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Current airport X-rays & film


spylaw4

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To make this work I assume that "professional" film is readily available in larger European and Asian cities and film is not X rayed by the various post offices.

 

Any one else work this way?

 

You'll be lucky to find Kodak Gold or Fuji Superior in normal places these days. I have just spent a week in Venice, and found only one shop selling Pro film - unrefrigerated.

 

Pro film isn't "readily available" in the UK either.

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You'll be lucky to find Kodak Gold or Fuji Superior in normal places these days. I have just spent a week in Venice, and found only one shop selling Pro film - unrefrigerated.

 

Pro film isn't "readily available" in the UK either.

 

I see Fuji Superior and Kodak Gold almost everywhere i go in Asia. Its the other stuff (anything b/w basically) that i cant get.

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I have concluded that lead lined pouches are a waste of time and their only use is as a film carrier and not a film protector ! However if you have to use them keep them outside your equipment case. The reason is that the operator of the x-ray machine can only see a non recognizable shadow if anything at all inside the film carrier and they will then open and check the lot.

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I see Fuji Superior and Kodak Gold almost everywhere i go in Asia. Its the other stuff (anything b/w basically) that i cant get.

 

That's what I meant - it's finding anything else that's very difficult, even in tourist hot-spots like Venice.

 

In the four days we were there, I saw one other film camera user, so it's not surprising that no one stocks a wide variety of film any more. I wouldn't if I were a retailer.

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is infra-red film really that sensitive and is it destroyed by even mild, accumulative x-ray scans for hand luggage

 

If so then it would be fogged by the in flight radiation. Kind of amusing really, worry about carry on x-ray then fly.

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You'll be lucky to find Kodak Gold or Fuji Superior in normal places these days. I have just spent a week in Venice, and found only one shop selling Pro film - unrefrigerated.

 

Pro film isn't "readily available" in the UK either.

 

And don't try to do it in New Zealand either, unless you have deep pockets, I nearly ran out and had to pay three times the UK mail order price for Provia 100

 

Gerry

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And don't try to do it in New Zealand either, unless you have deep pockets, I nearly ran out and had to pay three times the UK mail order price for Provia 100

 

Gerry

 

that im finding out right now!

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Lead-lined bags are not great solutions. For a start, they're not made from solid lead, so they're not impervious to X-Rays. They merely contain enough trace elements of lead to reduce the penetration of X-Rays a little. So all that happens is the security staff see something they can't view clearly and they rescan it at a higher dosage. And then higher again if needed.

 

All a lead-lined bag does is make your film a target for repeat high dosage scans.

 

If you want to be kind to your film put it in a transparent plastic bag and send it through the machine by itself. This way it will receive only minimum scanning.

 

Precisely. No material, not even lead, can 'stop' ionising radiation. Dense materials like lead just attenuate (absorb) more of the radiation per unit thickness. Putting film in a container made of lead (or any other dense material) or wrapping it in aluminium foil is completely pointless and may be counterproductive!

 

The airport scanner has automatic exposure adjustment. If the object being scanned absorbs more radiation because it is atomically dense (like a metal container) the scanner boosts both the amount of radiation and the energy of the x-ray beam until the scanner's detector receives a radiation 'dose' emerging from the object sufficient to produce a satisfactory image. 'Satisfactory' meaning that the object has been fully penetrated and all its inner details can be clearly seen by the operator.

 

Thus encasing your film or camera merely ensures it gets a higher exposure inside the casing! In consequence, foil bags for photographic film actually increase the faint possibility of raised base fog.

 

As recommended in other posts - the best way to ensure your film is not harmed by the scanner is to put it in a plastic bag and pass it through the scanner on its own, separate from all other items. In this way the scanner will automatically apply the mimimum radiation dose.

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I've been thinking of starting out from the U.S. with a couple of rolls of film, hand inspection, then buying film overseas and mailing back the exposed film to the U.S. for processing every couple of days.

 

To make this work I assume that "professional" film is readily available in larger European and Asian cities and film is not X rayed by the various post offices.

 

Any one else work this way?

Don't mail it back. Unless it is clearly recognizable as film, there is a chance it may be x-rayed for security reasons on the way - at much higher doses than airport machines! Or is may sit in a broiling container for too long.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Hi Brian as John wrote about the photo lab in Khan Market in Delhi. "Fab Foto 19 Khan Market.But other one is proff. its name is S V Photographic, D-732 Lower Ground Floor,Opp.IIend Fish Market, Chittranjan Park.

Abhinava

 

Thanks for the info Abhinava - as it happened I did not need to buy any film - the 3 rolls of Portra 160NC were sufficient to supplement the D2.

 

Examining the negs shows that no harm was caused by the 6 doses of X-ray.

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Guest Austerby

I recently took plenty of film with me on a trip around SE Asia. I took nine flights (one from Heathrow) in all with no discernible adverse effect on the film - which included Delta 3200 and SFX200. I made sure it was always in my cabin baggage though.

 

I didn't buy any film out there but did keep an eye open for what was available and it's as others have reported back here - mass-market consumer colour film is widely available, anything more can be found in the big cities only. I did go into some camera stores to ask for black and white film but in some cases the assistant didn't know what it was.

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Peter that is a link for guys with large cans of motion picture film and maybe they have more at stake.

 

They also say the motion picture reels of undeveloped film should not be checked in, but carried on where there is negligable or nil risk. They conclude with ... "Kodak is working closely with industry organizations, the FAA and the US Postal Service to minimize the impact of necessary new security procedures on the shipping of its products."

 

Presumably things have advanced since 2001, though I doubt they have improved since it was no problem at all in 2001 either.

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No trouble. I've had ISO 100-400

 

Eelco...you had no problems:eek:

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