Camera Equipment as Carry ON for flights ( question )

Is it wise to leave the digital media (my compact flash cards) in the camera or in the bag as I am passing it through security to be checked in?

Can the xray/security machines damage or erase images or the card?

it's perfectly safe. the whole xray argument applies more to film, not digital media.

Security people will warn about film going through the detectors. CF cards are safe. I usually put film in a baggy to have them search the cannisters and not put them through the x-rays. 800 ISO or faster film are affected the most by the scans.

only thing is iso 800 or above film. everything else is fine.

worth noting, most camera bags are extrmely dense. Couple that with a lot of dense material inside it, and you can expect a inspection.


Also remember that fluids are a no go, or atleast have to be in a bag if they are under a certain size, so pack your optical cleaning solutions accordingly.

No solutions for me in the bag. The DC airports are sometimes worse than others. But I think the smaller bottles are okay.

I've had my bags with CF cards scanned dozens of times without any problems. When i fly for a photog assignment, my cards are empty on the way to the assignment. Before my return flight, I make sure that all images are backed up to my laptop AND to DVD's - this way I hve 3 copies of each image. I don't erase any cards until I copy all the images to a network drive.

i travel about 11 months out of the year. seriously! I know. in any case I have never had a problem with CF cards. The biggest problem is that I get my bag searched nearly every times and the attendant has clunked a 500 f/4 on the table and had a 300 f/2.8 dropped from waist level to the deck. Now as i go to security i am very nervous and uptight and they always act like i crazy?? They all look at me holding my camera bag as if they rpofessionals at handling large lenses. they are the biggest threat to your gear