OK, I’ll be flying to Hong Kong tomorrow- the land of FILM PHOTOGRAPHY. I am so excited.
I will be using film camera to document my trip for the first time ever!
So I googled about whether it is advisable to have films scanned through the X-ray in the airport during security clearance.
To half of my relief, X-ray scanning on films with ISO below 800 would not have any impact. I have also chanced upon many blogs from experience film photographers that they have had no issue with their image quality from films (<ISO 800) that had undergone X-ray scanning.
Since the 4 rolls of films I am bringing is of ISO 400. I shall not be worried. Let’s pray hard that all my bet (to shoot film while travel) won’t go to waste 🙂
P/S It’s a must to hand-carry your films on board the plane. Do not check-in. Because of the higher frequency ray or something that used to scan all luggages, it will definitely damage the films regardless of ISO.
I just came back from a trip to HK, and personally I think to avoid the risk of film being ruined through the x-ray machine, I would actually buy film after arriving there since film is not that hard to find in HK. On the Kowloon side, there are a few stores (I got mine at Dot-Well), and I passed by a store selling film on Stanley Street at Central too. Coming back from HK, the security is very willing to hand-check film if you ask for it (regardless of ISO). I managed to bring back a roll of Portra 800 and pushed B&W film without having to run them through security scanners. Just my two cents. 🙂