Digital cameras and airport X Ray

Yildiz

Ive not flown with my digital camera before. I've got 3 different planes to get me to India so want to minimize hand luggage to stuff thats actually needed en route if possible. (and of course Im hoping to pick up some dutyfree bargains ... which all have to be lugged around airports)

Will my digital camera be OK inside my suitcase. (I'll wrap it carefully in clothes ...its just the x rays Im concerned about).

If X Rays are a problem ..... could I just take out the Memory Card and carry that in hand luggage (ie is it the memory card thats vulnerable to X Rays rather than the whole camera?)

If you could see my muscles (or lack of them!) you'd understand ...every gram counts in the hand baggage!

Yildiz

Hyderabadi

X Rays do not effect digital cameras nor memory cards.

smida02

I don't know about Turkey but in the US most luggage is opened and searched by baggage screeners. You are advised NOT to leave valuables in your luggage. I'd carry it with me. I know of people that have had items go missing that were left in checked baggage

dani

How can that be? Most suitcases are locked anyway!

smida02

not in the US, you must unlock them or use a lock in which TSA has a master key. Virtually everytime I arrive in India there is a card in my baggae saying that it had been searched by US customs.

dani

checked luggage or hand luggage makes no difference, both will get x-rayed.
The rays are not unproblematic for electronics, but most cams will not be so sensible to take damage. It's also very unlikely that the rays do affect the memory card. I never thought about that matter and never had any problem.
If you wanna go the save route anyway, you could carry your memory cards on your body, i.e. in the trouser pocket

dani

WHAT? Are you serious? Have they become THAT paranoid?
It's sad, but I will not visit the states again till they start acting normal again

phobal

The TSA would cut open locks. Every single checked piece of luggage is x-rayed. If you had a bunch of aholes flying planes into your central intelligence agencies and office towers, and if you busted guys trying to light their shoes rigged with explosives on fire, you'd be acting "paranoid" too. I'm suprised it took the United States until after year 2000 get serious with air security and I'm even more disappointed that my country is only going to act by 2007.

Don't count on the US acting, whatever it is you call "normal" any time soon. It would be kind of pathetic if you boycotted the US simply due to the TSA.

dani

phobal, you implict that the US has become safer with those measures. I don't belief that the increase in security is in any way proportional to the cutdown of privacy and personal rights.
Some measures are just ridiculous for me. I.e. can you explain me how the small file of a nail clipper can be used as a weaon? I had to tear it off in order to be allowed to keep my nail clipper. Do you call this anything like normal?
If you wanna discuss this matter further, we should probably open another thread as this really hasn't anything to do with the original topic..

Sama

no offence, dani, but where have you been since 9/11/2001?

In the US, if you fly domestically, no locks on baggage, or as phobal said, you use "TSA" locks which are readily available. When I flew to India, I used TSA locks, and my bags were fine, there were no "inspected by TSA" cards inside my bags.

However, on my return flight (Lufthansa) from Chennai to Frankfurt, Lufthansa personnel asked me to step aside to search my carryon bag. They told me it was a random search. (hey, at least I got to use my few words of German with them.) But it was German police who were pulling aside more than a few Indians as they came into the airport.

Friends of mine who fly KLM to the Netherlands told me about Dutch security rousting a whole plane load of Middle Easterners from a Syrian flight.

So do you really believe it is just the US who is paranoid???

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My India, 2005-2008

phobal

Cutdown on rights? First they want to scan your passport, then they want to print out flight manifests! Then they'll know where you're sitting on every flight! Then they'll scan your bags and search them without your direct consent! MY CHECKED LUGGAGE HAS THE DEEPEST SECERETS TO MY LIFE, like my address, and postal code, and all the groceries I purchased the other week in a city on the other side of the country while on vacation....oh, wait....

A nail clipper file? Is that the best 'civil rights infringment' that you came across? Of course the nail file isn't a risk, but they enforce it in order to make a point of the rules so you would remember to be more diligent in your packing and to make a point that no exceptions would be made in the interest in air security. If it means upsetting people who packed nail-clippers, I'm fine with it.

Box cutters are banned? They can barely penetrate a cm of skin!
oh wait..
Aw man, but now they make us take our shoes off at security checkpoints? Now its really getting ridiculous...
oh wait..
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1731568.stm

I pack properly and my basic civil liberties are not 'cutdown'.

dan37_123

we never lock our suit cases.

dan

dani

I did a trip to Florida in February 02

No. I don't really care if I have to buy a new nail clipper after a trip to the US, it doesn't really hurt if the trip is 2$ more expensive.
I just told that example to show that some measures are just plain ridiculous and don't increase the security the slightest.
I belief that the measures are in no way proportional to the increase of security, that's what's putting me off.

But now, guys and gals, if you want to discuss this topic further, PLEASE open a new thread, I will no longer answer here in this hijacked thread anymore.
And please, don't be offended by my statements. I have absolutely nothing against the common Americans. I'll surely visit the states again in the future, but for the next few years I'll be busy with India anyway.

Cheers, Daniel

Nick-H

Of course USA should have good security; of course every country should.

Trouble is, it is being seen to be doing something that often ends up as more important than what is done.

Back to the topic... I suspect that memory chips in the pocket will set off the metal detecors and they will make you put them, along with small change, peppermint packets, revolvers, 12-inch knives etc, in a small bowl to go through the scanner.

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Just one member of the IndiaMike Mod Team