From: Robert Schaller (Robert@RobertSchaller.net)
Date: 09/05/03-09:27:24 PM Z
Dear All,
This has been a persistent question of mine, as I often carry film when
I travel. I have had mostly good experiences, getting hand inspections in
LA, Istanbul, and Vienna in the last year, but not in Denver, where I have
to fly out of when I go. They give that "less than 400 ASA" assurance, more
recently even a "less than 3200 ASA" assurance, and so far it's been ok, but
I wonder what that means: if we figure that commercial gelatin-silver film
has, say, 8 stops of latitude, does that mean that if I shoot film at ASA
400, any details will be lost that were 4 stops dimmer than the center of
exposure (zone 5)? Or, if 3200 is the number, does that mean that my
latitude is only three stops on the dim side, since 3200 is 3 stops faster
than 400? What, exactly, is the effective EI for these machines? Wouldn't
that be a more useful number, one that we photographers could take into
account? Don't we, in some sense, have a right and need to know what
intensity of just what sort of radiation our materials are being subjected
to? I know that I often push film, or use other developers and other speeds
than those officially recommended, so that the assurances about speed are,
for me, less than fully informative.
Any thoughts on this?
Robert Schaller
On 9/5/03 10:08 AM, "Scott Walker" <walker@sympatico.ca> wrote:
> Regarding X-ray bags... On the older machines they tell you that they won't
> expose the film under 400 ASA. If you put them in X-ray bags and it obscures
> the image as it goes through the machine they turn up the intensity of the
> x-ray to get a picture through the bag which is worse.
>
> In Detroit they now have machines that are so strong that there are signs
> telling you that your film WILL be exposed if left in the luggage. They were
> happy to hand inpect which means they open every 35mm canister and swab it
> with a cloth which they then check in a machine for ionic residue from
> explosive chemicals.
>
> In other airports (recently) I have been refused hand inspection and they
> put it through the machine (older type) as a matter of policy. Then again I
> have had just the regular hand inpection as well.
>
> I always carry my film with in a ziplock and try my best to work with the
> inspectors to keep it out of the machines.
>
> Scott.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: epona [mailto:acolyta@napc.com]
> Sent: Friday, September 05, 2003 11:53 AM
> To: alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca
> Subject: Re: flying....
>
>
> X-ray bags? where do i get those??????
>
> thx,
> ~christine
>
> Dchiap2 wrote:
>
>> I flew to Italy last September via Amsterdam; I hand carried all my film
>> (pola 55, 120 tmax 100 and 400, and 120 color neg) in xray bags, and had
>> it hand inspected. No problems at all, and no rudeness; actually anyone
>> who hand inspected it seemed nicely curious about photography and what I
>> was doing. But it's probably just about who is actually on duty for
>> hand inspecting any given day. The downside is that if you have a lot
>> of film it can be cumbersome to lug around the airport etc.
>>
>> Re: Scotland - Sweetheart Abbey, and Castle Campbell stand out it my
>> mind, as does Edinburgh and the small towns just south of Edinburgh.
>>
>> Don Chiappinelli, LCSW
>> dchiap@msn.com
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: epona [mailto:acolyta@napc.com]
>> Sent: Thursday, September 04, 2003 4:26 PM
>> To: the gurus
>> Subject: flying....
>>
>> Hello folks,
>>
>> Hope you are all well. I'm flying to Ireland next week and I was
>> wondering if you all had any advice about film and security. I shoot
>> type 55 which is rather slow (50 asa) and may make it through the x-rays
>>
>> but I wasn't sure how much worse things may have gotten post 9/11.
>> Caryy on and insist hand-checking? Or pack with luggage? I hear they
>> X-ray that as well....
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Christine
>>
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for
> humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for
> men.
> ~ Alice Walker
>
>
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