Airport X-ray can affect DSLRs and bring hot pixels?

[@yan_berthemy_photography]

I am going to Island on May 2019 from ORLY airport in France,

 

I was wondering if putting my GH5 in the X-ray detector could affect its system, especially the 3 axis stabilization system and the GH5 sensor...

do you think this can create hot pixels or damage video recording system?

 

Thank you.

[DBounce]

Never seen this to be a problem. 

[leslie]

i think if there was an issue with xray detectors and digital we would of heard about by now. plenty of people travel everyday through airports with cameras , reporters and news crew would have noticed issues long ago. mr reid travels abit i think, as our fount of knowledge  i cant imagine him not reporting a problem if there was one. not sure if its possible to get hand searched these days perhaps you could make some inquiries with your airport

[BTM_Pix]

After taking numerous cameras from numerous manufacturers through numerous different airports, I'm going to venture my anecdotal experience of the only risk to your gear going through the scanner being someone "accidentally" picking your bag up at the other end if you yourself don't get through the metal detector fast enough.

There are also some airports (Manchester in the UK for example is a bastard for this) where they make their own rules up about what electronics have to be separated out and make you take all of your electronic items out to go through the machine separately which means you can have a ton of very expensive gear sat there on very public display on the end of the conveyor while you are waiting in a queue behind half a dozen idiots who've left coins in their pockets .

 

[MurtlandPhoto]

Just now, BTM_Pix said:

you can have a ton of very expensive gear sat there on very public display on the end of the conveyor while you are waiting in a queue behind half a dozen idiots who've left coins in their pockets .

 

This has happened to me way too many times and it stressed me out beyond words. We've got TSA Pre-check here in the States that avoids this situation. Well worth the investment.

[@yan_berthemy_photography]

52 minutes ago, BTM_Pix said:

After taking numerous cameras from numerous manufacturers through numerous different airports, I'm going to venture my anecdotal experience of the only risk to your gear going through the scanner being someone "accidentally" picking your bag up at the other end if you yourself don't get through the metal detector fast enough.

 

so, metal detector could affect product you mean but not x-ray?

[BTM_Pix]

No, I mean if you take too long to get through the metal detector then by the time you've arrived at the collection point for you gear through the x ray scanner it may well have been sitting there long enough for someone else to have mistaken it for your bag.

 

[1Ale82]

1 hour ago, BTM_Pix said:

There are also some airports (Manchester in the UK for example is a bastard for this) where they make their own rules up about what electronics have to be separated out and make you take all of your electronic items out to go through the machine separately which means you can have a ton of very expensive gear sat there on very public display on the end of the conveyor while you are waiting in a queue behind half a dozen idiots who've left coins in their pockets .

 

Unfortinately I have experienced this in many occasions. Definitely a pain in the donkey (...use the other English word for the animal here)

In this case, I usually pick one of those boxes and put a jacket inside with nothing in the pockets and this box goes first, then I place all the electronic gear and then a final box to close the queue with other items inside like bags, keys, etc. At leats you have a visual of where your stuff begins and ends.

[Anaconda_]

2 hours ago, BTM_Pix said:

you can have a ton of very expensive gear sat there on very public display on the end of the conveyor while you are waiting in a queue

A friend once told me they purposely leave a bottle of water in their bag, so their gear gets taken to one side and held away from public until he gets through the scanner. Then the security go through his bag, throw away the water and off he goes... 

[kye]

12 hours ago, BTM_Pix said:

After taking numerous cameras from numerous manufacturers through numerous different airports, I'm going to venture my anecdotal experience of the only risk to your gear going through the scanner being someone "accidentally" picking your bag up at the other end if you yourself don't get through the metal detector fast enough.

There are also some airports (Manchester in the UK for example is a bastard for this) where they make their own rules up about what electronics have to be separated out and make you take all of your electronic items out to go through the machine separately which means you can have a ton of very expensive gear sat there on very public display on the end of the conveyor while you are waiting in a queue behind half a dozen idiots who've left coins in their pockets .

Worst airport security I've been through with camera equipment was recent trip to India when we flew domestic internally.  The Indian culture has a lot of the average person basically doing whatever the hell they like, pushing and shoving, trying to skip the lines or walk around like no-one else exists, and the authority figures having to constantly bark commands at people to pay attention and behave, so the officials are used to ordering people around without really applying judgement or listening to anyone, and you have to be quite assertive in general.  Airports are a hotbed of this kind of thing.

I lined up, did the normal thing of taking out my laptop but leaving camera gear in the bag, and lined up.  I was then informed that I was in the line for the women to be scanned (metal detectors) and I had to go all-the-way-over-there to the mens line.  I left my bag on the conveyor as it had already been put into several trays, I'd already become separated from it, and the rest of my group were women and were in the line next to the baggage scanner.

When I went through the mens line and came back it looked like my bag had exploded.  My wife was there guarding my gear, but they'd made my wife take the camera bag insert out of my backpack, and every item out of the insert.  So there piled up in the collection area surrounded by a crowd of other travellers was my GH5, three lenses, Rode VMP, USB charger, cables, spare batteries, phone, wallet, keys, and sunglasses.  Some items were on the actual counter, not in a tray or anything.  The lenses looked like they'd been rolling around.  I was furious but held it in because an airport is the last place you want to make a scene about anything these days.  I've never been to another airport where I've ever had to even take the camera bag insert out of my backpack.  Had I been travelling alone who knows what would have walked off by itself.

Not sure what I should have done differently TBH.

[Mako Sports]

Reading all of these traveling with gear airport horror stories is making my palms sweaty. I recently got TSA pre check as I'll be flying out for a few gigs soon. But this stuff still makes feel stressed. Best I can do is travel as light as possible and hope to not get seperated or hear the dreaded "AYE WHOS BAG IS THIS!"

 

[Snowbro]

I would be more worried about the TSA agent. I had one break a gimbal trying to figure out what it was. Another agent cut a hole in my sweatpants pocket; I put my phone in it later, only to have it fall out on concrete lol. 

[kye]

I've only flown domestic in the US a couple of times, but they actually weren't too bad.

I was travelling with a group and a couple of the group had physical disabilities with one in a wheelchair.  I was carrying one of their carry-on bags through the airport and when we got to security they got whisked away to a special gate before I realised that I had one of their bags.  So I figured it would be fine and went through with it.  So of course it gets triggered for a search and the lady says "whose bag is this" and I say (using my wording very carefully) "it's with me".  

We go to a desk and she says "is this your bag"..  "No, it's my friends, she's with the guy in the wheelchair, they went down there somewhere"  I point in the general direction of a zillion people and they're not visible..  "Is there anything sharp in the bag?" ... "I have no idea". she gives me a strange look..  "but probably not" I add.  She opens the bag and starts going through it, and quickly finds the removable hand controls for my friends electric wheelchair.  She asks what it is and I explain.  It would have looked like a huge mess of wires and a circuit board in the scanner.  I make a joke about how it would definitely have looked strange on the scanner, and she didn't really react.  She looks over it and it's fine.  She asks the scanning guy and he said something else was in there too.  She keeps digging and finds a big metal plate with a hook on one side and looks concerned.  I explain that it's a tray table for his wheelchair, she looks puzzled but accepts it after looking it over.  She gives me the all clear to go and I thank her and she gives me a smile.

I think that I got some slack because I was helping someone with a disability, and she was firm but nice about the whole thing, but basically I was going through security with a bag that wasn't mine that looked like wires, circuitry and a big metal plate in it on the scanner.  I had a good attitude and I suspect that the TSA lady did too because I did.  I've watched those border protection shows and those people are digging around in bags but mostly they're watching how people react, so if you have no problem with them then they're most likely going to have no problem with you.

 

[OliKMIA]

On 2/15/2019 at 8:36 AM, @yan_berthemy_photography said:

I am going to Island on May 2019 from ORLY airport in France,

I was wondering if putting my GH5 in the X-ray detector could affect its system, especially the 3 axis stabilization system and the GH5 sensor...

do you think this can create hot pixels or damage video recording system?

No. I fly 100k+ miles a year all over the world with my GH5 and other cameras and I never had that type of issue or heard about this from other travelers. This is a non issue.

[Snowbro]

1 hour ago, OliKMIA said:

No. I fly 100k+ miles a year all over the world with my GH5 and other cameras and I never had that type of issue or heard about this from other travelers. This is a non issue.

Lucky you didn't have a sony fanboy check your gear and spit on the sensor ?

[@yan_berthemy_photography]

On 2/16/2019 at 10:31 AM, Snowbro said:

I would be more worried about the TSA agent. I had one break a gimbal trying to figure out what it was. Another agent cut a hole in my sweatpants pocket; I put my phone in it later, only to have it fall out on concrete lol. 

@Snowbro

Really? broke your gimbal? did they refund you? this is not serious from them at all... I would not call this "TSA Agent" I would call this shitty people

 

[Video Hummus]

@@yan_berthemy_photography Did you just buy this GH5?

[@yan_berthemy_photography]

37 minutes ago, Video Hummus said:

@@yan_berthemy_photography Did you just buy this GH5?

yep