Bruce. Thanks for a interesting post that I can help with :) Rule 1 NEVER, EVER travel with film in checked luggage. Do not put a boby with film in checked luggage. The CTX 1500 (and newer) machines that they have all over (LAX, SAF, and on HI) will trash all and any film
Rule 2 ARRIVE 20 MINUTES BEFORE YOUR NORMAL ARIVAL TIME Rule 3 All film containers (even metallic packaging) will set the machines off. The scanners are 'set to stun' as it were. Removal of the wrappers will normally work, but remember if nowdays AOLL items (coats, bags, etc) need to be passed through the checked luggae. Rule 3 Have each and every SINGLE roll of film stripped and placed in a (one\few) large clear ziploc bags. Explain early to the xray operators, and state that there are high speed and professional film rolls in the bag. IMPORTANT. PUT SOME TMX 6400 in the bag. One of two rolls is all you will need. Forget xray pouches through xray machines - opaque to the scanner? use a much bigger power, and nuke it! The execution of a good plan ----------------------------- Clearly (and happy, happy, happy) ask for a hand film check. At the earliest stage of this, be happy and nice. EVEN IF THEY SAY NO. If they say no, state that all FAA rules and regulations say you can still have hand check. If they continue to say no, firmly and clearly state that you arrived 20 minutes earlier so you can get your federally mandated check, and you would like to speak to their security supervisor. Should work. Time is on your side at that point. REMEMBER: even though these guys are generally dumb minimum waqe and SO, SO LAZY, they can have you in a federal cell being strip searched REAL quick.. All of my recent trips (15 flights since December last year) have been through domestic US airlines, and all have the same policies : no check, no fly. Don't get aggressive, don't OVERLY bitch and moan if anyone gives you trouble. Ask firmly and repeatadly for their supervisor if they are being unreasonable. What happens is they will commonly (and mistakenly) check each individual roll for explosives. Pretty dumb, as the machine is meant to detect such small quantities that they are actually meant to scan the bag and a sample of rolls. Like I said, majority of security staff are dumb. Where this works!!! ------------------- LAX, JFK, LGA, SAF, ATL, BOS, CHI, and 8 flights in and out of Hawaii (Hawaii, Oahu, Mai). I have actually done this in LHR (Heathrow, UK) which is reknown for saying "if your film does not go through the xray machine, you don't fly". On Sun, 2003-02-02 at 21:37, Bruce Dayton wrote: > In about a month I am going to Hawaii for a short vacation. Most > likely I will take the 67II and leave home the 35mm gear. Still > deciding on that one. > > Anyway, I am wondering what the current state of film going through > the detectors is. Is there any noticeable damage coming from the > x-ray machines? At what speed is the film problematic? > > An interesting angle for me is that the 120 roll film is spooled on > plastic cores so theoretically I could walk through the metal detector > with them on my person. Has anyone tried this? It seems that all the > Kodak film comes in plastic outer wrapper (sealed), but the Fuji and > Agfa use something more like a metal film of some type. I'm guessing > that would make a difference. Does anyone have any experience with > this? > > Anything else I need to watch out for? How stringent are the airlines > (United in this case) about carry-on regulations (size, weight)? > > If it helps the discussion, I'll be flying out of San Francisco and > landing in Maui. Any tips or suggestions are welcome. > > Thanks, > > Bruce >
