I love the premise of this video. I also thought the lead lined box would work better than it did. Good point about the safety for the security staff. Dosimeters make sense.

The incredible amount of money, labor and time you took to make this experiment is beyond commendable. This video should have more likes by the film community. My personal experience is that flying in North America, the security agents have never had an issue hand checking my film regardless of the ISO but knowing this information for European travel I'd likely just send my rolls to be developed by a lab there and not bring any with me and purchase locally as well.

You've done what others have only envisioned in their nightmares. Your data is certainly the first that any of us has seen that is truly useful, and is based on REAL airport experience. Thank you!!!

Hi everyone! I am currently flying (with film :) :), and I will publish the website page with the images a couple of hours after the video goes live!

What a tremendous undertaking. I can't imagine subjecting myself to scanning from Airport security that many times. And you did that all just for us. I can't imagine doing that with American TSA.

Thank you for doing this for the film community, Lina!

Hi Lina, so i work in airport security, at least in Copenhagen Airport our scanners are measured to be okay for film under 800 ISO, anyone can ask for their rolls to be taken around our scanners, not depending on ISO. We’re currently testing out CT scanners, but we do have signs with equiment and film where it says to ask staff to take it around the scanner. I’ve taken film through many times over many years, as far as i’ve seen, there are no noticeable differences on my results. I took the excact same photos on 2 different rolls, one taken around the x-ray, one passed through. 800 ISO Maybe the models we use have a lower dose of radiation during the scan, but remember there’s also a lot of radiation while on the plane :) Unfortunately i don’t work on CT scanners yet, but if you pass through Copenhagen Airport, remember to always ask to get your film around the X-ray if that’s something you want, i ask everywhere i travel to, Heathrow will NOT take your film around unless its OVER 800 ISO. In terms of safety for staff, there are lead lined “curtains” on both ends (which usually lead to light items falling of the trays, since they’re quite heavy). They protect staff, and you can see on the machines when it’s scanning, if it’s not scanning, it’s safe to reach in there, in case something fell off :)

A year ago on a trip to Argentina I was told at the Buenos Aires domestic airport that they cannot hand check anything. The supervisor I spoke to said he would be fired if he let that happen. I had to fly out of the same airport the next day, so that’s two x-rays now. On the return trip I went through the same airport but managed to get a hand check at the Buenos Aires international airport. That’s three x-rays. So, long story short, a few of the outer images of my Portra 400 120 rolls (that I shot in the Southern Ocean/Antarctica) had banding and I’m sure some fogging, although of course I have no reference rolls. So when flying domestically in Argentina, don’t expect security to be helpful. Thanks a ton for doing this video. Hope it goes viral.

Lina I so appreciate all the grueling work you put in for this test. Just WOW and Thank you

What an awesome content. Finally after so many years I get the answers I was looking for so many years. What an amazing job and detailed experiment! Really hope that this video will stay online - disclosing details about airport security is a bit dodgy subject. Thank you so much!! You are the best

Great work, Lina. Thanks for taking on this cruel task 😅 This is a huge service to the film community 👏

Few people will comprehend the effort you have made with this....chapeau! What a monumental task you set out to achieve....

Super interesting experiment. Thanks! The CT scans in the airports are safe for outside personnel, they definitely do not work at the same power levels and energies that of medical ones, and both the gantry and foldable covers at the ends protect people around from harm. Also, the more you add dense protections around your films, the more these scanners will boost the xrays they produce in order to get through and view what is inside (like would the auto settings when using your flash), so it is really dependent of the CT manufacturer, the auto-exposure algorithms, the xray sensors on the machine, and the image reconstruction software that are used. All that to say it might actually be counter-productive to cover your film with steel and lead when going through these higher energy machines (thought my personal experience, lead protections tend to protect better and let less photo altering rays through rather than steel). Airport machines tend also to work at variable energies (the kilovolts) which reveal different kind of materials (which usually show as different colors on the controller's screen). Films have different sensitivities to these energy spectrums, so one film might be super sensitive to a machines xray spectrum and not as much to another. There are also films that are by nature sensitive to xray (e.g. FPP's x-ray 120 film...) that will then clearly print the rays... It is definitely a complex process, but all traditional films will usually be altered to one level or another, it's just very complicated to objectively cover all the manufacturers of both xray machines and films.

Wow. You have done all of us in the film community a huge service! You are exceptional in your resolve to uncover the facts in this significant problem for the analog world. The Authoritarians hate film. Film is private. Digital is public. I only shoot film these days and will curtail my traveling. I live in a beautiful region so I am fine. Thank you for your hard work!

Excellent!! Thank you so much for making this. Now, as a community, we need to rally airport security to understand this and allow hand screening. I will contact Helsinki airport tomorrow to start. The more we do this, the more people contact relevant parties, and the more we spread this info!

I hardly ever comment, but i must thank you for your tremendous tenacity and diligence on our behalf. This confirms my suspicions. I have very good luck, generally, getting hand checks (smiles really help where there is room for staff discretion) but it is very location-specific. We know the checked bag scanners are worse. But what do you think about sending your exposed film home via fedex or mail? Also, i am now trying to source film at my location. India, for instance, is a place i go frequently. I have scouted out where to buy film. Bottom line, as you prove: no guarantees. Again much thanks, including for making the video entertaining while serious!

Thanks for this massive work. I've alwyas been concerned about xrays when flying. Whilst I haven't noticed anything very obvious (without having a reference image), I think that I've been fairly lucky. I normally ask for hand checks and most security have obliged. Flew through Heathrow with about 15 rolls in December and got a hand check. Always be polite and most people are fine.

Hi Lina thanks for doing this, it was very interesting and helpful. As an amateur photographer who travels occasionally and always with B&W 35mm film I’m in your least affected category (🙏). The key information here for me is, as you pointed, the lack of a reference. Most people just travel, shoot, come back and think nothing happened to the film at security. Myself included. Also, how popular are these CT scanners? I don’t remember seeing them, but maybe I was not paying attention. Everyone is in a rush during security checks 😄. Thank you again for your work for us!

This was perfect. Thank you so much for your hard work on this. I especially appreciate being able to review the results on your website at my own pace. I've got a couple trips coming up so this'll help me loads.

That's most definitive scanners test ever. Thank you for all the efforts thats huge! So seems if you travel with film you need to carry it at least in double protective bag and ideally lead rubber container if you can get one. And even so, whenever possible ask for manual check.

Wow! Awesome work Lina - the film community owes you one after this! I've travelled with film a good few times and never noticed anything obvious but thinking about the photoshoots I've done on recent trips I have been a bit disappointed with the image quality - your finding that there's increased base fog and reduced contrast in 400 ISO black and white could well be the problem!

As a new amateur photographer that uses polaroid film I greatly appreciate these types of videos. Thank you for all your work! :)

The amount of work you've put into making this video is unbelievable! Thank you! When I saw a 38 minutes long video about the influence of airport scanners on the film I thought I'm not nerdy enough to watch it and here I am, watched it in one go. Amazing work! 🔥

This is like a dream, going back in time; ordering as much film as you can afford, all in stock. These days all we see are OUT OF STOCK signs for 35 mm and 120 mm colour and B&W film. I loved the GOOD old days when you could buy over the counter for a big project. And dont' me started on photographic paper types and sizes and finishes. "those were the daze, my friend! I hope they never end." (Maryanne Faithful). Like vinyl records, what goes around, comes around! Love your channel.

Amazing work. The entire film shooting community owes you for this. I’m still going to try my best to travel with film.

This is the most epic test thank you for taking the time and making such a thoughtful effort on behalf of all film photographers

At San Francisco airport I asked for manual check of my films, and officer was OK with that. I hope it will be more and more common.

Amazing work! So precious for the community! Is there a kind of a "nobel prise" for this???

You effort in this video is absolutely commemorative! You have earned my like and subscribe right away! I am a full time commercial videographer who travel and shoot film for fun on my work trips. I flys about 4-6 times a month in the US, and my home airport had upgraded to CT scanner last year. They always grant me hand check, so my x-ray experience goes elsewhere. 1) when I got back into shooting film last year, I purchased a bulk of Protra 400VC (expired 2007) from a Korea photographer. He assured me that he had stored the film in freezer and still shoot it at box speed. I was skeptical because shipping it to the US means it will run through security scanner. He said it made it through to Korea safe from Rochester more than 15 years ago, and said it will be fine (which I am sure when kodak freight them, it would have special treatment through security). The price was too good, and I couldn't turn it down. I acquired the film, shoot it box speed. Base fogged was extremely high and clear sine wave could be seen right through the middle of the entire roll. I now shoot it at ISO 64 to offset the damage, which mostly yield usable and "vintage" image. 2) I finished my 9-day long assignment in NYC and was flying home. But I was so tired, I forgot to take my film out for hand check. Luckily, I had been processing films through out the trip, so there was only 1 shot roll and 2 unshot rolls in the bag that gone through LGA CT scanner. I developed the shot roll, and gain size was increased noticeability and huge drop in contrast. 3) I recently came back from Japan, the line to re-enter US after custom at ATL was extremely long. I asked and granted hand check for my 13 rolls of film, but I still have a roll of 800T loaded in my Mamiya SIX; I saw that they were using an x-ray instead of CT scan at my Pre-Check line, so I just say "screw it!" and ran it through instead of explaining and slowing down the line further. Interestingly, film on both end of the spoolers was fine, but the shot that was stretch out on the pressure plate was affected, with overexposed area on the edge of the frame and in the frame itself. So, pretty much every time that I, wiling or by mistake, ran film through x-ray and CT scan, it has an immediate and visible effects as the consequences. I am so glad you made this video and show actual fact of what it does. Now every time someone said that I am crazy and X-ray doesn't affect film, I will just send them your video!

I appreciate all the work you put in so we could have a clear answer :)

Yes.

Thanks for making this Lina. And yeah, Airport Security services could in general definitely have an attitude adjustment towards the nice.

Thank you for this Lina! I travel for a living, but not always with a film camera, so when I toss one in my bag I always forget that there are X-ray machines in my travels-too late. But now I know what to really worry about, and what not to. Also, not all my exposure problems can I blame on a single x-ray scan!

Great video, I learned a lot! Thanks for the hard work you have put into this experiment, very helpful for the film community 👍

I can't imagine how expensive it was to make this video.... But, it was probably the best video I've seen on that subject matter.

I'm flying to Gotland this spring (4 passes in total) and this video did calm my nerves quite a bit. I'll make sure to bring only 200 iso 35mm. This must have been so expensive and difficult to make but I, and I'm sure everyone else, really appreciates it. Thanks!

Thanks for the video! I would like to give my feedback on potential improvements: 1) Using shot film only. It would be interesting to see if/how the order of shooting film and xray scanning matters. Film is not fully linear in exposure response, so it could potentially lead to a different outcome. 2) Testing different bags in Amsterdam has a methodic flaw: The cosmic radiation during the flight. The films should have partially been swapped after the scan on the ground to distinguish cosmic influences and CT influences. 3) The machines might have different energy options. The tube voltages could vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, from machine to machine or from setting to setting. So the sample size (both in times and in number of machines) is too small for a significant result (unless it is exactly regulated somewhere). 4) The Beer-Lambert law comes into play. Twice the lead thickness reduces the attenuation by the same ratio as the first layer. Example: 70% pass thorugh one layer -> 70% of the 70% percent (49%) pass through the second layer. 5) Placement of the film inside the scanner. Maybe different orientations lead to different exposured to xrays.

Just to say what an AMAZING effort from you! This is a great video, and the full results on your website are fascinating. Thank you very much for doing this video!

One of the most important videos on YT for photographers!!! Thank you!

Perfect timing as I am flying with film for the first time in a few days. Its a relief to know that my film should be perfectly fine in the same lead bag as both airports I am flying to don't have CT scanners. But now I know to look for them and request a hand check. Cheers!

Thank you Lina for the time and effort you put into conducting this test! This is truly eye opening and is going to make me chose the film I take with me on trips a lot more carefully.

Wait... Adox finally got their 120 slitter working? Nice! Also, awesome job with all of the testing. It turned out pretty much how I expected after seeing Kodak's report (from the mid-2000s), but nice to see all of the hard data. Thankfully many airports in the US are switching to mmWave scanners, which shouldn't cause any damage since they don't emit ionizing radiation-- although they are still somewhat rare (I almost always try to use them because you don't have to separate all of your devices into a half-dozen bins). You can normally tell them apart as the are smaller/shorter than Xray or CT scanners and you aren't required to separate electronic devices. I do wonder how often my film packages from Japan (via DHL or Fedex) get irradiated through customs though....

Great undertaking. Classical (not "analog", mind you) photographers will appreciate this experiment.

I love how you went total OCD with the security scanning. This is supremely helpful. What alternatives do we have to get film back home if we decide to ship film home to avoid carry-on scanning? What shipping carriers are best for lower scanning intensity? This may be another video project. Can't wait to see what you find and thank you for braving another 11km of airport steps

Wow, what an epic test! I really appreciate all the effort you went thru to provide the community all the data!

Ooh this could be a lead to health safety documentaries!

What an epic video! Great work Lina 🙌

This is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you for your hard work!

I've never taken a film camera with me on a flight as I haven't traveled much since I started shooting film again in 2018. If I'm flying domestic, I'll probably ship my film at least back from the destination and, if visiting family, ship it to the destination, too. Sure, an added expense, but then I don't have to worry about scanners ruining my film....only that it gets lost in shipping. Trade-offs. Now, if I fly internationally, no idea what to do on the trip out, at least. Guess I'll have to wait for the next video. :) Thank you again, Lina. You're the best!

Это был действительно серьёзный тест. Спасибо!

Thanks for this video. It is very informative and I'm sure that it is helpfule for film photography community. Keep up the good work! ❤😊

Thank you very very much for doing this :) I’ve been traveling with film and always in limbo, stressed and uncertain of what it could really happen to it. You give a realistic conclusion of what actually happens to it. Cheers!

Thank you Lina, you are magnificent and we all really appreciate the amount of labour and pain you had to suffer with this..

Thanks for this huge amount of work and Money you put into this. I'm really impressed and thankful for this. Can't wait to see the video right at the perfect Moment. Saturday I start to a holiday Trip to Athens, of course with an Analog Camera in my Backpack😅

Lina, this is undoubtedly the best video ever regarding this subject matter. Well done, and thank you for hard work. I was actually very surprised that the protective bags had any effect at all. This video might persuade me to buy one.

Thank you so much for this excellent test. Very well done. I feel better learning from you that 1 pass through CT scanner does apparently not cause too serious damage on BW film 400 iso and lower. Last summer I bought 2 bulk rolls of HP5 and FP4 plus a few rolls of 35mm Gold200 from Fotoimpex in Germany. Flying home from Stuttgart airport I asked airport guy if they had the new CT scanners and if so if I could get film hand checked, but he gave me wrong information - said it was the regular old type X-ray scanner. It turned out it was a CT scanner and all my films ( 2 bulk rolls = around 35 rolls of 36 exp.) all went through CT scanner. I was very sad and thought I had all my films destroyed. You test shows that they will probably only have minor fog and be fine to use - and fortunately BW film show less obvious effect. But I have learned my lesson -always ask for hand inspection of film and be calm but determined explaining the importance of it to airport staff. Film producers should do more to get the airports to understand this serious issue with CT scanners as they are soon going to be everywhere and have hand check of film as normal procedure.

This was really interesting and a lot of work! I haven't brought film on a plane for almost twenty years, but what I used to do when going somewhere reasonably civilized was to just bring one film in the camera, ask for manual inspection (usually worked, except on Heathrow) and then buy the rest of the film I needed after the flight. Going back I tried to get the films developed before my return flight(s) if possible. I'm of course aware that this strategy is much harder today, but it's still possible in some places.

Thank you for all your work! I highly appreciate the test data! All the best to you :)

Great video! Thanks for doing this study in behalf of all the film photographers! 🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼

Brilliant ❤

What an effort! Thank you for taking this on. Very useful research for the community.

What an effort, well done Lina! Very interesting to see what the effects are. I will start rethinking taking film abroad. I have used airports and Eurostar in the last year and they wouldn’t do a hand inspection of the film as they claimed there machines were safe! Also to add to this, think about tourist attractions and museums, a lot of those also use xray machines before they allow you in. More risk.

Thank you for doing this test! Deserves an award for this!

Lots of effort, thank you! I likewise had a bad experience at Berlin Airport when transferring from JFK to BER to AMS. The TSA in America are accommodating for hand checking film (at JFK and PHL), but the Berlin staff wasn't! The one guy rolled his eyes at me and told me he had to get the Polizei to hand check it. AMS and HAM staff were kind enough to hand check, so only one x-ray pass for my film this summer.

Huge thanks to you LIna! For most of us is not possible to do test like this. Greetings from Slovakia

Thank you very much for all the work you put into this, Lina. Great material.

Thank you very much for what you did, your video is a wonderful work and it helps analog photographers a lot.🙏💙 I hope your video gets a decent amount of views

Wow, that's one epic experiment. Well done and thank you.

Thanks for doing that Lina. Such an effort for the sake of film photography. Great conclusion at the end.

Wow, amazing video Lina! Thank you so much for taking this huge effort, absolutely epic.

Holy moly this video is a product of film love. Great job!!! THANK YOU!!!

Thank you so much for going through all of that effort to get real world data on this!

Great work, what useful information this is for all film shooters! Thanks! I've passed through the Berlin scanners many times with 35 mm film and made it so far. To minimize the number of times it get x-rayed, I try to buy film on the travel location, if possible : )🤞

hey, thanks for the vid! you saved me a wasted roll of film. I'm leaving for japan with my grandfather and dad thinking i would record some memories in film. now i know that once they got developed i would have been disappointed by the fogging from ~4 ct/x ray scanners. thanks again!

Amazingly useful video! Thank you so much!

Thank you so much for doing this test. It proves to me once again to continue handing my film to TSA agents for a manual check, if I'm not holding up the line.

This is an INCREDIBLE TEST! Thank you. My question is: When the film travels from the factory to retailers in other continents all over the world, isn’t it scanned for security in customs anyway? Thanks again!

What a great job! I think this is, from now, the reference in this topic.

Amazing video! Thank you for all the effort and the fieldwork to get it done! I started shooting film last year after buying an old camera, and I had a 35mm Portra 400 traveling with me to many countries between August and January. The results were obviously awful: completely foggy. Ans I kept wondering what I had done wrong. Now it makes sense

Thanks for doing this test and the great efforts clearly you have taken. This is very helpful. I've been taking film abroad through regular X-ray machines for over 10 years, and hardly ever been granted a hand check (unusually only Santorini airport staff hand checked it without me asking!) and I've never had any issues. I'm yet to go through CT scanners and was worried about it. I am still, a bit, but most of my abroad films are 100 or 400 at most.

you put an insane amount of work into this, its amazing, thank you!!

Wow, what a fantastic experiment. Thank you so much for all the tests! I've had film damaged too, and sometimes when I ask for hand checks they will double check my baggage too, but most of the time they understand

Thank you for all your hard work and research into this topic -- just incredibly in depth! Only ever had issues with one roll of film -- waves, so I'll count myself lucky.

Great great great job, lot of work, effort, and money invested in this. Thank you very much to finally clarify, with tests, what could happen to our films.

Thank you so much fot taking the effort to do this! Greetings from Argentina!

Hallo Lina, vielen Dank für den riesigen Aufwand - super informatives Video !

Lina, amazing informational video! Thank you so much! I wonder if overexposing negative film by 1+ stops after CT scanning would minimize the effects or not. Keep up with the good content!

Big ups for doing this experiment!

Thanks for the effort, confirmed that I’m not crazy for getting security to hand-check my film every time. They ask the ISO and I always say it’s higher than the safe level lol

This is why I started buying some of my film in the countries I visit or if I took film having 1/2 of my rolls developed / scanned in the country before I left for home (and I love to dev at home so it sucks from a cost perspective but, its become the safest bet - and helps the local labs to stay in business I suppose).

Thank you for doing this! I can’t imagine how much work went into this

Finally! I know I’m not to blame for ruining mine and my partners holiday photos!

Great info. I got waves on my portra400 rolls when travelling to India. Its still regular scanners but you get scanned up to five times per flight there. Then scanned every time you go into a hotel, restaurant or shopping mall.

The best option I've ever taken is to just use a lab where you're shooting. I Travel to Ukraine for my journalistic work and there are great labs in Kyiv that develop and scan better than most US labs. Just do a little research beforehand and you're all set. You want to still scan them yourself? It's a lot safer to travel with Negatives than undeveloped film.

Excellent video, thank you very much for the detailed test and dedication!!! Definitely useful information for all film shooters.

Thank you for putting in all this work. This answers a lot of my questions.

This was fantastic, very informative. Thank you for all the hard work and effort.

Jesus, what a project - scared to imagine film cost alone! Thanks for this! I traveled with E-6 film and no x-ray bag, and didn't spot any issues (with no comparative roll), but was somewhat worried.

Thank you for going thru this grueling experiment! If possible I try to have my film sent to my destination & take my chances on the way back.

Great test, amazing. Makes me think twice about flying with film in the future. Definitely handcheck going forward. As for security staff and radiation. There are different type of radiation, and how it is targeted, and how it is sent out. The security staff is very much fine. You probably got exposed to more background radiation on your flight than they get exposed to in a day :)