film when travelling?

Might sound silly but have heard various things about film and travelling on planes, when they go through the scanners.
does it actually damage the film or has anyone had experience with it??

I had several rolls damaged going in and out of Russia. Result was green stripes across the images on the negs. From then on I bought film locally and got it developed there.

If you present the film to security when going through the X ray end of security, they will often do a visual inspection. If they refuse, ask politely to see a supervisor. These days, normal staff are too frightend to let anything go through without X ray and are not willing to make the call.

Best regards

I've always been fine keeping it on me and asking for a visual inspection. If you 'roll your own' then it's easier with plastic cases!

Low level scans are not too bad on slow mono film but can damage high speed colour.

what about new, unused film going through the check-in luggage then?

The only film I have had a problem with is Tri-X. I tried the visual inspection route through Heathrow and was told there was no chance in hell of that.... I don't seem to have had any problems with Kodak BW400CN. I try and buy it there then ship it back.

K.

it's only because I've got a friend going home to Hong Kong and i've managed to get another mate to help me get some cheap film that I can't really find here.
few rolls of agfa and solaris, all much cheaper than anything in the UK even at its cheapest!

Just make sure it goes in your hand luggage, not in the hold. Modern airport scanning gear will probably give a lower radiation dose than your film will get from spending six hours at 35,000 feet.

One trip through airport security should be fine. I've only really had trouble when it has had to do four scans or more.

K.

mmm...this might become a slight problem as he isn't carrying anything apart from his laptop bag onto the plane and won't take more (he's injured and I don't want him to take anything extra) So the film will have to go into the big luggage...I've been told it should be fine....fingers crossed?!

The hold luggage is still x-ray'd - and potentially in bigger, more heavy duty machines.
If your friend can fit a couple of rolls into their hand luggage it would probably be best.

Repeated scanning of hand luggage doesn't seem to have any effect on 50/100/160 ISO sensitivity film in my experience. The last 2 v long haul trips I've done, my films were zapped 9 or 10 times with no detrimental effects.

I've used the Hama film-safe bag in the past but this just means the operators wind up the gain on their machines; even when not using the bag, just telling the operator there is film in you bag can provoke such an action (as happened in Sydney last time but one).

Thanks for the advise guys, I'd probably get my friend to bring only what I need then, hopefully it'll only go through the scan once, so if it all goes pear shaped it's still not that bad
Though I'll be taking them to the Balkans in May, would be interesting then , might even have to get them developed in Sarajevo before I come back!

I've flown to Kenya and to Ecuador with dozens of rolls of Ektachrome EC100 Extracolour and Fuji Sensia 100 in the hold luggage - repeated scans - no problems at all.