Eurostar security and film

[I.G.I.]

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? Cross posted on APUG as the question is a bit specific, and I guess only a few of the APUG/DPUG community have used the under the Channel train service.

 

[analoguey]

Airports have specific chemical scanners for film (I think also used to check lappies for traces of chem) - maybe you can ask them to manually check that. Explain the effort and film loss if you need to.

/Quite late to help on that trip, hope this helps next time.

- via tapatalk.

 

[selmslie]

I would recommend the same precautions you should follow for airline travel: let them scan an empty camera, carry your film with you in a clear plastic bag (never in your checked luggage) and ask for hand inspection.

I always carry a roll of Delta 3200 or TMZ so they can see the ISO on the label and tell them that I plan to push the ISO 400 film a couple of stops. If I think I have anything to worry about, I develop one of the high speed films first, even if I didn't use it, just to check for fog.

 

[analoguey]

Indeed. That's been generally what I have done. Have you used any of thr lead lined pouches?

- via tapatalk.

 

[I.G.I.]

For the said travel to London I, frankly, gave up and didn't carry the film camera with me -- too much nonsense to bother with. To an email query of mine before the travel the Eurostar replied with some formulaic blah blah with the only making sense message that I have to submit everything to the scanner check. When I inquired again in person on the terminal the staff told me that hand checking a film camera is Ok. Go figure...

 

[selmslie]

Indeed. That's been generally what I have done. Have you used any of thr lead lined pouches?- via tapatalk.

I used them thirty years ago an hated them. They were hard to carry, a pain to open and the roll I wanted was always on the bottom. They may have protected the film but I was using mostly Kodachrome 25 and 64 at the time.

Today they might actually turn up the power to see into them so your best bet is to hand carry and avoid the scanner.