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#1
August 23rd 04, 11:35 PM
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DO airport xray machines harm digicams?
Maybe a stupid question, as I have put my Nikon 35mm film
cameras through the airport xray machines (without the film!) without damaging the camera's electronics, but what about digicams? Will the xrays erase the flash memory? (Think about eproms, they erase with UV light, xrays have more electron volts of energy here.) Anybody have any experience here? 
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#2
August 24th 04, 12:42 AM
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only if they jump on them :-)
Arty "Ken Scharf" wrote in message .. . Maybe a stupid question, as I have put my Nikon 35mm film cameras through the airport xray machines (without the film!) without damaging the camera's electronics, but what about digicams? Will the xrays erase the flash memory? (Think about eproms, they erase with UV light, xrays have more electron volts of energy here.) Anybody have any experience here?
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#3
August 24th 04, 12:42 AM
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only if they jump on them :-)
Arty "Ken Scharf" wrote in message .. . Maybe a stupid question, as I have put my Nikon 35mm film cameras through the airport xray machines (without the film!) without damaging the camera's electronics, but what about digicams? Will the xrays erase the flash memory? (Think about eproms, they erase with UV light, xrays have more electron volts of energy here.) Anybody have any experience here?
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#4
August 25th 04, 11:20 AM
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On Mon, 23 Aug 2004 18:35:29 -0400, Ken Scharf
wrote: Maybe a stupid question, as I have put my Nikon 35mm film cameras through the airport xray machines (without the film!) without damaging the camera's electronics, but what about digicams? Will the xrays erase the flash memory? (Think about eproms, they erase with UV light, xrays have more electron volts of energy here.) Anybody have any experience here? X-ray machines at the security check points will not harm digital cameras. Comparing X-rays to UV light is dodgy at best; comparable energy levels do not indicate comparable effects on particular devices because they are of different wavelengths, and thus effect things differently. BTW, trhis has been discussed many times; Google is your friend. Bill Funk Change "g" to "a"
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#5
August 25th 04, 11:20 AM
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On Mon, 23 Aug 2004 18:35:29 -0400, Ken Scharf
wrote: Maybe a stupid question, as I have put my Nikon 35mm film cameras through the airport xray machines (without the film!) without damaging the camera's electronics, but what about digicams? Will the xrays erase the flash memory? (Think about eproms, they erase with UV light, xrays have more electron volts of energy here.) Anybody have any experience here? X-ray machines at the security check points will not harm digital cameras. Comparing X-rays to UV light is dodgy at best; comparable energy levels do not indicate comparable effects on particular devices because they are of different wavelengths, and thus effect things differently. BTW, trhis has been discussed many times; Google is your friend. Bill Funk Change "g" to "a"
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#6
August 26th 04, 10:09 PM
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"Big Bill" wrote in message ...
.... digicams? Will the xrays erase the flash memory? (Think about eproms, they erase with UV light, xrays have more electron volts of energy here.) Anybody have any experience here? .... Remember that UV erasable EPROMs have a window in the top of the chip to facilitate the erasure. No modern FLASH device UV erasable. After all, all FLASH devices are EEPROMs (Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory). -- Dan (Woj...) dmaster at lucent dot com ---------------------------------- "Creature comfort goals They only numb my soul and make it hard for me to see My thoughts all seem to stray, to places far away I need a change of scenery"
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#7
August 26th 04, 10:09 PM
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"Big Bill" wrote in message ...
.... digicams? Will the xrays erase the flash memory? (Think about eproms, they erase with UV light, xrays have more electron volts of energy here.) Anybody have any experience here? .... Remember that UV erasable EPROMs have a window in the top of the chip to facilitate the erasure. No modern FLASH device UV erasable. After all, all FLASH devices are EEPROMs (Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory). -- Dan (Woj...) dmaster at lucent dot com ---------------------------------- "Creature comfort goals They only numb my soul and make it hard for me to see My thoughts all seem to stray, to places far away I need a change of scenery"
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#8
August 27th 04, 01:56 AM
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Dan Wojciechowski wrote:
"Big Bill" wrote in message ... ... digicams? Will the xrays erase the flash memory? (Think about eproms, they erase with UV light, xrays have more electron volts of energy here.) Anybody have any experience here? ... Remember that UV erasable EPROMs have a window in the top of the chip to facilitate the erasure. No modern FLASH device UV erasable. After all, all FLASH devices are EEPROMs (Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory). All erasable memories use stored charge. In UV devices exposing the chip to UV allows the charge to leak off by exciting one of the layers with additional energy (via photons). Flash memory removes the charge by electrical means. My fear is that xray photons can do the same thing, and they don't need no quartz window! The exposure level is different, it takes about 20 minutes of UV to erase a memory chip, and the camera would be exposed to Xrays for only a few seconds. However there is Plank's constant here. Also realize that the cameras firmware is stored in flash so not only would the photos be in danger (if there is any) but it could destroy the camera! Since no one has come forward with a story of a destroyed camera (and enough of you must travel by plane) I would guess that the odds of this actually happening are rather low. (A little knowledge of physics and electronics can be dangerous to a paranoid mind).
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#9
August 27th 04, 01:56 AM
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Dan Wojciechowski wrote:
"Big Bill" wrote in message ... ... digicams? Will the xrays erase the flash memory? (Think about eproms, they erase with UV light, xrays have more electron volts of energy here.) Anybody have any experience here? ... Remember that UV erasable EPROMs have a window in the top of the chip to facilitate the erasure. No modern FLASH device UV erasable. After all, all FLASH devices are EEPROMs (Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory). All erasable memories use stored charge. In UV devices exposing the chip to UV allows the charge to leak off by exciting one of the layers with additional energy (via photons). Flash memory removes the charge by electrical means. My fear is that xray photons can do the same thing, and they don't need no quartz window! The exposure level is different, it takes about 20 minutes of UV to erase a memory chip, and the camera would be exposed to Xrays for only a few seconds. However there is Plank's constant here. Also realize that the cameras firmware is stored in flash so not only would the photos be in danger (if there is any) but it could destroy the camera! Since no one has come forward with a story of a destroyed camera (and enough of you must travel by plane) I would guess that the odds of this actually happening are rather low. (A little knowledge of physics and electronics can be dangerous to a paranoid mind).
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#10
August 27th 04, 06:42 PM
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On Thu, 26 Aug 2004 16:09:09 -0500, "Dan Wojciechowski"
wrote: "Big Bill" wrote in message ... ... digicams? Will the xrays erase the flash memory? (Think about eproms, they erase with UV light, xrays have more electron volts of energy here.) Anybody have any experience here? ... Remember that UV erasable EPROMs have a window in the top of the chip to facilitate the erasure. No modern FLASH device UV erasable. After all, all FLASH devices are EEPROMs (Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory). Please be more careful in your attributions; I didn't write what you say I did. I have enough problems with what I actually say. Bill Funk Change "g" to "a"
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