dsbryant@mindspring.com
Date: 10/04/02-09:52:52 AM Z
Christine,
> I had trouble with this long before Sept. 11.
>
> Coming back from New Orleans we stopped off in
> North Carolina to change
> flights. Of course, The plane was late so we
> were rushing. The
> terminal was so designed that I had to go
> through a baggage check again
> and was detained because I did not want them to
> X-Ray my 100 sheet box
> of Tri-X 400 4x5. They insisted if it did not
> go through the scanner it
> had to be hand inspected. I tried to explain
> to the lady that it was
> photographic film, and therefore light
> sensitive, so she could not do
> that unless she was in a darkened room. She
> did not get the concept at
> all. She said if she did not get to hand check
> it or scan it, it had to
> be checked with my luggage, which had, of
> course, already been put on
> the darn flying machine that was about to leave
> in one minute. In
> exasperation I ripped the 4x5 box open and
> pulled out sheets of film,
> exclaiming, "Look! It's film! Now it's
> exposed! See, no bombs!" She
> let me on the plane.
>
My 2 cents worth about traveling with film on domestic flights.
On my recent trip to California I carried many boxes of sheet film in my carry
on luggage (color and b&w). All boxes and rolls were passed through the x-ray
machines with no ill effects (exposed and unexposed). I would recommend not
asking for hand checking with opened boxes of sheet film as some inspectors
don't understand the concept. All boxes of exposed film were sealed with 3M
straping tape to prevent an inspector from opening them while I was unaware.
My carry on bag with my view camera equipment received the most attention on
my return in Las Vegas requireing a hand inspection. The bag carrying my film
passed through with no questions.
Trying to deceive the inspectors about film types my cause undue suspicion as
one of my travel mates found out when he tried to exempt low speed film from
scanning by telling them that the film was high speed. The inspector corrected
his mistake and the film was scanned.
I was most concerned with my exposed infrared roll film being scanned and hand
inspected. I taped all film cans shut just in case an over zealous inspector
tried to pop the top. As I said before there were no apparent ill effects from
the carry on scanners to my film including the IR.
Don Bryant
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