Hi, sorry to ask so many questions at once.

Going to europe, plan to take all types of film speed, mostly B&W (probably as high as 3200 speed). Not more than maybe 2 dozen rolls. Whats the best way for me to get the film there, and back? Use a film bag to get it there, then Fed-Ex it back to myself in the USA? Whats the BEST film xray bag around?

Thanks! Phillip

-- Phillip Silitschanu (speedin_saab@hotmail.com), April 16, 2002

Answers

You know what, people in europe use cameras too. You might wnat to think about taking 2-4 rolls and buying the rest there... The best film bags are one's that can be hand inspected, and the best for that are clear ziplocks with all the film out of canisters. If you are polite and insistant you will likely be able to not have it scanned...

-- Matthew Geddert (geddert@yahoo.com), April 16, 2002.

French and British airports, however, are pretty stubborn about X-raying anything, including ISO 3200 film. Phillip, I mentioned my "photo service net" offer in this thread. It includes getting film in advance for contributors to this forum.

-- Oliver Schrinner (piraya@hispavista.com), April 16, 2002.

On recent travels, I used hard plastic X-ray resistant cases which hold (only) 4 films each. Where I live the airport security people are helpful. They will hand inspect but this might not always be so.

They hand inspected inspected my plastic film cases and I asked them out of curiousity what an x-ray resitant case looked like on the monitor of the scanner.

They said it would appear as a green opaque mass and they would require it to be taken out and hand checked anyway.

If you leave film in any of these x-ray resistant cases in your checked luggage, the film will be damaged. The intensity of the x-rays is so powerful that the film will be zapped. A nice sine wave is how it was descrided to me by my friend who runs a colour lab.

-- wayne murphy (w.murphy@powerup.com.au), April 16, 2002.

I like the Domke Film Guard bags. Not too heavy, velcro closure. I don't bother asking for a hand check, if they want to see it they'll ask. I do have the film out of their boxes, in a ziplock baggie in each lead bag though.

-- Anon Terry (anonht@yahoo.com), April 16, 2002.

Phillip,

You may want to look at the May issue of Popular Photography. Herbert Keppler has an interesting article on this issue.

Regards,

-- Alan Purves (lpurves@mnsi.net), April 16, 2002.

Try Domke Large or Small xray bag. I take film out of carton and plastic canister, put it in freezer zip lock bag and that in Domke. Small Domke will easily hold 30 rolls this way, maybe forty. Large Domke will hold considerably more. I asked for hand inspection and was denied. But they ended up hand inspecting my carry-on camera bag (M Classics) anyway, couldn't see into Domke. So having the film like this saved a lot of time.

-- Glenn Travis (leicaddict@hotmail.com), April 16, 2002.

The way I see it is, if 1600 asa film will be fogged on one pass, then I need to expose my E100 16 times to x-ray machines at least to get the same fogging. So three or four times, even seven times (on the way back from Quetta last year) is probably not a problem. And indeed I have never seen any fogging despite some of my rolls having gone through x-ray machines many times - for instance in Israel, where they have them at bus stations, airports and so on.

And as someone else said, you can buy film in Europe - or anywhere else for that matter.

Personally I've stopped worrying about it.

-- rob (rob@robertappleby.com), April 16, 2002.

Phillip, I travel every week w/film and as much as people say you can buy film when you arrive i rather would be doing things than tracking down film. My old bag(in use 2-3 years) is an Optech- it seems to work. I just got back from a trip to LA and found at Samys a Filmshield bag model XPF20. It feels like it is made from the same material as the lead shields they put on you at the doctors office for x-rays!They offer an 8 level and a stronger 20 level. Their web site is www,simacorp.com and phone 800 345 7462. Since 9/11 i have been useing the Optech with no problems w/ASA up to 400. The filmshield bag feels much beefier. For exposed film i just make sure i Fed-Ex all my stuff to my regular lab in CA next day with FILM in big black letters on the package. So far no problems. Cheers Mf Zimicki

-- Mf Zimicki (74023.1131@compuserve.com), April 16, 2002.

I travel quite often with large quantities of B&W film. I normally remove the film from the box and from the plastic canister. I put the film in clear ziploc bags so it can be easily hand-checked. And in case the security people won't hand-check, I use the large domke film bags. I got mine at B&H. They are about the same size as gallon ziploc bags, and without canisters can hold a ton of film. I've zapped TMZ 3200 twice in the bags with no problem. X-ray damage is cumulative, so try to get it xrayed as few times as possible, if you have to at all. Whatever you do, NEVER put film in checked baggage.

Two other quick hints. Separate your film by speed in different ziplocs. Sometimes, they will hand check ONLY the faster film, and it saves time if you don't have to separate it at the checkpoint. I was returning from Cuba with a friend and he had to separate all his film because they would only hand check film that was faster than 1600.

Second, I have found that small rubber bands around each roll of film will hold the leader in place, so it doesn't get ripped or bent out of shape when in the bag. This is especially useful when loading an M6. It's tougher to load when the leader is all bent and crimped. Have a great trip!

-- Noah Addis (naddis@mindspring.com), April 16, 2002.

FYI: film is quite expensive relative to US in many places in Europe. I would recommend buying all the film you need from your usual supplier, then do the plastic bag and x-ray bag it. happy trails!

-- pat (modlabs@yahoo.com), April 17, 2002.