digital camera memory wiped by airport security

[reefrat]

About a month ago my wife and I travelled to the USA to catch up with some family in Chicargo.

On the way out (to the UK) we passed through the usual (shoes/belt off/frisk etc) security at Chicargo airport and boarded the plane.

That evening we were about to show freinds a few pics of Chicargo when we discovrered that the memory (256) was completely wiped!! Even needed to be reformatted!

The card was quite new and has worked perfectly before and since, the same applies to the camera (canon s40).

The only explanation is that the security are using some mega new magnetic equipment to check carry on luggage.

Don't what they say about not these machines being digital safe.
If youve got valuable images get them on a CD before you travel in the states.
Anyone else had this problem?

 

[Genesis]

NVRAM got zapped?!

Oh my. I wonder if they stuck your bag through one of those gamma-ray "bomb detecting" machines?!

The regular X-ray machines won't hurt electronics. I have put mine through there dozens of times - no problems - both laptops and digital cameras.

They have a new thing that looks like CAT scanner though that, if what I know of it is correct, uses a completely different technology - and may have enough energy running around in it to do harm. It'd have to displace electrons from a NVRAM chip to do that, which, given that most CF carriers are metal-encased, would be one hell of a dose...

 

[Eli]

According to a kodak technical bulletin, the CT scanners will fog film, especially high speed film but not affect digital media.
http://www.kodak.com/global/en/service/tib/tib5201.shtml

However the real story is more complex than this. There is no question that xrays can permanently damage solid state electronics. This has been extensively studied with pacemakers. Diagnostic CT scanners will result in doses of about one cGy. A pacemaker will be permanently damaged by doses about 3,000 cGy. If the xray sensitivity of your camera is similar to that of a pacemaker, it will take about 3,000 scans before it is damaged. However some pacemakers can show functional changes with doses as low as 200 cGy. But make no mistake about it, the effect is cumulative. You wont see an effect with a few flights, but with enough scans your camera will be damaged. ( the number may be as little as 200 or as high as 3000). I suspect few of us will fly enough to ever see this problem. In the following abstract one cGy equals one centiGray, ie, one hundredth of a Gray.

Med Phys 1994 Jan;21(1):85-90


Management of radiation oncology patients with implanted cardiac pacemakers: report of AAPM Task Group No. 34. American Association of Physicists in Medicine.

Marbach JR, Sontag MR, Van Dyk J, Wolbarst AB.

Cancer Therapy and Research Center, San Antonio, Texas 78229.

Contemporary cardiac pacemakers can fail from radiation damage at doses as low as 10 gray and can exhibit functional changes at doses as low as 2 gray. A review and discussion of this potential problem is presented and a protocol is offered that suggests that radiation therapy patients with implanted pacemakers be planned so as to limit accumulated dose to the pacemaker to 2 gray. :doctor:

 

[Lonely Boy]

It is not the X-ray machine damaging your memory card.

The metallic detector using in airport security will damage magnetic and electronic media - such as memory card and magnetic tape and floppy disk.

Metallic detector uses magnetic field to detect metal object and the magnetic field may damage electronic equipment. This has been reported in the Kodak website.

Take care when bringing in/out images no matter in film or electronic media.