Vision 3 500T 16mm film going through X-ray Machine

[Elliott Atkinson]

Recently I was in St. Louis shooting a music video, and we wanted to get a big wide shot from the top of the Arch.
 

However unbeknownst to me I had to put my bolex, and 500T film through a X-ray machine. It looked similar to one at an airport, but the people working there refused to hand check my film and insisted that if the iso was under 1600 the machine would not harm it. 
 
Does this check out? I’ve had 35mm still film go through airport X-ray machines with no issues, but when ever I’ve flown with 16mm film Ive always get it hand checked and I was struggling to find info online. 

Edited August 16, 2023 by Elliott Atkinson
Title fix

[Tyler Purcell]

Should be fine, the new X ray machines are much better. 

[Dan Finlayson]

Their claim about 1600 ISO is a lie.  If it went through a carry-on x-ray machine like it sounds like, the roll might be ok.  I have a roll of 500T that my friend had in checked luggage that got absolutely fried.  Would love to know how it fared once you get it developed!

[Gautam Valluri]

500T one pass through an carry-on X-ray machine should be fine as long as its fresh stock and as long as its an X-ray machine and not one of those new CT scanners that more and more airports are installing.

[Frederick Knauf]

The newest CT type carry-on X-ray machines were tested and found to be far worse than the earlier carry-on machines.   The newer ones are being implemented because they allow passengers to keep laptops and other electronic devices inside their bags, rather than pull them out and place in a separate tray.   These use computed topology (CT) scanning which may be less energy than the older x-ray "blast", but they remain on as they encircle the item providing a continuous stream of energy to the item.   In the case of film, the silver halide grains absorb the energy from the stream for a longer time resulting in more energy accumulating.  The high-energy stream of the x-ray acts like a bowling-ball onto pins, throwing electrons from one grain onto others around it, which results in both an increase in base density (D-min) and the appearance of larger grain.

Tests which we conducted with the TSA at the Rochester International Airport indicated that no camera negative is safe from seeing a difference from these new, "improved", scanning devices, with the 50D gaining density in its D-min to a just noticeable level.  Higher speed films such as the VISION3 250D and VISION3 500T were ruined in one-pass through the new scanner.  Those who promoted these scanners claimed that they were safer for film because the energy stream was indeed lower, but they failed to recognize the continual stream and absorption film acquires vs. the old single shot of x-ray, which was safe for 400-speed and below.

We recommended to the TSA to initiate hand inspection for all film materials.  All film should be easily inspected, and the passenger should provide a changing bag and contact the airport ahead of time to have them prepared for the inspection.  No film should ever be loaded into a camera (motion picture or still) so that the camera can be inspected / scanned properly.

Frederick Knauf, Quality Manager, Eastman Kodak Co.

 

[Gautam Valluri]

Thank you Frederick for the info. This is really worrying.

Over at some of the analog photo forums, members have started compiling lists of all airports currently using CT scanners for hand-baggage. Perhaps we could also compile a list to sticky-post on these forums?

Copy-pasting some of the info here:

HOW TO IDENTIFY THE CT TYPE X-RAY SCANNERS

The following machines are currently on the market;

Smiths – CTIX

L3 – Clearscan

Rapiscan - 920CT / Connect CT

IDSS - Detect 1000

Nuctech - Kylin

Analogic Cobra

 

These US airports currently use CT scanning technology:

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL)
Baltimore-Washington International Airport (BWI)
Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD)
Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG)
Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW)
Houston Hobby Airport (HOU)
Indianapolis International Airport (IND)
John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)
Logan International Airport (BOS)
Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)
Miami International Airport (MIA)
Oakland International Airport (OAK)
Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX)
Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA)
St. Louis Lambert International Airport (STL)
Tampa International Airport (TPA)
Washington-Dulles International Airport (IAD)

 

European airports

Amsterdam Schiphol
Rome-Fiumicino International
Leonardo da Vinci International Airport
Stockholm Arlanda Airport (in progress)
Shannon Airport in County Clare, Ireland
Donegal Airport, Ireland

source: https://www.thenationalnews.com/travel/2023/04/05/airports-where-travellers-dont-need-to-remove-liquids-and-laptops/

Please add on more airports if anybody can confirm.

Info on how to contact these airports beforehand would also be useful.

And also perhaps fake "ISO 3200 film" stickers?

[Heikki Repo]

Helsinki (Finland) has CT scanners, but they are very friendly and cooperative with film shooters and hand inspect film when requested at CT scanner lines (there are still some older scanners at some places in the airport too).

[Robin Phillips]

It strikes me that its now fairly necessary to sort out either developing locally or shipping to your destination or lab as oppose to carrying film in luggage now. Obviously that doesnt help OP's scenario, but given I've seen TSA agents confused by some computer and camera hardware before, I wouldnt expect most to be trained or even realize that they are suppose to offer hand inspection of film

[Tyler Purcell]

I've never had any issues in all the years of carrying film around, with getting it hand checked in the United States. I've been all over the country and I tell the TSA guy that I have something that needs to be hand checked and they begrudgingly always accept. I don't see why film has to run through the scanner at all if it's hand checked. The cans are sealed.