Well my personal experience is that in the US, the airport systems are
pretty OK - I have had no bad experiences until now with film speeds up
to 400ASA. Taiwan - I had one bad experience but it was an 800ASA film
and China - depends on where you go through security. Shanghai is OK and
Bejing as well, others I was told can be tricky.
Accumulated exposure is a problem for 400ASA but only if you get through
more than maybe 5 or 6 systems which have been not really state-of-the-art.
But again, that what I mentioned is only my personal experience - others
may have bette or worse ones.
rgds George

You can get x-ray safe boxes to store the film in for travel - may be a
safer option.

Evan,

In my experience you are pushing the limit with the ISO400 film. You
can never tell for sure what will happen. Last week in Beijing my
camera bag went through the x-ray and something caught the operator's
attention. Before I could rescue my film my bag from the camera bat it
was returned through the x-ray four times. There was some fogging on
my ISO400 films. I've had a test roll of ISO400 make 10 trips through
US carry-on x-ray systems with no fogging.

The culprit in my bag happened to be a mechanical shutter release
cable. I made a last minute bag change with my camera equipment and
had left it in my bag. I had trouble explaining it since I was
traveling with a AF camera. A fellow traveler who recognized it for
what it was and spoke Chinese came to my rescue and I got to keep it.

My practice has always been to put my film in zip lock bags, bare
cassettes i.e. without canisters. I keep the exposed and unexposed
film separate, only reason is that it helps when grabbing for a fresh
roll. If it's a small amount I keep the zip lock bag in the pocket of
a light weight nylon jacket (nylon zippers and with nothing else in
the jacket) it's the lowest x-ray signature item I own. The jacket
goes in a x-ray bin separate from everything else. This usually
prevents a miss-identification because there is no other clutter on
the x-ray screen. This trip I forgot my best practices and got caught.
But if your film has to make a trip through the x-ray, do everything
in your power to make it a single pass. I have a friend that when
traveling with a large amount of film does basically the same thing
but separates the film according to type and exposed/unexposed in
separate zip lock bags. He then distributes it accordingly in low
"clutter" items. He has a special light weight nylon shoulder bag that
all the individual bags are placed and he usually tries for hand
inspection of this bag.

It is easy for me to get hand inspection at O'Hare if I ask nicely,
but other USA airports are hit-and-miss and in some places hand
inspection meets a lot of resistance and sometimes belligerence. I've
never had any luck outside the USA. In Heathrow and Frankfort if I ask
for a hand inspection it usually means a rude no, rough hand search,
and considerable delays and then they make me watch my bag go through
the x-ray. It's basically a lesson in not deviating from their rules.
It's a quick study if you are a quick learner. I had to try once. :-).

In general my trips to Asia have been very rewarding and amazingly
hassle free. From a customs point of view, as a USA citizen it's much
more "agonizing" for me to travel to Vancouver, BC Canada than to go
to Shanghai, Beijing or other major SE Asia cities. I haven't been to
Taiwan.

For color negative film, I've found the processing in major locations
in Asia to be quite good. It pays to ask around, the hotel concierge
is not always the best source. Likely you won't find the "minilabs" in
closed rooms. Like anything else, if you are there long enough sample
the goods before you buy the store.

Regards,
Roger

Last year I went from WI to LA, Japan, Thailand, Nepal, Tibet and back. I
was carrying 100 and 200 and picked up some 400 and 800 from someone else I
was traveling with. I forgot how many xray machines I had to pass through
including various customs checks. BTW I was carrying 30+ rolls.

I always remove the film from from the canisters and put them in a clear
ziplock. I pull the ziplock out and hand it to one of the TSA. Generally no
hassle though a little extra delay on a couple of legs. So unless I forgot
somewhere, none of my film was xray'd, except for 4 rolls of 100 that I left
in one of my bags on the way back. Unless I'm mistaken the only problem I
had with those rolls was because I shot them without a polarizer during
mid-day. The only hassels I got were because of the packs of polariods that
I carrying, the TSA spent extra time with them. good thing they were still
in the wrap.  Though in LA(?) I had one TSA swab everyone of the packs and
rolls.

I don't carry the film xray bags. Mainly from the experience of others is
because the TSA will usually turn up the machine if they can't see through
something.

I was also carrying a digital camera. The thing with those is to put it in
your carry on. Make sure your CF cards are in your bags and not on your
person when going through the metal detectors. It can zap them.

Enjoy your trip.