Traveling to Europe with lots of film, what's the best strategy?

Hi,
Concerning the situation when travelling to Munich: We don´t have x-Ray on Train stations here in Germany. On german Airports, you always have the right to insist on your luggage being hand controlled. I never had a problem on our Airports. I had to travel from Munich, Stuttgart and Frankfurt with slide films and the even more sensible 16mm Negative films for 16mm Filmcameras (i had some REALLY expensive Kodak 16mm rolls with me when doing a documentary with my Éclair ACL 16mm Camera in 2008). The situation was different though in Albania and Hungary - no chance to get the films hand controlled. In Germany, you are able to get cheap films via Calumet. They send to any german destination without shipping costs. Perhapes you can order films for your stay in Germany via Calumet Germany and have them send it to your hotel in Munich, so it is already waiting for you there when you arrive? On the other hand - I was able o buy some 120 Ilford films in a small photoshop on Marienplatz (central tourist spot in Munich). The owner was very very happy to serve a customer with a Medium Format Camera (I got there with a Mamiya RB 67 around my neck) - he considered this being the only way of taking REALLY good photographs .

mexipike said:

Traveling to Europe with lots of film, what's the best strategy?

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After reading all the post, there is only one answer I miss: bring a camera

wiltw said:

The security guys must only speak very early versions of Old (pre-Chaucerian) English, as they do not comprehend any requests in modern English. Never have, and I have gone thru London dozens of times, put my film in clear plastic bags, etc.

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You need to speak with an authentic British accent. Watch Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins for guidance!


Steve.

mike c said:

I'm a little unclear about this Vat thing. I'm going on vacation to Europe and bringing film with me that was purchased here (US) for the trip. Would there be a Europe tax on that when I come back with the film to the US. I'm thinking no because it is for personal use, but wonder if a receipt for the film is required to prove the film was indeed bought in the US.

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I don't see why you would be charged VAT on it or need a receipt. You won't need these for the clothes you are wearing or carrying with you or your toothbrush, etc.

And in any case, you will be taking it all back out of the country again.


Steve.

Steve,
free of duties and VAT are only personal belongings a traveller needs and a certain amount of exempted additional stuff to bring with you. The latter varies on the travel-circumstance.

If you have expensive stuff with you it of course makes a difference whether you place it in that limited exempted volume or in the personal travel belongings. Professional camera gear hardly can be seen as travel belongings.


This is very theorethical and may not reflect the situation at an airport, but my experience with shipments, not travels, showed that customs authorietis can extend their urges into the absurd.

AgX said:

Steve,
free of duties and VAT are only personal belongings a traveller needs and a certain amount of exempted additional stuff to bring with you. The latter varies on the travel-circumstance.

If you have expensive stuff with you it of course makes a difference whether you place it in that limited exempted volume or in the personal travel belongings. Professional camera gear hardly can be seen as travel belongings.


This is very theorethical and may not reflect the situation at an airport, but my experience with shipments, not travels, showed that customs authorietis can extend their urges into the absurd.

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Shipments and travel are two unrelated scenarios. As if anyone would travel without a camera...

So I have returned my results and would like to share them for future reference. I had absolutely no issues getting a hand check anywhere.
On the way there I traveled from Austin to London, at Austin they had no issue hand checking my film but a manager came up and made the agent inspect each and every roll, so this took quite some time. When I arrived in London they had the X-ray machine section of customs closed so I didn't have to worry there. I then took the train from London to Paris, where they were also quite willing to hand inspect my film. From Paris on you're in the EU and you don't have to worry about X-rays on any trains. On the way home from Munich the staff seemed very puzzled but eventually hand inspected. I changed planes in Heathrow and since I was switching from inter european to international I had to go through security again. The agent at Heathrow was quite willing to comply and was quite polite. I even filled a comment form thanking them for hand inspection, in order to possibly encourage this behavior. Everyone has said that Heathrow employees are always completely unwilling to comply but I found them quite nice. This may be different if you were flying directly from London where the security line is a little more hectic.

In conclusion I say just take your film in a nice plastic bag like I did and don't worry about it. I was expecting to have to go through at least one X-ray but I was pleasantly surprised.

You had been in the EU in London already...

That's true, but they don't seem to put borders between any other eu countries except the UK to wherever, and of course you gotta use pounds!

AgX said:

You had been in the EU in London already...

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Don't you believe it. GB isn't even in Europe, as I'm told by some British finest.

Well, both of you convinced me...

giannisg2004 said:

They're a big scam.

I don't know why people are buying into that.

It's simple: the inspector either sees inside the bag (so your film gets the radiation), or he doesn't.
So what do you think will happen, if the inspector sees a big black blob on his screen, and no way to see inside?
He'll let it pass?

Of course not.
He'll open the bag, pour everything into a basket and scan scan it.

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Not in my experience--say, a couple of hundred gates crossed these past few years... I always travel with a couple of those bags, almost always watch the screen as my stuff rolls by. Big dark rectangle with barely visible outlines of rolls. "Is this film?" "Yes." More often than not that's the end of it, I go through. Once in 3-4 gates, he will get up and open the bag, see it's film and let me go. Never (as in "n.e.v.e.r.") a third outcome. So in a word--functionally, the lead bags are the equivalent of a very very convincing request for hand inspection.



My contribution to the main thread: I develop as I go. I may go through 8-10 gates per trip (I travel for months); my film never goes through 3, and 2 only rarely.

TheToadMen said:

Don't you believe it. GB isn't even in Europe, as I'm told by some British finest.

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I do remember someone saying that Europe was the island to the South and East of mainland Britain. And of course, I am British so how could I possibly disagree ?? (even though I choose to live in NL).

The way to carry the greatest quantity of film in the least volume is to use these film cases from Japan Camera Hunter:

http://www.japancamerahunter.com/shop/japancamerahunter-film-cases/

Each box holds 10 rolls.