Eurostar security and film

Hi All,


Any recent experience while travelling to/from London on Eurostar with unprocessed film? I shall be travelling soon, and am a bit worried as I read elsewhere that the security scanners used on the Eurostar terminals are more powerful compared to those used on airports, i.e. the prospect of film fogging is higher.


The Eurostar web site, unsurprisingly, is all positive, stating that such a damage is inconceivable... Although they mention the provision of hand inspection when I contacted them the reply was that the camera must go through the scanner.


So to reiterate, has anybody travelled recently to/from St. Pancras with a loaded camera or with unprocessed film in luggage?

Yes, there were no noticeable effects on ISO100 and ISO400 black-and-white. Why would Eurostar have different scanners to airports, or have you heard they only have ""checked-baggage" style machines?

If you are worried you could try to find yourself some Delta 3200 and put it in a clear bag with the rest of your film, saying that you "always push your ISO400 film as you will be shooting at a rock-concert". Probably you will not be able to get any sort of hand-check unless the staff open each cassette and check the film within cm by cm - that is a guess, but I have never noticed that the capability for chemical swabs is present. In any case, keep the camera bodies empty for the x-ray as that will reduce the number of stress points!

I would agree with Martin P.. Unless your sporting high ISO film, there nothing to worrie about. Went to Italy and France last summer and ran through several scanner through the trip, IE airports, museums, ect. Got back and developed... no issues.

Todd

I travelled by Eurostar to Paris and back earlier this month and both in St Pancras and Paris the staff were very helpful when I asked for a hand inspection for my films and they willing avoided the X-ray machine. I did let the camera go through the scanner however.

Tony

It's only a few US scanners that aren't film safe, all scanners used these days in the rest of the world where you can see your luggage scanned are safe.

If you see a young girl/woman using a machine it's film safe, good rule of thumb. Older and newer higher dosage machines have to be operated remotely, or by people past child-bearing age.

Ian

Thanks for all replies.