Can Polaroid Film Go Through TSA? Instax, X-Rays and CT Scanners

Yes, in the sense that it is allowed. TSA's film page lists film as allowed in both carry-on and checked bags, then adds a recommendation: put undeveloped film, and cameras with undeveloped film inside, in your carry-on, or take the film to the checkpoint and ask for a hand inspection. The page also says the final decision on what goes through the checkpoint rests with the TSA officer.

Polaroid gives the same advice for its own film: keep the camera and unused packs in your carry-on and ask the attendant for a hand check to avoid the X-ray machine. Its reason is that some airports have installed new machines that use a higher dose of radiation, and more radiation means less saturation in undeveloped instant film.

Fujifilm goes further for Instax. Its US travel notice from February 2020 asks you to carry Instax film in your carry-on, always ask for hand inspection, and never put the film, or an Instax camera or smartphone printer with film loaded, in checked baggage.

Not every scanner carries the same risk. The older carry-on X-ray is the mildest, the newer CT scanners on many carry-on lanes are stronger, and the machines that screen checked bags are the worst. The same rules apply to both brands; our Polaroid vs Instax comparison covers how the films differ otherwise.

Sources disagree on the standard carry-on X-ray. Instax says film usually comes through older carry-on scanners fine, and TSA said in 2020 that most of them should not damage film under ISO 800. Polaroid's advice is a hand check to avoid the X-ray machine, and a Manchester Airport (UK) security email posted on a forum says Polaroid film must not go in any X-ray machine.

TSA guidance quoted by Kodak Alaris in 2020 said most X-ray machines used for carry-on bags should not damage undeveloped film under ISO 800. The same TSA text asked travelers carrying film of ISO 800 or higher, or film of any speed that would be X-rayed more than five times, to pack it in a clear plastic bag, take it out at the checkpoint and ask for a hand inspection. TSA's current film page, last updated May 4, 2017, does not carry those numbers, so treat them as 2020 guidance.

Instant film sits right at that line. Fujifilm rates Instax Mini film at ISO 800, which puts it on TSA's own hand-inspection list, and Polaroid rates Color i-Type film at ASA 640, just under it. If film speed is new to you, the short version is that faster film reacts more to light, and to radiation.

Portra 400

A checkpoint CT scanner builds a 3-D view of your bag by shooting hundreds of images with an X-ray camera that spins around it, according to TSA. Kodak says these machines use higher-intensity energy and have been proven to fog all unprocessed film, and Fujifilm says instant film can show fogging, distorted shadows and poor image quality after just one pass.

The best-known test came from Kodak Alaris in 2020: one scan of Kodak Portra 400 in a new carry-on CT scanner at New York's JFK airport showed significant fogging, with smoky blacks and lost shadow detail, and Kodak said faster film would fare worse. Portra 400 is half the speed of Instax.

Results in the field vary. Blogger Jim Grey's backpack went through a CT scanner at the Indianapolis airport in 2023 with ten rolls of 35mm film in a plastic box and one roll in a camera, and only the frames already shot in the camera were ruined. We found no published, controlled CT test of Polaroid or Instax film, only the makers' warnings and a few YouTube experiments, so the safe reading is the official one: assume one CT pass can hurt fast instant film.

CT keeps spreading. As of April 2025, TSA had 968 CT machines at 255 of the 432 commercial airports in the US, and it does not expect to finish the rollout until 2043. New sites keep coming online; TSA announced CT scanners at Juneau, Alaska, in July 2026.

In a standard lane, the screening rules give a CT scanner away. Watch what the officers ask people ahead of you to do:

• Laptops stay in the bag. TSA says laptops may remain inside the bag at CT checkpoints.
• Liquids stay in the bag too. TSA's announcement of CT scanners at Juneau says travelers in CT lanes do not need to remove travel-size 3-1-1 liquids.
• Everything goes in a bin, roller bags included, instead of straight onto the belt.
• A warning sign. TSA said in 2020 that checkpoints with X-ray equipment that may damage undeveloped film would post a sign in front of the X-ray.

TSA allows it, but Fujifilm and Polaroid both say to keep unused film in your carry-on. The machines that screen checked bags and some cargo damage all film regardless of speed, according to a 2004 release from the imaging trade group I3A and TSA. Fujifilm says never to pack unprocessed film in checked baggage, Instax film and the film inside one-time-use cameras included.

The camera itself can be checked if it is empty. Fujifilm says empty Instax cameras and smartphone printers can be checked with no negative effect, while a loaded one belongs in your carry-on. Spare lithium batteries are a separate rule: TSA allows them in carry-on bags only.

You can, and TSA and Fujifilm both say a loaded camera belongs in your carry-on. The hard part is getting it hand-checked. OldCamsByJens says TSA dislikes hand-inspecting loaded cameras because officers can't easily check what might be hidden behind the film pack without ruining the film, and may run a loaded Polaroid through the machine anyway.

Travelers on the UK forum TalkPhotography report both outcomes. An officer at Newark asked whether any film was left in the camera because he did not want it going through, while security in Greece refused to hand-inspect a part-shot film camera and scanned it. Jim Grey's CT story points the same way: the only frames ruined were the ones already in his camera.

The simple fix is to finish the pack before you fly and load a fresh one after security.

Yes. Polaroid says exposed film is totally fine through an X-ray and can go in carry-on or checked luggage. With instant film, exposed means the photo has already come out of the camera and developed, because each frame carries its own developer chemicals (how a Polaroid develops itself).

This trips up some guides. Kodak warns that high-intensity scanners ruin unprocessed film whether it has been exposed or not, but that is about roll film, which stays undeveloped in the camera or canister until a lab processes it. An instant photo develops right after you take it, so once it is out of the camera, the X-ray worry is over.

One older source disagrees: a 2004 release from the imaging trade group I3A said airport scanners can fog developed film as well as undeveloped film. Polaroid, which makes the film, says finished instant photos are fine in carry-on or checked bags.

Polaroid describes washed-out, foggy photos with a pinkish hue, because radiation strips the saturation from undeveloped film. UK shop Parallax Photographic says unexposed Polaroid film that goes through an X-ray usually turns out cloudy and pink.

Instax damage can look different. OldCamsByJens says Instax tends to show wavy streaks of white or green, almost like water damage, while Polaroid shadows turn a milky gray. Analog Postal deliberately sent Instax Mini film through a scanner on a California trip and says it significantly affected the colors and quality.

If a pack came out dull and you are not sure whether to blame the airport or the film's age, check the date on the box first; our guide to whether Polaroid film expires explains how to read it.

There is no official number for instant film. TSA's 2020 guidance flagged film of any speed that would be X-rayed more than five times, and a 2004 I3A release said most damage on slower film was reported after more than five passes. Instax says the effect is cumulative, so fewer passes is better.

Instant film is faster than the slow film that five-pass figure describes, so don't count on five free scans. Photodom suggests working out how many times you will pass through security before you go. Count the outbound flight, the return and any connection where you clear security again.

Abroad, a hand check is not guaranteed. Kodak says local inspectors may insist on X-ray inspection, and hand inspection may not be permitted at some airports outside the US. OldCamsByJens says asking at London Heathrow, Paris CDG or airports in Italy can go from a drawn-out argument to a flat refusal.

Rules vary even within one country. A Manchester Airport security email posted on TalkPhotography says Polaroid film must not go in any X-ray machine and no film should be CT-scanned. A Heathrow reply in the same thread allows other screening methods for film in CT lanes, but in standard lanes only for film over ISO 800, which, read literally, leaves out Instax at exactly ISO 800.

If you are refused, keep the film in your carry-on rather than moving it to the hold, as Instax advises. Fujifilm also points out that Instax film is widely available, so buying packs where you are going, and shooting them there, means no unused film has to cross a checkpoint.