Digital camera

[flying_babyb]

Taking a digital camera with me, and a mp3 player. Can these go through the scanners?

 

[I'mNoPrince]

Ours do all the time with no trouble.

 

[Yzerbear19]

It shouldn't be a problem. The one thing that I know can sometimes have a problem with the scanners are film cameras. The xrays may damage the film. I've never had a problem with my camera going through the xray machines.

 

[WillCAD]

Digital cameras, PDAs, laptops, MP3 players, other electronics, and all the various comnputer storage media are not harmed by the x-ray scanners at all. They will be perfectly safe going through the scanner at the security checkpoint.

Only photographic film is damaged by x-ray exposure (including disposable cameras). If you have undeveloped film or disposables, whether they have been shot or not, DON'T pack them in checked bags, and DON'T let them go through the carry-on scanner - ask for hand inspection.

 

[CleveRocks]

X-rays are light. They are light that's invisible to us, but it is light. Film reacts to light. Light makes images on film. Therefore, x-rays can harm film.

X-rays have no effect on digital media. There's no film to harm. CDs, DVDs, computer hard drives, camera memory, they're all the same type of memory storage, and they're completely unaffected by x-rays.

 

[samiandsky]

Somehow, during my trip home from orlando, my mini dv camcorder was MAGNETIZED by the x-ray scanning machines, and so each tape I tried to play once we got home was DEMAGNETIZED... not knowing this, I in turn tried every single tape I had, ruining the past 3 years of video footage!
So it CAN HAPPEN!
By the way, I asked security to hand inspect my film and they said, NO, the scanners will do absolutely no harm, so I trusted them and look what happened!
This trip, I'm going to take a print out from the tsa government website that says film and digital recording equipment can be ruined... and that we can request that it be hand checked...so if they give me a problem this time around, I have proof from the website that says harm can be caused.
I will not lose anymore precious memories on video or film, that's for sure.

 

[WillCAD]

Somehow, during my trip home from orlando, my mini dv camcorder was MAGNETIZED by the x-ray scanning machines, and so each tape I tried to play once we got home was DEMAGNETIZED... not knowing this, I in turn tried every single tape I had, ruining the past 3 years of video footage!
So it CAN HAPPEN!
By the way, I asked security to hand inspect my film and they said, NO, the scanners will do absolutely no harm, so I trusted them and look what happened!
This trip, I'm going to take a print out from the tsa government website that says film and digital recording equipment can be ruined... and that we can request that it be hand checked...so if they give me a problem this time around, I have proof from the website that says harm can be caused.
I will not lose anymore precious memories on video or film, that's for sure.

I don't know what happened to your camcorder, but the x-ray machines used on carry-on bags don't have magnets in them - they don't produce a magnetic field, and cannot "magnetize" a camcorder or harm any electronic device. They produce x-rays; x-rays do not affect magnetic media, nor do they magnetize metalic objects.

I think it is far more likely that the camcorder suffered a bump in transit that knocked the read/write heads out of alignment, causing them to damage your tapes.

As to the film question, many TSA people simply don't know any better and think that you're being paranoid by asking for hand inspection.

If you want to bring some documentation with you, or if you just want to become more familiar with the whole reason why x-rays and film don't play well together, see my web page on flying with film:
http://willcad.org/image_film_tips.html