8mm Forum: Airport security

This is topic Airport security in forum 8mm Forum at 8mm Forum.

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Posted by Sam James (Member # 477) on July 28, 2006, 05:56 PM:

Okay,not super 8 film specific, but you lot seem to know your onions and are a great deal more patient than the "filmshooting" mob.
Went through Stansted airport (UK) en route to a Polish christening and was very excited to be stopped by security for the first time in my life. Having passed the x-ray machine, I was directed to a table where a middle aged chap proceeded to go through my hand luggage. Thankfully he didn't feel the need to reach for the lubricant and the rubber gloves. Instead he made all kinds of admiring noises as he discovered my S8 camera, a Nizo Professional. He told me that the young lad studying the monitor would not have been able to recognise the machine for what it was and the alarm would have been sounded by the deep black shadows of the lenses. Apparently, a large lens as found in your late seventies camera bears a worrying similarity to a bullet. Allegedly.
So my question:
What does a largish, high quality convex lens do to x-rays that makes it appear black?
Sam

Posted by Joerg Polzfusz (Member # 602) on July 31, 2006, 08:31 AM:

Hi,

I'm not 100% sure, but doesn't a lens affects the X-rays like the light?
(And I'm pretty sure that the amount of metal used in most Super8-cameras will sound the alert in any case, too.)

Jörg

Posted by Rick Skowronek (Member # 385) on July 31, 2006, 12:56 PM:

Hi guys,

Used to work for a company that had portable xrays for sale to various law enforcement agencies and the like. Actually black on an xray is due to the xrays exposing more of the film. In other words, less dense material between the film and xray source. If you'll notice most xrays, like your dental xrays, the teeth show from gray to white or clear in this case. If it's a good tooth it can grey to white, if it's a filling no xrays get to the film and it is clear.

It naturally follows that glass is less dense to xrays (similar to light) and will show up blacker and darker than the rest of the camera with it's myriad of interior metal works.

Regards,

Rick

Posted by Sam James (Member # 477) on July 31, 2006, 02:26 PM:

Teeth!!!! You have the audacity to post on this forum and you still have your own teeth?!!!!!! Be gone, imposter!

Thanks, Sam

Posted by Joerg Polzfusz (Member # 602) on August 10, 2006, 08:38 AM:

Hi,

it's getting worse:
http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/76647
(Sorry, I haven't found an English text. Short summary: on flights to Great Britain no technical gadgets allowed in carry on luggage: no gameboys, ... not even car-keys with remote control!)

Jörg

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