X-Rayed Again! Ugg!

[Will2]

I was so careful going to the shoot, put all the film in a separate bag for hand inspection... but on the way back I forgot and it went through the regular (not checked bag) scanner.

Now it says only film over 800asa will be affected but I had some Super 8 500T in there and I just know I'm going to get lovely x-ray snow.

Some 3200 B&W still film is most certainly nuked, but most everything else was 400 or slower.

I'll post results as soon as I have them.

Good thing I shot digital too just in case.

[aj]

Unless it was scanned in Kazachstan with a 1950's USSR scanner it is unlikely that any damage was inflicted by a one time scan.

[BigWorm]

Unless it was scanned in Kazachstan with a 1950's USSR scanner it is unlikely that any damage was inflicted by a one time scan.

Says who, you?

It's always better to be safe than sorry. I always hand carry all film through the x-ray at the airport regardless.

[BolexPlusX]

My wife's 400ASA print film was scanned on Sakhalin Island by what probably WAS old USSR equipment, besides being scanned once in New York and 3 times in Moscow and it still came out fine.

Same goes for my K-40, but that's not a great example.

[Angus]

YMMV but I have never had any noticable artifacts on my films from x-ray equimpment at airports. And that includes Ilford Delta 3200 (pushed to 12800) x-rayed 6 times at different airports before I could process it.

[Will2]

Thanks, that makes me feel better. One roll was Ilford 3200 so thanks.

I HAVE seen issues on Super 8 500T when put through the checked bag scanners however. I was told they use a much stronger x-ray then the carry-on scanners. It was a Vision 1 stock I think about 5 years ago.

Didn't that LOST episode that had to be re-shot go through a checked bag scanner?

[Angus]

Never put any film in your checked luggage.

Basically, when you take film in your 'carry on' bag, it goes through the x-ray machine with an operative sat there to examine the screen and determine if there is anything dodgy in your bag. It goes through just once and the energy of the x-rays is such that virtually all film will be totally unaffected.

With your checked luggage it is different. Those bags go through an automated system and are x-rayed once at low intensity. The computer system then decides to x-ray parts of your bag with a much more intense burst, especially around any electronic items. Sometimes film gets caught up in this, especially if it is in or anywhere near a camera...and these high energy x-ray burts can indeed damage film of virtually any speed.

And yes, significant portions of an episode of Lost had to be reshoot for exactly this reason.

Your mileage may vary, depending on how up to date the airport is and the security levels in different parts of the world. For example, the tiny Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport has no automated x-ray scanning and checked bags are all hand examined by the TSA. Most US airports use the procedure I described above, but some have equipment bought second hand from more advanced European airports. In Eastern Europe and places like India you may well find they don't x-ray as much...or you could find very outdated x-ray machinery which will affect your film more than the scanners used in the USA.

[Andreas Wideroe]

I had some 500T and 200T films badly damaged at LAX (Los Angeles) checked in baggage. I don't think they're using 1950s equipment from Kazhakstan or wherever...

You might be lucky - hopefully, but you may also get your films back damaged. Sorry.

Andreas

[alex-rus]

Just never leave your films for a baggage scanning and probably nothing never will be damaged I believe regular scanning is safely but everything depends on the control equipment...

[Andreas Wideroe]

http://www.kodak.com/global/en/service/ ... 5201.shtml

No need to say more...

[Angus]

As I have said...avoid putting any un-processed film in your checked bags.

[mr.re-Sotto]

we were on the way back from bali to frankfurt...
on all airports except bangkok ( they said they are filmsafe) we did the hand check...
what happenend... our vision3 500T film is now damaged...

thats why we never trust the filmsafe scanners again, and let all our films
hand check....

[71er]

Two friends of mine (him Austrian, her from Peru) went to visit her family in Peru this (northern hemisphere) summer. They had camera and Super8 cartridges with them. On an inland flight they got checked and as the guy at the airport had never seen such film cartridges in his life before he wanted my friends to open them to see that there was really film inside. They begged him not to proceed but there was no way. In the end the exposed cartridges were thrown away (unopened) by the authority.

[Angus]

I forget which airport it was but I do remember having my carry-on bag go through the scanner with an Elmo Super 110 (large super 8 camera) and some carts in...the operative looked bemused for a while and paused the belt before a smile came on his face and he let it through. Obviously he eventually recognised it for what it was.

[Will2]

It usually takes a little explaining what a Super 8 cartridge is to security but usually I get the "that's cool!" response.

I was evangelizing for Super 8 at the shoot and I think I got one of the video camera operators interested... told him about the forum, hope he can get through the hurdles to become a member.

Have any of our German members heard of Bianca Ryan? It was a Christmas special for her.