New rule (in our favor) regarding photo equipment carry-on luggage.

I received this email from a friend, so for those who are not up on this, I
am posting it.

Some airports might not yet be aware of this, so I would bring a copy of it
along, just in case.

http://www.tsa.gov/public/interapp/editorial/editorial_1248.xml

Apparently, the change was brought about by these people:

http://www.asmp.org/tips/tsa.php

Mostly affects USA, I think.



Patrick

 

Although ASMP may have taken up the issue for clarification, I
contacted them (TSA) sometime back regarding "sheet" film and
informed Steve Anchel at PV Magazine of their positive correspondance with me.
PV Magazine published my correspondance so maybe its possible ASMP took note
and did some more follow up. In any event its a good policy and hope it lasts.

 

How do they 'hand inspect' undeveloped sheet film? Clearly they can't
open the box and look inside. Do they shake it or something?

 

Its probably swabbed, why don't you inquire to the TSA, they may be
more interested in why you want to know ;-)

 

In that case, the less I bother them the better; ;=)

 

I wouldn't mind bugging them: someone ought to do it!

(Unless you think we should just be good little sheep, do as we're told and
let them herd us around.)

 

no no you should be obscene but not herd.

 

My guess is that they have dogs that are trained to sniff out
explosives.....Also, if the new film packs are all plastic, then they should
go through a metal detector OK.....In my day, they used thin sheet metal for
the slides that actually cover the film plane, but today, they probably use
plastic.......

 

I just went from Seattle to NY & back, and in both airports it was swabbed.

 

I quote from the referenced website
"remove your undeveloped film from the canister and pack in a clear plastic
bag."
Eh???
I do realize that this is a DIGITAL forum but..................
Ken.

 

You do realize this was crossposted, don't you? No digital forums on *my* list.

And yes, you quoted the TSA correctly. I'm going to take a wild-ass guess here
and presume that by "canister" they mean the little plastic can that 35mm
cassettes come in; I don't think they're asking to open the *cassette*.


D "but I could be wrong about that" N

 

OK, how about "put your CF, SD, XD, SM memory cards
in a clear plastic bag .. " ... better ?? ;-)

--
Mike "mikey" Fields
http://home.comcast.net/~mike.fields/
outgoing email scanned by Norton Antivirus ... is that good ?

Linux users brag on how long their system stays up,
Window users assume it's a temporary condition ...

 

Actually I tend to take people at their word unless given reason
to do otherwise, then if proven consistantly wrong I write them out of my
book forever. No sheep required.

 

I just went from Seattle to NY & back, and in both airports it was swabbed.

I'm not familiar with this....Swabbed with what? - How does swabbing detect
the contents?

 

I presume he means remove it from the little plastic can and just put the
canisters in a bag....Along these lines, why can't they make the film
canisters out of plastic? - Strikes me that this would eliminate the problem
altogether......

 

No.....It was refusing to steal money from taxi cab companies and car rental
agencies to solve the states budget problems......It's typical of liberals
that they don't think when they get money for the politicians....They just
steal indiscriminately from anyone who happens to have it without any
remorse or sense of fairness.....If your hobby is collecting cameras, you
might have over $100,000 worth of Hassys and lenses, but nobody comes
banging on your door every year to make you pay a property tax on them, do
they? - Then why is it OK to steal money from car collectors and people
who have to make a living by buying vehicles?

 

Several years ago -- prior to 2001-09-11 -- I used to travel pretty
regularly with a 4x5 and quite a bit of sheet film. Sometimes I just
sent it through the X-ray, and honestly only once or twice did I ever
see ill effects. However, often if I could arrange to fly at other
than peak times, I'd bring a clean film-changing bag to the airport,
explain that I was traveling with sheet film, point out the factory-
sealed Kodak boxes, and explain that if necessary, we could open the
outer boxes to reveal the aluminized, sealed inner bag -- DON'T DO
THAT WITH FUJI FILM, THE INNER BAG ISN'T SEALED -- and, if that
wouldn't do, the inspector could use the darkbag to confirm that
there was nothing but sheet film in there. I never really had any
trouble and seldom even had to use the darkbag (but the few times I
did, the inspectors were polite and friendly).

I did have one really nasty argument with a screener who insisted
that my Graflex was "not a camera" and insisted that I tell her
what it "really" was. She obscured her badge, then moved to another
checkpoint when I walked away to find a supervisor. At least the
TSA folks are -- usually -- more professional than the ancien regime
were.

 

Ending a special tax break on car registration is "stealing"?

Which is a classic tactic of Republicans. Borrow billions and
trillions of dollars and shove the bill off onto our children and
grandchildren. Nohonesty. No willingness to pay their bills.

More evidence that one has to be stupid in order to be a Republican.

Roads cost money. Lots of money. For some bizarre reason you think
that the people who _use_ the roads shouldn't have to _pay_ for the
roads.

You just steal from anybody else to pay for your driving habit.

 

This is a common misconception.....The automobile registration fees are just
property taxes.....Money for the roads comes from the gasoline taxes.
Otherwise, our registration fees here in Oregon would be several hundred
dollars a year....In fact, they are only $15 a year, whether you have a 10
year old Chevy, or a new Mercedes Benz. In California, they already stick it
to the taxi cab companies and rental car agencies by not letting them begin
to depreciate their vehicles until the third year of ownership....IOW, they
charge the full amount for registration fees for the first two years.....The
excuse? - We don't need any stinking excuse.....We're banditos! All we need
is money! - And we're going to get it from whoever has it....And the more
they have, the more of it we're going to get! If the registration fees were
to keep up the roads, then you should have to pay for your vehicles by
weight, and not by price.....In fact, if you own a valuable car, like a
Ferrari or a Mercedes, you really pay through the nose.....Thousands of
dollars every year.....Even though your new, well aligned wheels car, puts
less wear and tear on the road than would a 10 year old junker.........the
very reason that Davis was ousted by the people was because of those
exorbitant registration fees....Arnie was just keeping a campaign
promise.......

 

The note is very relevant also for digital equipment. All high-density
electronics will suffer when x-rayed. The damage may not be apparent
after a few zaps, but in the long run you'll begin to see failing
memories and hot pixels in detectors, as electric parameters drift off
their original spec.

The note mentions "...photographers traveling with sensitive, valuable
equipment." That covers also multimegapixel bodies. Travelling
photographer's digital equipment may expect hundreds of x-ray doses
during its economic lifetime.

-- Lassi