Will airport security devices such as xray machines damage my digital camera or media?
No. Really. There are many poorly thought out theories about how digital camera equipment can get damaged in airport x-ray machines, but they typically don’t make much sense. One theory hypothesizes damage to flash memory, but forgets that (1) countless other devices with flash memory (cell phones, laptop computers, etc.) have been going through x-ray machines for years without incident, and (2) printed circuit boards with flash memory just like those in your camera are scanned by x-rays as part of normal quality assurance procedures for electronic products. Another theory hypothesizes that the sensor can be damaged. However, electronic sensors quite similar to the ones used in cameras are used as x-ray detectors, so bombardment with x-rays is part of the normal operation of these devices. A device not unlike your digital camera may be at the receiving end of the radiation in the x-ray machine, where it is capturing and displaying information for the technician. It is true that exposur
