[Leica] Xray machines

[Thomas Kachadurian <kach@freeway.net>]

Joe:

With a bit of planning you can do even better. Once for a trip to Arizona I
contacted the camera store in Flagstaff to negotiate a reasonable price for
the film I needed. Picked it up upon arrival and shipped it out in mailers
ten rolls at a time during my trip.

Advantages:
1. No film to carry
2. No Xray problems
3. About half of my film was waiting for me when I got home.

Certainly those gun shy of mailers, or those shooting 120 film could find a
lab and have their film souped along the way. Not a bad idea anyways. I
always get a little uneasy when I've put more than about 30 rolls through a
camera without seeing a single frame processed. I had a Nikon 8008s a few
years back that sounded and worked perfectly except the shutter wasn't
opening. Luckily I discovered it after only two rolls were ruined.

Tom

>Kevin,
>I fear these people know less than they profess. The arches you walk through
>use electro-magnetic energy--or fields--to detect the presence of metal
>objects. I do not they such energy affects photographic film. It's the
>ionizing radiation of the X-rays in the machines that wrecks, or alters,
>film.
>There appears to be no choice, in any case. The film has to go one route or
>the other. Someone recently made the good suggestion of not taking film.
>This is what I now do, at least in fair-sized cities in the US where I am
>sure I can get the film I want. Ionce had a brick of film shipped to where I
>needed to use it, and it was waiting for me, all ready to go. Getting it
>home is another matter, but it worst it is one less trip through the system.
>regards,
>Joe Stephenson

Thomas Kachadurian
WEB PAGE: http://members.aol.com/kachaduria