Scanners

[Geoff Marshall]

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Hi all

Just wondering if any members had taken film with them while travelling recently and how they have managed with the security scanning at the airport. I’m travelling to Lanzarote in a couple of months and was thinking of taking the M6 and a few slide films with me but unsure about the carry on with the film destroying new scanners they are using now. 

[blackandwhite]

Hi Geoff, - There exist special shield bags for film. Maybe You can also show the film rolls  at the customs before shipping ?

[nitroplait]

Excuse me for posting an external link to another forum, but this question pops up frequently on various photo forums, and often results in an exhausting, and speculative discussion.

Take a look at this fairly recent one: https://rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=174083&highlight=airport+scanner

Edited July 9, 2021 by nitroplait

[giannis]

5 hours ago, Geoff Marshall said:

Just wondering if any members had taken film with them while travelling recently and how they have managed with the security scanning at the airport. I’m travelling to Lanzarote in a couple of months and was thinking of taking the M6 and a few slide films with me but unsure about the carry on with the film destroying new scanners they are using now. 

It depends on the security personnel, but don't hold your breath. Anecdotally I've had one time they agreed to hand inspect my film, and another they didn't, in the last year.  

Personnel is getting younger, film users are a small minority, so most times you get a boilerplate response "it has to go through the machine, it's safe" (it isn't). If I were you, I'd start with the assumption that it will go through the machines, and treat the low-chance case it'll get hand inspected (or that the airport happens to use the old, safe machines) as a bonus.

 

Forgot to say: any film "shields" and the like are either a scam/placebo. If your film is visible on their screen, it means radiation got to it and the shield didn't work. If the shield does work and your film shows up as a black spot in the screen, they'll just remove it from the shield and have it pass through the machine again, uncovered. It'll still get radiated one way or another. There's no chance in hell any decent security personnel will let pass a big object that looks like a bag and which makes its contents appears totally opaque on their screens. Don't bother with such products. 

Edited July 9, 2021 by giannis
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