Years ago, I had a guy that would not hand check my film. It taught me that there will be people out there who won’t hand check no matter what you say. They may be rare, but it happens. So the only way I’d shoot film overseas is to buy and develop the film at my destination. That means C-41, which doesn’t interest me that much. As for the US, generally we drive, so I’ve been hauling film (and digital).
With today’s security lineups, I can see why hand checking is a crap shoot. When security is backed up, I would think it might be a challenge to ask your film to be hand checked.
I had issues with folks at DIA (CO) and a couple of red-eyes out of RNO (NV) last year. May have just caught folks that had worked too many hours, but it did put a moment of pause on carrying multiple boxes of 4x5 sheet film with me. Too much time & money invested to take a chance; YMMV....
jay w wrote:
Years ago, I had a guy that would not hand check my film. It taught me that there will be people out there who won’t hand check no matter what you say. They may be rare, but it happens. So the only way I’d shoot film overseas is to buy and develop the film at my destination. That means C-41, which doesn’t interest me that much. As for the US, generally we drive, so I’ve been hauling film (and digital).
There actually was significant change in TSA’s behaviour to the public after one of them was killed maybe 15-20 years ago.
Some crazy dood had had enough and took out his frustrations.
After that there was re-training and a significant shift in how they treated the general public.
In no way am I condoning that murder, but what it did was make management step back for a moment and look at the big picture as to how people were being treated.
I’ve only had my film made to go through the carry on xray machine one time. And that was when their hand check swab test somehow repeatedly showed a reading of potential explosive residue! No idea how that happened but I 100% agreed with them when they said it had to go through the machine. That was in Sacramento.
And they still were polite about it!
Compare that to London Heathrow where every encounter I have had has been extremely rude and cold.
snegron7 wrote:
I have been thinking about taking one film camera with me as a 3rd backup camera/artistic capture during travel. Most likely it would be my Nikon F with standard prism plus 5 rolls of film (no battery needed, and I'd use the sunny 16 rule if all else fails). My main cameras would be a pair of digital mirrorless bodies with lenses, but I like the idea of having an indestructible tank of a camera in case all else fails (which actually happened to me once when both my digital cameras failed me, and I had to use my cellphone). Also, it would be cool to capture some unique images on film.
Do you travel with a film camera? What are some of the drawbacks (other than the price of film + developing)? ...Show more →
You do not specify which type of travel-ground or air. I no longer take film on planes. I do take film in my car.
This was a useful thread. I’m now clear that digital is for air travel and film is for when I travel by road. I’m about to travel from Dallas via Ogden to Oregon. My film trip ends at Citizen’s Photo in Portland. I fly back, but will ship any remaining unexposed film. All my cameras are rangefinders, so if I can remember to remove the lens caps, I should be able to get a few good images.
bwcolor wrote:
This was a useful thread. I’m now clear that digital is for air travel and film is for when I travel by road. I’m about to travel from Dallas via Ogden to Oregon. My film trip ends at Citizen’s Photo in Portland. I fly back, but will ship any remaining unexposed film. All my cameras are rangefinders, so if I can remember to remove the lens caps, I should be able to get a few good images.
FWIW, I flew recently (Eugene, OR to Wichita, KS) and requested hand checks with no issues either way. TSA staff were efficient and professional, in spite of the government shutdown.
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