Flying With Film: What You Need To Know

Overall, flying with film is fairly safe, but there is always a small chance of damage to the film. Luckily there are some easy precautions you can take to significantly lessen any chance of problems.

I think that everyone likes to take a camera on vacation, even people who rarely use one in day-to-day life. Going on a trip is new, exciting and who doesn't want to capture that journey to share the experience. Also with the popularity of Instax film and Polorid people are now using instant film more than ever before.

Now, there are all kinds of articles online about this, I've read a variety of them but my primary source is Kodak's technical bulletin on the subject which can be found here

• The higher your film’s ISO, the more sensitive it will be to x-rays.
• Most modern x-ray machines are supposed to be safe on normal ISO film. They have a stated limit under which they claim to be fine.
• The more times a roll is scanned, the more potential damage can be done
• If your film does show effects, the machine may fog your film, or leave wavy x-ray lines on it.
• The scanners for carry-on baggage are weaker, and therefore safer than the ones used to scan checked baggage and suitcases.
• Developed film is safe, so if you got your film developed on your trip, your negatives are safe.
• Instax pictures are also safe once they’ve come out of the camera and are actually photos.

What you can do:

There are a number of things you can do to make sure your film is safe:

• Ask the officials to do a hand-check instead of putting the bag through the machine. Be polite about it, even if they deny you. I'd hate for one problem case to spoil it for the rest of us.
• If you do request a hand-check, carry your film in a plastic zip-lock bag, taken out of the film cans, so the airport security people can see it and don’t need to waste time opening boxes or tubes.
• You can buy lead-lined bags which will weaken the X-radiation on film and reduce potential harm.
• The x-ray scanners for carry-on baggage are not as strong as for checked luggage, so always put your film in your carry-on bag, not your suitcase.

I've taken different rolls of film in my carry on and have yet to have a problem. Though I take direct flights where I can to reduce the number of x-ray scans. I asked for a film check and it was a quick and easy. Sometimes they don't want to bother and make you put it through anyway. I didn't argue much, put it in my lead-lined bag and put it through. I've also had a camera with film in it go through that I had forgotten about and didn't have an issue.