My little camera.

[Avitor]

A couple of years ago I got an incredible daylight downwind view of Corfu Airport, we banked for finals always with the airport in view, it was a real bonus for me.

Now to my question....Would I be , at anytime after check in and proceeding to departure, be liable to have my little camera confiscated if I had the idea of taking it on board the aircraft?

[jimma]

I almost always have my camera in my hand luggage, never been a problem in the past and havent seen anything saying you cant take them with you.

[Big Harvey]

I would guess that the vast majority of passengers carry their cameras as hand luggage. In fact, I never put anything in hold luggage unless I'm prepared (if worst comes to worst) to lose it.

[Avitor]

Jolly good! In future, it shall reside in the hand luggage. :ok:

[raffele]

Thousands of people every day fly with valuables such as cameras, camcorders, laptops etc in their hand luggage.

All airlines strongly recommend that you place no valuables in your hold luggage in any case

[carousel]

No problem with camera's, it's where you point them and at who. Security people don't like you taking picture's of them or their equipment. In the UK it is now a criminal offence to photograph Police officers. Also some aerodromes in europe are shared with the military who can be very touchy about photographers.

[ProM]

US is very sensitive about all its security screening, immigration, customs and baggage collection areas

[Rainboe]

The Greeks are quite neurotic about photography at airports, from the air or on the ground. The mass arrested a bunch of Brit spotters who flew to Greece to go spotting. They were locked up until the publicity forced the Greeks to release them. As crew, I carry my camera everywhere, and that thing is out of my bag constantly. But just don't pull it out in front of policemen or security at airports.

[Avitor]

Some very informative advice, for which I am grateful.

[Michael SWS]

In the UK it is now a criminal offence to photograph Police officers.No, it isn't.

From BBC News:In a statement, the Home Office said taking pictures of police officers would only be deemed an offence in "very exceptional circumstances".

"The new offence is intended to help protect those in the front line of our counter terrorism operations from terrorist attack," it said.

"For the offence to be committed, the information would have to raise a reasonable suspicion that it was intended to be used to provide practical assistance to terrorists."Of course, it raises the issue of what constitutes "reasonable suspicion", and it is almost certain that some police forces and individual officers will abuse this new law, but the simple act of photographing a police officer is not an offence in the UK.

[Rwy in Sight]

Rainboe,

The airport in KLX (or KALAMATA) is a military base. I am fairly sure that photographing military base does not seem a wise thing to do. The Greek authorities clearly ask the airlines to make a relevant call to their pax when they fly to an airport used both by commercial flights and the air force. Chania (I think LGSA) is a case to the point.

A little of background work would have saved the spotters a lot of trouble and if they planned right they could have been visiting the apron and making pictures of all the aircraft no problem.

Rwy in Sight

PS I do carry a camera with me practically at every trip

[SPIROS]

I work for the Greek CAA.You can use cameras for taking pics at airports, as long as these airportst are not shared by the Greek air force.In theory you can not take pics for commercial use without prior approval.

[eliptic]

little camera confiscated if I had the idea of taking it on board the aircraft?

If so almost all mobile phones would be confiscated:ooh::p

[PPRuNeUser0212]

nasty ol' cabin crew might complain though if your little camera is digital. Supposedly can't use them during take off, climb and from top of descent, same rules apply as laptops, Ipods etc etc, apparently.

[Union Jack]

Many thanks to Spiros for his helpful contribution.

Jack

[flyboy2]

Be very careful when pointing a camera in many parts of Africa!

I've been to places where the population & fuzz become extremely agitated at the mere sight of a pointed camera!

Never photograph any building flying the national flag.

My best results came from sitting in a unmarked car & very surreptiously
resting my little digital camera on the door-window-sill, clicking & taking it out of sight. The Muslim women may not be photographed, so don't try that!

Be careful.

[deltayankee]

In places where you think there might be some risk of confiscation or theft it can be useful to have two small cameras, one good one and one cheap expendable one. When you get stopped hand over the cheap one, but a bit reluctantly.

Also be careful not to leave all your best photos in the camera. Either use smaller memory cards and change them or download the pictures frequently. You can easily get more than a 1000 photos in one card so you can lose a lot of photos with the camera.

[JEM60]

Many men also don't like being photographed. In Gambia, it is thought that if you take a picture, then they loose their soul!!. I remember videoing a street scene from the back of a moving Landrover, and the two guys behind in an SUV practically drove off the road to avoid being filmed. Respect their customs, if you wish to take their picture, ask them first.

[Leezyjet]

A little of background work would have saved the spotters a lot of trouble and if they planned right they could have been visiting the apron and making pictures of all the aircraft no problem.

Those spotters were on an organised trip, and had the permission of the Greek military to be there and were allowed to take pics, however they were told not to take pictures of specific things, but did so anyway - they were warned several times, but still carried on - eventually they got arrested.

:ugh::ugh:

[SeenItAll]

It would seem to me that there could be issues with using modern digital cameras while in flight. They are electronic instruments, so are not to be used below 10,000 feet on most airlines. Perhaps a reason to keep around that old film camera?