film in maildrops?

[Pringles]

I was going to put film in my maildrops. I know that x-rays can really cause problems with film, though. After the Anthrax mailings/problem, didn't the post office start x-raying mail?

Is this a real issue and I'm going to ruin my unexposed film? Or, am I worrying for nothing?

Also, I'd like to be able to get to town and do 1 hour photo development of my pictures, then put little notes on the pictures (while I remember what the pictures are of) and mail them home. I'll be starting in NJ and heading north--does anyone know if the resupply towns in that area usually have 1 hour photo places?

Thanks. Beth

[MOWGLI]

Usually only affects 800 speed film & above. You may want to visit USPS.GOV and poke around. They probably have some FAQs on he issue.

I shot 50 ASA slide film in 2000 - Fuji Velvia - and sent it to be processed with pre-paid envelopes from Kodak. Worked out just fine. Those were different days however..

[rumbler]

I would assume that all mail will be x-rayed.

I plan to get my film developed when it towns, and mail it home from there after the film has been developed.

[Presto]

We had our film mailed to us and had no problems with it.

Some of the larger towns may have film developing, but I'm not sure about 1-hour. Smaller resupply points will likely not even have film developing. We mailed our film home, had our parents develop it at a walmart and walmart posts the pics on the web. You can view them on the web for free for 2 months. During this time we would label them using a feature built into the website and our mom wrote our notes on the backs of the photos. Works well if you have someone willing to do that work for you. Internet access is pretty common to find in towns.

[Jumpstart]

Hi Beth,

Similar to what Presto said, we bought our film in bulk at a wholesale center beforehand, and bounced it in our bounce box along the trail, refilling our camera as we needed to. All of our film remained intact, and devolped beautifully (check out the 177 photos I posted in the Photo Gallery)...we had a similar method to Presto's for mailing home film, we would put it in a ziploc bag, and insert a label (ie: "from Springer to Neel's Gap") with the film. Our folks developed it, kept the label, and when we got home we labled everything with specifics and put the pics up on our website. One hour photos tend to be hard to come bay on the trail, and are not always relibale to be "one hour".

Good luck!