This past weekend I was ‘forced’ to let security put my camera and unexposed Tri-X film through the x-ray machine. It’s never happened to me before, and I’m wondering what kind of damage (if any, fingers crossed) I can expect. Any ideas? Suggestions?
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From what I remember of the distant film past, Tri-X should be virtually unharmed by x-rays. Of course, that’s the way it was back in the ’80s. It’s possible, I suppose, that airport X-rays have gotten stronger. I’d be surprised, though, if you saw anything. Maybe a slight overall fogging, but even that is doubtful.
I suspect (and hope) you are right, but if not, I guess I’ll fall back on my love of Holgas, Dianas, antique cameras and serendipitous accidents, and hope for the best…
Under 800 iso is usually fine through xrays…
I’ll second Shelley’s statement – and that’s what signs at the airports usually state. But I thought you could have anything manually examined if you requested…
I had my taped up Holga inspected at one point – it had Ilford 3200 in it, so I didn’t want it x-rayed, and the TSA guys didn’t quite know what to make of it… I also had a TLR at the time that did get x-rayed. I was traveling with my wife and kid, and I volunteered to open the Holga for them (they didn’t like that idea), or would let them… ruining the film, if they really really wanted to… at which point they let it go.
Just don’t take a pic of the full body scanner thing, as interesting as it looks… I learned that the hard way, the first time I saw one. I had snapped a phonepic before thinking better of it… and then saw the TSA guy’s raised eyebrow…