First, if you're shooting film, don't check it with your baggage. The powerful x-ray scanners used for checked bags are very strong and even lead bags for your film are very questionable. Unprotected film will be fogged.
Keep all film on your person in a clear plastic bag so it can be visually checked by security. Tell them it's ASA 800 or 1600 and it's extremely sensitive. Obviously, don't let them scan the film with your carry-on bags.
I used to FedEx my exposed film back to myself, but I don't know if they are also x-raying this stuff today.
Consider, and I mean only consider, having your film processed on location. My reservation is that your going to a locale where good processing is rare if available at all.
Now, as an aside, x-ray scanning has no effect upon digital memory cards. I heard that one fellow returning from Safari decided to keep the Compact Flash cards in his pants pocket and walk through security. This would not have been a problem had he not been chosen to be hand searched using that wand that they wave around your body. This search wand emits a magnetic field strong enough to pick up metal beltbuckles and the like. It WILL affect the stored files on a CF memory card. It totally screwed up all the files in his pocket. He would have been OK if he had sent the CF cards down the conveyor belt and had them scanned by x-ray. Moral: don't let that magnetic wand anywhere near your digital camera, media storage cards, or your laptop's hard drive for that matter.
Letcher in Tulsa
