I might be missing something here Brian, but whenever I travel and put keys, coins, etc. into one of the baskets, it goes through the xray machine. How are you able to bypass this?

As far as puddle jumper flights go, anytime I've been on one of these, I too have had to check my camera gear but I do it as checked carry on baggage. It goes on the tarmac at the door of the plane and is sitting waiting for me on the tarmac when I get off the plane. I assume this is what you meant by "planeside". A couple nice words to the guys loading the checked carry on bags onto the plane and you shouldn't have a problem. I've been able to see them loading my bag on a couple of occasions and it's been well taken care of.

Yes, I guess I forgot to add that caveat --- in some airports everything gets zapped. Being observant is the best approach, I reckon. I have only used the Chicago, Dallas, Memphis, and JFK facilities with any regularity. To a lesser extent I use San Diego and LAX. Different airports enforce the FSA rules a little differently...

My tarmac expereinces with checking luggage have not always been pleasant, but usually, if you ask, your precious cargo will get handled gently. So far, Bangkok, Kuwait, Bahrain, UAE, and Brisbane have proved a little difficult.

In about 20 days we'll see how Cagliari, Italy and Rome treat me...I'll be sure to let everyone know!

Brian Schletty
World Traveler

I don't fly, so I don't cry. It's a decision I made long before 9/11 when I got fed up with being crammed into the cattle cars they call airliners. I'd much rather travel the back roads in my own vehicle, with all my photo gear and film intact.

The downside: It's a long drive to Europe......

I am curious if anyone knows, when film is shipped from one place to another, like when Fuji ships to USA, or when you purchase them mail order and delivered via UPS or Fedex, do they not go through any X-rays as cargo? I have also read some posting from professional photographers who DO let them go through x-ray in checked baggage. So how many times can it go through an "average" x-ray without damage?
Thanks in advance for any information.

I believe that film from foreign sources is shipped to the U.S by sea in cargo containers. As far as I know, these are not x-rayed....

OK, how about when you mail order some film and they are shipped next day air? probably not x-rayed either, right?

I think you have to accept that anything going by air is likely to get scanned by some means at some point, but probably not as frequently as passenger carry-on items.

With security now forbidding checked luggage from being locked, I would be scared to death to check my camera or lenses even tucked inside a main suitcase with good padding. That leaves carry on.

I start most of my air travel on a puddle jumper so it has to go under my seat. I also have a briefcase with my laptop, file folders and work (that pays for the trip and camera gear) so that is my two carry on. When I have a short one or two day trip I have a canvas bag that holds clothes and a shaving kit and my camera bag. Planeside I take the camera bag out and it goes under the seat. My briefcase goes in the overhead and the now minuscule canvas bag that wouldn't otherwise fit gets checked at the tarmac.

I really wish I could combine my camera bag and briefcase but the latter carries files, pens, post-it notes, hi-liters, business cards, gyro mouse, lots of cables and such. It would be difficult to to presentations and work out of a backpack style bag.

Actually, there are TSA-approved (meaning they have a way to open them) locks that you can use on checked baggage. However, I no longer put ANYTHING in checked baggage that I value, because of the high rate of anecdotal evidence that checked baggage is gone through and items of value seem to grow legs and walk off...

One X-ray in a checked bag can ruin your film. As a "puddle jumper" pilot, I have passed my small film camera through the carry-on X-ray numerous times over a few months. After many times through sometimes the contrast is a little off, but not too badly (even with 400 ISO). I did change to a digital to get around this - works great. Even if most of the time the bag people will treat your planeside checked bag tenderly, there is always the exception. I would ALWAYS carry my cameras onboard. An aborted takeoff or turbulence could cause bags to shift, or if some idiot forgets to tag the bag as a carry-on, then you will have to get the bag down at bag claim, even if you have another flight in 10 minutes.
On the plus side, I would always prefer to fly on a small plane that I can check my large carry-on at planeside and then have it waiting for me when I get off, rather than having to lug it inside and try to find an overhead that it will fit into and then muscle it in there. Just keep your valuables with you.

I've always put 35mm film in a transparent bag to hand around the machine and the've honored that. Also the SLR I hand around, but they usually want to look at it with the lens off. If you have mirror lock up. Lock it up first so they can see nothing is behind the mirror. They usually want to have the lens back on to look through the view-finder. I've heard of inspectors trying to pick the mirror up to look under it! That is why I lock the mirror up first.
I have one nice out-of focus photo of an inspectors face.

I've seen an inspector fumble and drop a MF camera, fortunatly, it landed on a soft coat or something, but it makes you wonder.

For memory chips, I recommend strongly putting them in transparent anti-static bags. Inspection sometimes depends on a static change placed on the luggage and the use of powder on the inspectors latex gloves to create a chemical reaction that geherates ions when contact with trace amounts of certain explosives occurs. The resultant change in charge results is measured and can trip an alarm. The static charges of items being moved around during that kind of inspection can put high static voltage on the memory chips. In addition just traveling to where humidiy is low can create a static charge and/or packing with wool and/or nylon clothing is a risk to electronics.

http://www.travelsentry.org/

http://www.tsa.gov/public/

My most recent 2 travel experience have been from Richmond,VA (RIC) to Atlanta (ATL) and back. Both times TSA asked me what was in the bag. I had a 40Gb small portable hard drive (I use to download photos to on my brothers computer when I am in Atlanta) and my digital camera gear. They asked me to put the hard drive in one of those baskets and didn't even look in the nag at the camera. On the last trip I just put the hard drive in the basket and the lady asked me if that was a camera in the bag and told mr to just send the bag through the scanner. No other questions asked.

davetv13

I am curious now about the person who mentioned that the contrast was a bit off on their camera after passing it through an x-ray machine numerous times. Just how numerous was this? I am not overly concerned about my OM-1 passing through carry on bagage x-ray machines, but I still feel like I needed to ask the question. I probably fly once or twice a year and I certainly don't want to worry that after a few times of this the x-ray machine might be damaging the coatings on my lenses.

Also does anyone have any experience with foreign airports with film inspection/screening? I am heading on my honeymoon in November and I am planning on taking my OM-1 with a 28-80mm lens with me as well as probably 3 or 4 rolls of 36 exposure film (400 speed). My fiance doesn't want me wasting our whole honeymoon just taking pictures, so I promised to limit the number of rolls and also only bring one lens so I am not spending all my time swapping lenses or changing out rolls of film.

However, I most certainly don't want this film to get messed up. When I went to England this past May with my camera the film seemed to fair just fine going through the carry on x-ray machine twice...but I would still like to avoid any x-ray exposure for these pictures and future ones if I can.

Thanks.
-Matt