Flying to Australia with a Film Camera.

Lagnagoushee

I am due to fly to Australia in January and hope to bring my film camera with some 35mm film. I'm worried that the airport scanners will damage either the un-exposed or the exposed film. Temperatures will be in the mid 30's so will that cause problems as well?
Any advice would be appreciated.

magicbastarder

unless you're bringing hyper-sensitive film, you should be fine. bring the film as carry-on luggage though. the hand luggage scanners don't use the same dose of radiation IIRC.

Lagnagoushee

Thanks for the info. I'm hoping to bring some Ilford HP5 400, Ilford FP4 125 and some Colour C41.

CabanSail

I think film is generally OK as long as it's not high sensitivity.

This Article suggests having film over ISO800 hand checked.

Where are you going? How long will you be here?

vintagecosmos

I just keep the film in my pocket and walk through scanners. Several times I tried to explain hand inspection with no success. they just blast it another time with radiation. I got through with ilford 3200 which was blasted 3 times and it was fine. First time I tried to explain its film and sensitive etc it just drew more attention to it and they got suspicious. Sorry talking about Dublin airport here.

magicbastarder

Yeah, I suspect any time you ask for a hand inspection it only increases their interest in putting it through the scanner. One trick is to delay putting the tray in so there's a clear patch in front of it - so it won't be delayed in the scanner if they have to ask the person in front of you to go through their luggage.

failinis

I never even thought about how sensitive film is every time I fly - glad to hear under 800 is normally fine enough.

DaireQuinlan

yeah it'll be fine, I've had rolls that have gone through quite a few airports with no visible effects. The golden rule is never ever put your film in your checked baggage. That gets nuked, and will absolutely ruin the film.

pete4130

I've only ever had one roll affected and that was Ilford Delta 3200. It had some banding down through it. It might have been in checked baggage at some point. Other than that I've never had any issues.

Lagnagoushee

@CabanSail I will be staying in Perth but plan to do some travelling in the area north of Perth during my six week stay.

failinis

DaireQuinlan wrote: »

yeah it'll be fine, I've had rolls that have gone through quite a few airports with no visible effects. The golden rule is never ever put your film in your checked baggage. That gets nuked, and will absolutely ruin the film.

I flew recently with some film were in my checked in baggage and I got them all developed and they were grand.
Won't want to risk it again so will throw any into hand luggage in future.
Belfast does not actually use any x rays then

CabanSail

Have been thinking about this. Have heard that film is safe going through the hand luggage X-ray but the aim would be to have as little exposure as possible. I am making some assumptions here but it is probable that the dose would start off low and ramp up as required. If that is the case then having the smallest object in the beam would mean less exposure (analogy - is a short or long shutter speed) If that is the case then putting your film in a seperate tray should minimise the dose compared to having it in with a larger bag.

On the other hand the dose may be constant and the gain on the sensor is varied (like chaning the ISO) If that is what happens then there is no difference.