I am planning a trip to Italy and want to take my new digital camera. Will the airport x-ray machines erase the images saved on my compact flash memory card?

-- Patrick Lee (patrickleedds@yahoo.com), July 20, 1999

Answers

No, flash cards are magnetic media and X-rays won't hurt them. By the same token, going through the metal dectector will, so don't stash any of the cards in your pockets!

-- Albert J. Klee (aklee@fuse.net), July 20, 1999.

Hello, I am an Electronics Engineering Technician working at Rockwell. First I want to correct the previous reply left with this subject. FLASH MEMORY IS NOT MAGNETIC MEDIA!!! An electrical charge is placed on a floating transistor gate. I will continue to investigate what type of non standard methods can erase flash memory either intentionally or unintensionally. What I will say for now is that laptops use flash memory to store the bios information so that may be one avenue of comparision since laptops are being taken on planes frequently I am assuming without any problems.

-- Robert Gregory (rgreg88721@hotmail.com), July 20, 1999.

Robert is exactly correct. Flash memory is not susceptible to problems from magnetic fields. Nor are there any problems from exposure to X-rays. You can safely check your camera and memory cards through at any airport without regard to damage.

-- Steve (tuna-boat-captain@ibm.net), July 20, 1999.

I stand corrected re flash cards. However, when the IBM Microdrive and others of its kind apperar on the scene, I'll still skip the metal detector. The time to break bad habits is before they start!

-- Albert J. Klee (aklee@fuse.net), July 21, 1999.

You should probably be much more concerned about static electricity when handling any memory device that has exposed or exposable contacts. Inadvertent electrostatic discharge (ESD) can cause latent or immediate failure of components. I don't know what kind of prcautions are built into the various camers or cards or their packaging but don't pick them up by contacts or handle them carelessly such as carrying them loose in a camera bag or in other situations where the contacts could be exposed to a static shock. "Dangerous" voltages are present long before you would be able to feel even the smallest sparks. As to metal detectors, it's my understanding that the typical metal detectors are passive, they sense an induced change in the field they are measuring when metal is introduced into the field. There is no more concern than having your camera near a light buld. If they were a problem to electronics, they would be just as big a problem when you stood next to them in line. (And would affect laptops, etc. as well) When it comes to x- rays or other actively transmitted electromagnetic radiation, there is a risk of radiation induced failures to electronics as circuitry continues to get smaller and smaller but problems in this area would affect all types of devices, not just cameras. That's why special design steps and features are needed for satellites and nuclear weapon systems. On the odd chance you are shot into space or are close to a nuclear detonation, your camera is the least of your worries. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing: For all you frequent flyers: Which will fail first, your laptop or your body from added exposure to radiation from high altitude flights?

-- Craig Gillette (cgillette@thegrid.net), July 21, 1999.

In fact, data storage in Flash memory can be reversed from 1 state to 0 state during x-ray exposure. Electrons in "Floating Gate" of Flash memory unit can be existed by short wavelength photo, like UV and X-ray. It will change storage state. Certainly, it also depends on which unit cell structure (ETOX, DINOR, Split gate, etc.) you use in this Flash card. Based on our experiment, it is not safe even for airport x-ray expourse, more than 1% failure will be found.

-- Chrong Jung Lin (cjlin@tsmc.com.tw), May 01, 2001.

CompactFlash card is not damage by aircraft planes landing you not need wurry aboot camera either as long as cf card not in camera on plane landnig you gotta watch that cos itss like fone and can cause aeroplain implode by electricass.

-- Mr Whippy (MrWhippy@whippy.whip), May 16, 2002.

I just returned from a European holiday to Australia, and I found that my flash card stored in my check-in luggage was damaged (made unusable) but my carry-on flash card is still OK.

It flew out of Italy OK, but the Vienna - Melbourne leg damaged the card.

It seems that xray is not a problem, but a new device called a 'e- beam' is...

Check out the following threads: - http://www.dp-now.com/cgi-bin/forum/forum.pl/noframes/read/1370 - http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=001ldx

Also, apparently KODAK has issued a warning about this, but I couldn't find it easily on their site.

Scott

-- Scott Davey (sdavey@datalink.net.au), November 03, 2002.

I just lost 200 plus pictures of Europe on a flash memory card, stored in the camera on my carry on... If someone has a way to protect the card (or anyone know of a way to recover?) please post it. I need to go puke.

-- Mike Beatty (mikebeatty@mindspring.com), June 30, 2003.

Well, by using PhotoRescue, I was able to recover approx. 75% of the photos taken. Those not recovered seemed to have segments missing, halves reversed, or just plain blank. What happened - no idea, but the fact that it worked before I got on the plane and didn't work after points to the scanning process. Hope this helps somebody.

-- Mike Beatty (mikebeatty@mindspring.com), June 30, 2003.

i use a digicam with an sd card. problem happened overnight. my pictures (progressive jpeg) were strange and distorted (odd hues and the picture was shifted in all directions). it looks like a metal detector at an amusement park caused the problem (the first bad picture was after i entered canada's wonderland in toronto) a bad sector check and format will likely fix the card, but all the pictures aren't repaired.

-- Jeremy Wing (fuzzymath10@yahoo.ca), August 31, 2003.