Which Films to Bring + Airport X Rays

pm63 · Oct 8, 2008

Hi all,

I'm travelling to Jordan in about two weeks, and I want to test out a range of films as I'm just getting into the medium. Neg or slide, it doesn't matter, and I want some B&W films too. They have to be at ISOs I can hand-hold, so a minimum of 100 I guess. I'll be shooting mainly landscape and travel style images, if that helps, in 35mm format. So far I'm considering:

Velvia 100
Provia 100 (400?)
Delta 100 (400?)
Tmax 100 (400?)

As you can see, I can't decide between 100 ISO for low grain, and 400 for flexibility. Any thoughts on this? Also, I like the B&W's sharp and contrasty. Does anyone have any other suggestions?

Also, I've read that airport X-ray machines pretty much render any fast (800+) films useless, so I won't be bringing any Neopan 1600 which I was curious to test out. Can they have any effect on any of the films I'm considering?

Any help much appreciated.

Big Mike · Oct 8, 2008

Airport X-ray machines probably won't render the film useless. There is some risk of fogging on higher ISO films, but that may or may not ruin it. Make sure to carry on your film, rather than keeping it in your check bags and you can even ask for a hand check rather than X-ray. It helps to take the film out of the canisters and keep them in a clear plastic bag.

WinterNight · Oct 8, 2008

Theres a thread on film and x-ray machines that should answer your question:

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=134915

pm63 · Oct 10, 2008

Thanks for the replies. I'm just not going to take any fast film. In the end I ordered (two of each, except for three Portas):

Velvia 100
Provia 400x
Delta 400
Tmax 400
Porta 400VC

I went for mainly 400 speeds in the end to be safe, and just for verstility with lower-light situations and more DOF. I'll be handholding, and this is a trip with school so unfortunately it'll pretty much be smash and grab, no time to really stop and take a think about composition. Also I'll be metering with my DSLR so that will take even more time too. I've heard Tmax requires really spot-on exposures so maybe I should just have gone for more Delta but I wanted to see how they compare.