Are images stored in a memory card (SD card) affected by x-rays or magnetic devices used in airports security?

Question

Are images stored in a memory card (SD card) affected by x-rays or magnetic devices used in airports security?

Answer 1

Xrays no. Magnetic devices like wand scanners will. Ask that your memory cards not be magnetically scanned but visually inspected.

Answer 2

I have passed my camera with mem. card inside

through x-ray machines several times without any problem.

Not sure about the magnetometers though.

If you google on these terms:

digital camera airport x-ray

you will find lots of pages that discuss the issue.

Answer 3

As you may have guessed, we pros carry all of our camera gear and notebook computers as carry-on.  If that were a problem, we would have to ship our memory cards ahead of us on the way back from a shoot (after we saved them to our computer and made backup CD's or DVD's)

The problem is found in checked baggage.  The magnets there are huge and can damage film, video tapes and other items generally though to be damaged by magnets.