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no Xray damage |
Security X-ray machines at airports will damage photographic film no matter how low the ASA rating is including 100 ASA film and below. This is especially critical if several machines have scanned the film such as the one at your departing airport, another one at your change of airplane airport, then the third one on your return trip, and finally the fourth exposure at your return change of plane airport. Thus four X-ray doses the film has received. Photographic film has a memory and will not forget any one of those doses and eventually its quality will be diminished. Damage occurs with even one X - radiation dose. The best way to protect yourself is by using a lead film bag available at photographic stores and furthermore insist that the security agent hand inspect your camera if it has film in it and also hand inspect your film bag. You may have to leave early for this but it’s well worth it to get good pictures.
serious Xray damage |
. Further complicating this problem is the fact that photographic film after receiving a slight exposure has gotten over initial inertia, or threshold exposure. Therefore the effective speed of the film increases as it receives additional X-ray exposures so that a 100 ASA film could become a 200 or a 400 ASA film before you return. The camera does not know this and will continue to expose the film at 100 because of a notch in the canister. Many people wonder why their photographs taken on vacations show flat washed out pictures of some beautiful vacation scenery. It is because the film is effectively a much higher speed film because of X-ray exposure and is over exposed and shows much loss of contrast as higher speed films do. This inertia phenomenon is similar to trying to push a stalled automobile from rest. It is very difficult but once the automobile gets rolling the initial inertia is over and it is much easier to continue pushing the automobile. Furthermore at airports particularly outside the United States the X-ray machines have dosage controls so that the X- radiation can be increased to penetrate metallic objects packed in the carry on. Also keep in mind that if the security agent is uncertain as to what's in your bag he may put it back through the X-ray machine giving it a third dose and then back again, etc.
xray damage-severe |
. It is important to remember that if you do pack the film in a lead bag and place it in your carry-on, the X-ray machine operator will probably run it back and forth a couple of times and then still unable to see into the bag, will ask you to open and hand inspect anyway. I always pack my film in lead bags and insist, in addition, for hand inspection. However if for some reason including time constraints it cannot be hand inspected, at the very least I do have some lead shielding protecting my film. If you want decent pictures of your treasured vacation moments it's worth the effort. Daniel J. Nolan, January 30th 1999.
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