what we do is pull out the film at check point and hand it over to the 'airport security type', outside the machine
Yerrrrsse, I used to do that too - but with success rather like my idioms/spelling/dialect: inconsistent! ('tis part of me charm, doncha think?!)
Examples:
1. In 1997, leaving from Shermetyevo I (Moscow), I asked a Russian (at least, I assume she was Russian) lassie to hand-check my films; she flat out refused. I was well put out by this, particularly as it soon transpired that everyone on my flight had been sent to the wrong gate, and we all had to go through the x-ray palaver twice. Film was unharmed, nonetheless. Whew.
2. On my way to Australia for a 10-month trip in 1998, I asked airport security at Pearson International (Toronto) to hand-check my film. The lassie there patiently looked at each of my 75 rolls of film (hey, I got a bulk discount at my fave camera store, okay?!) without complaint.
3. Flying Isle of Man to Bristol this past summer, I was even more put out to discover that ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING (except me and the clothes I stood up in) had to go through the x-ray machine. At this point I had been letting my fillums go through, having given up the battle (experiences at earlier airports in this trip, doncha know), but I had hoped to preserve my medications. Not a chance. Mentioned this to the friend who met me in Bristol and he said, "Well, how are they supposed to know it's not plastique?!" (little tiny blue pills, little tiny beige pills - go figger) Mind you, this *was* just a day or so after a Ryan Air flight in Scandinavia caught a baddie trying to board, so I think security everywhere got very tight for a little while, at least.
So now I bend to the will of Allah, apparently, and all my fillum goes through the x-ray machines. As long as they don't x-ray me myself, as they're now beginning to threaten to do, I don't care anymore.
