[Leica] Some security-related international travel experiences

[abridge at mac.com (Adam Bridge)]

I?ve recently returned from a trip that took me from California to 
Amsterdam, Warsaw, Amsterdam and Tanzania. Along the way I had a variety of 
interactions with airport security that seemed to evolve over the course of 
the trip.

I left Sacramento, California on the 12th of June with a change in 
Minneapolis for Amsterdam. In Sacramento I was required to remove all my 
digital devices: MacBook Pro, iPad, Kindle, iPhone plus any batteries. On 
the camera gear side I was required to remove each camera and each ?large 
lens? which meant my 100-400mm Fuji lens and the 70-140mm Fuji as well as 
all batteries and electrical-related gear. I was not held in high regard by 
those behind me in the TSApre lane. Since I have hip, knee and shoulder 
prosthetics I was also subject to a complete and intimate pat-down.

We spent a few days in Amsterdam and then flew to Warsaw. At Schiphol I had 
precisely the same experience: remove everything electronic or 
battery-related, all cameras and all large lenses. Fortunately I had 
repacked to make this easier.

Our return to Amsterdam from Warsaw saw the same level of screening.

But things changed a bit on arrival at Schiphol for our flight to Tanzania. 
Although all my electronics still had to be removed, as well as the cameras 
and batteries the large lenses didn?t need to be removed.

Inside Tanzania we felt with security on a flight from Kilimanjaro to 
Zanzibar. In Tanzania you have to clear security twice: once to get inside 
the terminal and another to enter the gate area. Only my electronics had to 
be removed to clear these security screenings.

We returned to Amsterdam where we had to go through security after leaving 
our flight before going on into the terminal for changing planes. Things had 
changed and I was only required to remove my laptop and iPad. The cameras 
were good. Whew!

We flew to Minneapolis where we cleared customs. That required another 
security transition where we re-entered the terminal. This was TSA again. 
Here I only had to remove my laptop (back to old rules, it seems).

Maybe we?re back to something resembling normal. 

In any case I recommend packing up gear something like this:

With laptops I used a nylon-mesh bag to hold all cables and backup batteries 
which I can simply pull out and put into a security bag.

For my camera gear (I was using a photo roller bag) I put my long lenses on 
my two main cameras so those were easy to remove. I put all batteries/cables 
in a mesh bag (actually two since my wife?s camera uses different batteries 
from my Fuji) and I put SD cards in another small mesh bag.

I hope we don?t have to go through the complete unpack in the future. I know 
the very pleasant security folks in Schiphol seemed more at least on our 
return.

Now it may be the case that we got a less intense check because we were 
going through intermediate security. But I hope some bit of sanity is 
happening.

Thanks for reading. I hope this helps any international travelers.

Adam Bridge

ps: I chose to take my Fujifilm X-T2 with an X-T1 as 2nd/backup camera. My 
wife used her Sony NEX-6 with a super-zoom lens. The Fuji kit was smaller 
and lighter than using my Sony A7II AND A7RII. That turned out to be a big 
deal. The Fuji performed brilliantly although the 70-140 zoom may have been 
damaged toward the end of the trip on the ferry between Zanzibar and Dar es 
Salaam. I was very happy with the images I got from the trip as well as the 
video.

Photos to come as I process.

ab