How to Travel with Film

Traveling with 35mm & 120 film can be confusing, especially when needing to get it handcheck by TSA whenever flying or at airports. Thankfully, there are a handful of ways we can make traveling with film much easier. I know it's not an easy process, but hoping this video can instill some confidence with how to travel with film. Additionally, I go over some cheap ways to be able to take your cameras, safely and reliably, anywhere. Let me know down in the comments what traveling with film tips and tricks you may have.

Keaton:

#filmphotography #35mm #filmcamera

[TravuProductions]

The timing on this video is impeccable! Ill be traveling next month. Thanks man!

[UncannyMike]

One thing to keep in mind if you are mailing film, especially internationally, is that it will get x-rayed by customs leaving the country and by customs entering the destination country and might get x-rayed a few more times domestically so you are better off just letting it pass once through airport security.
You can try putting a "don't x-ray" sticker on it but unless you're Kodak or B&H shipping pallets of film its unlikely they will take time to inspect your package.

I travel often and from my experience I've never had airport security refuse a hand check in the US and Asia, but in Europe and South America i've been denied probably about 95% of the time.

If i see they have regular old x-ray machine then i just let my film pass through the machine, i've never had any issues, but if its a ct-scanner then i'll try to get a hand check, especially if im traveling with 120 film.

[gewglesux]

I've actually either had my film shipped ahead of time or depending where i'm going purchase it when i get there- same with processing- again based on where i'm going.

[ROFLMAOSHTISMOJ]

1) Use lower iso film (50 or 100)
2) Use a lead lined bag or mini-case(Hama Film Safe-X is for 4 35mm rolls or 2 120 rolls but I can fit 2 120 rolls+1 35mm roll in each)
3) Do not bother with asking for hand checks, if they cannot see through the bag they will do a hand check

[KOgan]

Thanks fo the tutorial I'm going to italy in a week and i was worried thanks!

[crzdcamcol]

Good advice. One item you touched on was the camera itself. I got into the habit of keeping the cameras unloaded and in my personal item bag. I figure let them scan those so they see I do have cameras. I tried a lined bag once but that seemed to cause more confusion than it was worth.

[maxadams]

I always have film in my camera. They just wipe it with some sort of swab and hand it back to you. Never been an issue for me! Although some times it does take extra long lol

[zerg_burger]

In the usa they have hand checked my film 9/10 times. One time at incheon, korea it was soooo busy that they scanned my film. That being said the film was fine, i didnt notice any fog at all.

[tim_meyer]

i just traveled with film a few weeks ago. I had a 50 and 400 iso with me. I photographed these two films during my vacation and didn't want to risk them being altered because of the Xray.

When I arrived at security I asked for a hand check but was immediately told that I couldn't do that and that the films had to go through the Xray scan. After a few words we finally agreed that I didn't have to put my already photographed films through the Xray, but they still wanted to scan my packaged, still fresh Ektar 100 film. With this compromise, I let them do it - after all, it's iso 100 anyway, which shouldn't really be a problem.

[rebelvisual]

Sadly I had the unfortunate experience of having agents who had no idea what that was [insisted that "batteries" were OK to be scanned]. Even after explaining what film was, the supervisor came and insisted it is safe and OK and tossed it into the Xray without me saying ok. Thankfully only 2 out of 6 of my film was ruined.

[EnderLpTheReal]

LOL some guys just scanned 3/4 of a years work with CT....

[PTRK]

This shit still scares me😂 that’s why i prefer to travel with my a7iii and then make film edits in lightroom😂 nevertheless, these are some handy tips!

[gewglesux]

TSA dude having a bad day? I had a TSA chick almost drop my Nikon 70/200 I reached for it and was told "don't reach "