[Leica] Some security-related international travel experiences

[Adam Bridge]

I’ve recently returned from a trip that took me from California to Amsterdam, Warsaw, Amsterdam and Tanzania. Along the way I had a variety of interactions with airport security that seemed to evolve over the course of the trip.

I left Sacramento, California on the 12th of June with a change in Minneapolis for Amsterdam. In Sacramento I was required to remove all my digital devices: MacBook Pro, iPad, Kindle, iPhone plus any batteries. On the camera gear side I was required to remove each camera and each “large lens” which meant my 100-400mm Fuji lens and the 70-140mm Fuji as well as all batteries and electrical-related gear. I was not held in high regard by those behind me in the TSApre lane. Since I have hip, knee and shoulder prosthetics I was also subject to a complete and intimate pat-down.

We spent a few days in Amsterdam and then flew to Warsaw. At Schiphol I had precisely the same experience: remove everything electronic or battery-related, all cameras and all large lenses. Fortunately I had repacked to make this easier.

Our return to Amsterdam from Warsaw saw the same level of screening.

But things changed a bit on arrival at Schiphol for our flight to Tanzania. Although all my electronics still had to be removed, as well as the cameras and batteries the large lenses didn’t need to be removed.

Inside Tanzania we felt with security on a flight from Kilimanjaro to Zanzibar. In Tanzania you have to clear security twice: once to get inside the terminal and another to enter the gate area. Only my electronics had to be removed to clear these security screenings.

We returned to Amsterdam where we had to go through security after leaving our flight before going on into the terminal for changing planes. Things had changed and I was only required to remove my laptop and iPad. The cameras were good. Whew!

We flew to Minneapolis where we cleared customs. That required another security transition where we re-entered the terminal. This was TSA again. Here I only had to remove my laptop (back to old rules, it seems).

Maybe we’re back to something resembling normal. 

In any case I recommend packing up gear something like this:

With laptops I used a nylon-mesh bag to hold all cables and backup batteries which I can simply pull out and put into a security bag.

For my camera gear (I was using a photo roller bag) I put my long lenses on my two main cameras so those were easy to remove. I put all batteries/cables in a mesh bag (actually two since my wife’s camera uses different batteries from my Fuji) and I put SD cards in another small mesh bag.

I hope we don’t have to go through the complete unpack in the future. I know the very pleasant security folks in Schiphol seemed more at least on our return.

Now it may be the case that we got a less intense check because we were going through intermediate security. But I hope some bit of sanity is happening.

Thanks for reading. I hope this helps any international travelers.

Adam Bridge

ps: I chose to take my Fujifilm X-T2 with an X-T1 as 2nd/backup camera. My wife used her Sony NEX-6 with a super-zoom lens. The Fuji kit was smaller and lighter than using my Sony A7II AND A7RII. That turned out to be a big deal. The Fuji performed brilliantly although the 70-140 zoom may have been damaged toward the end of the trip on the ferry between Zanzibar and Dar es Salaam. I was very happy with the images I got from the trip as well as the video.

Photos to come as I process.

ab