Toronto Photography Meetup Group

I have shot a roll of Kodachrome 64 and plan to send it to Dwayne's for processing in Kansas. Is there any precautions I need to do in terms of preventing the film from being fogged by x-ray machines during shipment?

I know it's only ISO64. But this page from Kodak freaks me quite a bit.

http://www.kodak.com/global/en/service/ ... yPath=4925

Where I used to work we use to receive really old style computer tape, in reels for processing from telecom partners in the US. I recall they have stickers on them saying don't x-ray. You should be able to get the same thing done via a courier. Otherwise you can always get one of those film protection bag thingies.

http://www.adorama.com/catalog.tpl?cat1 ... p=itemlist

just wrap the film canister in aluminum foil.

the main concern is with the film loaded in the camera. If you use 35mm film the metal canister should provide enough protection.
Just to be on the safe side use aluminum foil.

ISO64 should be more than okay to go through an x-ray without fogging. If you're concerned you can try the aluminum trick but you'll have to wrap layers of it on or use a lead lined case. BUT the problem would be that the person running the x-ray will see your black "blob" of an unidentifiable object and juice up the x-ray until it can penetrate the shielding. If it's not strong enough to penetrate the shielding, they'll manually inspect it. You could write "Sensitive film. Do Not X-Ray" on the packaging and hope they respect that.

Good news is that it's ISO 64 the lower the ISO the lower the sensitivity. A small package may not be xrayed or at least not very much depend how you ship it.

I'm curious to why you're sending it all the way to Kansas to get this roll processed.. is it better there? ..no sarcasm intended.. seriously, I would just like to know why.

Because Dwayne's is the only place on the planet that has a Kodachrome line.

People send stuff to Dwayne's all the time, and I've never heard of any warnings to take precautions... I wouldn't worry too much

Umm a bit off topic but I'm just gonna keep it in this thread. I have 3 rolls of Kodachrome 64, so only Dwayne's does K-14 processing? Or is it only because it's better? Will DC be able to process it?

More off topic... I shot a roll of Agfapan APX 400, only to realize it's professional 135 film. I know Costco can't process this film but will a place like DC be able to?

Thanks in advance.

for Kodachrome your only option is to send to Dwayne, and even they will stop processing it end of next year.

Any Toronto area camera store that claims to offers kodachrome processing is actually just sending them to Dwayne's anyway with significant markup.

Anyone want to buy 3 rolls?

My understanding is that regular postal mail is NOT routinely X-rayed unless it is going to US government facilities (Congress, Pentagon, etc.) or looks really suspicious.

I sent a few rolls of 120 to Dwayne's last year for processing. No problems at all (except that cross-border processing is SLOW).

Thanks guys! I'm relieved now.

I also have 5 Kodachrome PK12 processing mailers that do 120 slides at Dwayne's. Last time I checked with them, they told me that as long as I could get it to mail to them they will send the processed slides back to Canada without extra charge...

The problem is that I'm only shooting 120 Fujichromes so far - I guess I'll phone them tomorrow if the envelops are good for ANY E6 120 rolls (actually they're originally for K-14, but since 120 Kodachrome is long gone they'll honor other slides as well - the question is if they will honour Fujichrome). As far as I know people have been using PK36s for processing their 135 Fujichrome slides. Bad news is that all Kodak mailers will no longer be valid for processing after Dec 31 2009.

I have just phoned Dwayne's. The PK12 mailer accepts Fujichromes as well.

Even better, I can use three PK12 mailers to process one roll of 135mm slide, including Kodachrome!!

Shipping back to Canada incurs no extra charge as mentioned before. I'm a happy man now.