101 ways to ruin a roll of film

How hard are you leaning on that film advance lever? You have a well engineered piece of German equipment - it only needs a gentle touch to advance the film.
 
Andysnap said:
Here's an interesting one.

On Saturday we went to Birmingham and I took along my new Voigtlander Bessamatic. When I loaded the film the film counter didn't reset back to 36 (it runs t'other way from most cameras) but to 30, as I had loaded a 24 exposure roll I thought it's ok I'll just rewind when it gets to 6. Anyway, when it got to 3 I began to worry as it was still winding on, "sod it" I thinks, "must have not engaged the sprockets" so I opened the back.... DOH!!! What had happened was that when it got to the last shot on the roll I had been a bit over-zealous with my winding on and had ripped the sprocket holes so now the whole film was exposed to light. :(
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:eek::eek::eek:
Similar here once when you come to the end of the film and the wind on lever goes about 2/3rds of the way and you force that little bit more to get a shot..well I didn't ripped the film but ruined the camera and an expensive repair...lesson learnt and never done it again.
 
john.margetts said:
How hard are you leaning on that film advance lever? You have a well engineered piece of German equipment - it only needs a gentle touch to advance the film.
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I know, I know. I'm bloody great heavy-handed oaf. :facepalm:
 
Andysnap said:
Here's an interesting one.
On Saturday we went to Birmingham and I took along my new Voigtlander Bessamatic. When I loaded the film the film counter didn't reset back to 36 (it runs t'other way from most cameras) but to 30, as I had loaded a 24 exposure roll I thought it's ok I'll just rewind when it gets to 6. Anyway, when it got to 3 I began to worry as it was still winding on, "sod it" I thinks, "must have not engaged the sprockets" so I opened the back.... DOH!!! What had happened was that when it got to the last shot on the roll I had been a bit over-zealous with my winding on and had ripped the sprocket holes so now the whole film was exposed to light. :(
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:bang:
 
Andysnap said:
Here's an interesting one.

On Saturday we went to Birmingham and I took along my new Voigtlander Bessamatic. When I loaded the film the film counter didn't reset back to 36 (it runs t'other way from most cameras) but to 30, as I had loaded a 24 exposure roll I thought it's ok I'll just rewind when it gets to 6. Anyway, when it got to 3 I began to worry as it was still winding on, "sod it" I thinks, "must have not engaged the sprockets" so I opened the back.... DOH!!! What had happened was that when it got to the last shot on the roll I had been a bit over-zealous with my winding on and had ripped the sprocket holes so now the whole film was exposed to light. :(
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Bloody hipsters with their Lomo light leak photos ... :shifty:
 
The joys of using a camera that you haven't used much...well being a filmie sometimes means you take shots put the camera away and forget what you'd taken. So took Chinon CP-7m out for a shoot and it showed 11 shots taken, well got to number 25 and thought I wont be greedy and settle for that on a 24 exp roll..AAMOI covered the lens and viewfinder and fired to see if I was near the end anyway and it went to 32 before stopping WTF.
So had the film not wound on at some time (or whatever) h'mm I'll only know when the film comes back :(
 
excalibur2 said:
The joys of using a camera that you haven't used much...well being a filmie sometimes means you take shots put the camera away and forget what you'd taken. So took Chinon CP-7m out for a shoot and it showed 11 shots taken, well got to number 25 and thought I wont be greedy and settle for that on a 24 exp roll..AAMOI covered the lens and viewfinder and fired to see if I was near the end anyway and it went to 32 before stopping WTF.
So had the film not wound on at some time (or whatever) h'mm I'll only know when the film comes back :(
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Now what sort of person would make a pig's ear of something as simple as putting a film in a camera? :wave: At least it sounds like you might have some shots on there. You didn't by any chance wind the film on by manually rotating the take up spool the wrong way like I think I did last time? Next time I'll use the film advance lever to wind the leader on, so it turns the right way. :eggface:
 
Mr Badger said:
Now what sort of person would make a pig's ear of something as simple as putting a film in a camera? :wave: At least it sounds like you might have some shots on there. You didn't by any chance wind the film on by manually rotating the take up spool the wrong way like I think I did last time? Next time I'll use the film advance lever to wind the leader on, so it turns the right way. :eggface:
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Well Mr Badger it's one of those cameras that winds on the leader automatically o_O The shots I was taking really needs a modern camera with shutter speeds that go for example 1000 to 16 secs (even on manual)... the KR 10-super is another one of those cameras Why? well using a flash off camera in between shutter timing and it's a bit inconvenient using a very long shutter cable and counting elephants with an old camera. :eek:
Why I think of it:- get your cameras ready guys for fireworks....I think Diwali is on the 19th of this month, then of course the 5th.
 
I see, in that case could the leader not have not caught and been picked up by the take up spool for a few frames? I've got a couple of those 'insert leader up to the orange mark' type auto-load cameras (EOS3 and a Sureshot Supreme compact) and I'm always a bit apprehensive that the film won't load properly, but it usually seems to. Ironically, it was my Canon A1 I made a dog's dinner of loading, and I've owned that getting on for 40 years, so no I've no excuse. I even used to load it while standing up in semi-darkness at music gigs; apparently now I can't even manage it sitting down in a well-lit café! :facepalm:
 
Mr Badger said:
I see, in that case could the leader not have not caught and been picked up by the take up spool for a few frames? I've got a couple of those 'insert leader up to the orange mark' type auto-load cameras (EOS3 and a Sureshot Supreme compact) and I'm always a bit apprehensive that the film won't load properly, but it usually seems to. Ironically, it was my Canon A1 I made a dog's dinner of loading, and I've owned that getting on for 40 years, so no I've no excuse. I even used to load it while standing up in semi-darkness at music gigs; apparently now I can't even manage it sitting down in a well-lit café! :facepalm:
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All will be revealed when I get the negs back :eek:
 
So this does not strictly belong in this thread as no film was harmed in this sorry tale.

I was out yesterday taking my FPOTY shot for October, (I know this is a little early for me as it does mean I will hopefully get my films back from the processors before the last day of the month) and I decided to finish up some rolls in various cameras. So I took took the FE, the F100 and a couple of backs for the Hasselblad.

I had a great shoot and was feeling very positive on my way back home, sure I had something good in the bag for this month. Imagine my disappointment this morning when I opened one of the Hassy backs only to find nothing in it at all, not the wrong film shot at the wrong speed, not mangled, not wrongly spooled, not ripped to shreds, nothing, nothing, nothing. Oh FFS :bang:
 
RaglanSurf said:
I had a great shoot and was feeling very positive on my way back home, sure I had something good in the bag for this month. Imagine my disappointment this morning when I opened one of the Hassy backs only to find nothing in it at all, not the wrong film shot at the wrong speed, not mangled, not wrongly spooled, not ripped to shreds, nothing, nothing, nothing. Oh FFS :banghead:
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I did that a couple of years ago. It was a lovely, misty morning and I was photographing things on the seafront. When the frame counter on my FE2 got to 41, I realised what was wrong!


Steve.
 
The daft thing is I’ve got into the habit of putting labels on to my film backs with either film ID or empty, according to my foolproof method I had a roll of Acros in one back and I swear in my head it had some of the best shots I’d ever taken!
 
excalibur2 said:
The joys of using a camera that you haven't used much...well being a filmie sometimes means you take shots put the camera away and forget what you'd taken. So took Chinon CP-7m out for a shoot and it showed 11 shots taken, well got to number 25 and thought I wont be greedy and settle for that on a 24 exp roll..AAMOI covered the lens and viewfinder and fired to see if I was near the end anyway and it went to 32 before stopping WTF.
So had the film not wound on at some time (or whatever) h'mm I'll only know when the film comes back :(
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Without getting the negs back seeing two jpgs from filmdev and they are double exposed..dunno why they didn't scan them all as I paid for them, but then maybe they are all blanks. When this happens to any of us we should learn something but when CP-7m worked perfectly before it's a mystery....the other mystery was the Nikon FM did the same thing but worked perfectly before and after...erm the common factor is me o_O:eek:,
 
Mr Badger said:
It's no good, we'll have to get him a 126 instamatic. ;)
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Canon ef-m is motorised, runs the film out on loading and winds it back in again after every shot. Agreed it's not high precision German engineering (or even high precision) but it might stop films getting ripped?
 
Steve Smith said:
I did that a couple of years ago. It was a lovely, misty morning and I was photographing things on the seafront. When the frame counter on my FE2 got to 41, I realised what was wrong!


Steve.
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You could always look to see if the rewind crank is turning :)
All the world loves a smart......#
Sorry.
Matt
 
Not exactly ruined but...

I did my first ever bulk loading of film a few weeks ago. Loaded up 20 cassettes and trimmed the leader of each one. Anyhow I decided to use a roll earlier and realised that I have trimmed all the leaders upside down. [emoji17]

Lesson learned, don't bulk load late at night when you're knackered.
 
Well, not the whole roll of film. I loaded a roll of Superia 400 into my Pentax LX earlier in the week, and as usual moved the shutter speed dial off 'Automatic' (ie aperture priority) prior to firing off those first couple of blank frames. Went out with some friends and shot a couple of shots inside a rather nice tiny church; I was very confused at the shutter sound, which didn't sound at all right for 1/4 second. Then yesterday I went bluebell hunting, lots of nice shots in the woods... before I suddenly noticed (at shot 18) that it was still set to 1/2000 shutter speed! So I'm not hoping for much from the first half of that roll... :(
 
^ Wally :)

If you don't put enough developer in...

full
 
The roll of Fuji Pro 400H I put in my Yashicamat didn't attach to the spool correctly, and started slipping as I was winding it on. Cue unspooling it and trying to re-feed it in the middle of a park. I managed to get it back on ok, but on taking the first shot of the roll the winder jammed. After a bit of jiggling, I managed to get it to wind-on and take another shot, although I wasn't confident of the results. In the end I got this oddly appealing double-exposure that kinda looks like it has a reflection at the bottom.

FILM - Accidental double-exposure.jpg

The rest of the roll came out fine.
 
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Tachihara outfit with newly attached Bausch lens/shutter test for sharpness etc.

Loaded just one sheet of fomapan film.

Shot frame.

Developed and removed a COMPLETELY CLAER NEGATIVE.from the tank!

On reflection I know what I did wrong.

The film holder was inserted the wrong way round thus I attempted to register an image on the empty side :banghead::crying:

We all know what I'll be doing tomorrow don't we?:rolleyes::D:D
 
steveo_mcg said:
Learning how to mark your darkslides? :D
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That's just it, the empty side had its darkslide showing black as if already exposed so it was clear ' to non idiots" :pwhich side housed enexposed film!
 
Asha said:
That's just it, the empty side had its darkslide showing black as if already exposed so it was clear ' to non idiots" :pwhich side housed enexposed film!
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Doh! Could have been worse could have double exposed a keeper
 
Not a whole ruined film, but mostly ruined. :(

Shot 1 : Wound in the film with the shutter open.
Shot 2 : Lens cap on.
Shot 3 : Lens cap on, but realised before winding on this time. 2nd attempt massively under exposed because I knocked the aperture lever while faffing about.
Shot 4 : Success!

It's very frustrating (and embarassing) sending a film off and getting one usable photo back. Lesson learned though. Now I have a list in my notebook...
 
I think I've found a new way!

Trusting Mr Cad to tell you everything about the film loaded into the DDS's that you've just bought from them and then going on to assume that the film is probably ok, taking a photo on a single frame, and it coming back basically blank.

So yeah, bought 2x DDS's from MrCad, loaded with Provia 100F they say. Good I think! How old are they and when did they come in, I ask. Oh, they came in yesterday they say. Great! Turns out, the film had likely been stored at oven temperature for about 6 millennia, as the frame came back almost blank, without even the emulsion code. Live and learn eh?! :)
 
FishyFish said:
I just opened the back of the camera with which I shot 21 frames of Portra 160 today. :facepalm:
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:facepalm:
It's a changing of clocks syndrome:D…..I devd a roll of delta that has taken me about a year to finish in the M4, only to find that half of it is completely blank ( the day that i shot the most frames at the local agricultaral show)…..It obviously isn't the camera at fault as the other frames are fine so I reckon I've done the classic rangefinder error and left the lens cap on!!:facepalm::facepalm::facepalm:
 
FishyFish said:
I just opened the back of the camera with which I shot 21 frames of Portra 160 today. :facepalm:
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If you closed it quickly enough you'll probably find most of it has survived OK. I did this earlier this year when the auto rewind failed on my EOS 30 (trip to Miles sorted it, just a bit of debris in the gearing). I was expecting a disaster but only lost about four of the last shots I took, the rest were fine. Hope you get away as lightly. (y)

(Unless of course it was your shots for the FPOTY, in which case I'm sure they're all totally ruined and simply not worth spending the money on to have developed. It's just dashed hard cheese, old chap) :whistle: ;)
 
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Somehow managed to run a roll of Velvia 50 through my TLR back to front. I'm surprising even myself at the moment.
 
Asha said:
:facepalm:
It's a changing of clocks syndrome:D…..I devd a roll of delta that has taken me about a year to finish in the M4, only to find that half of it is completely blank ( the day that i shot the most frames at the local agricultaral show)…..It obviously isn't the camera at fault as the other frames are fine so I reckon I've done the classic rangefinder error and left the lens cap on!!:facepalm::facepalm::facepalm:
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This is why if I have a rangefinder it MUST have a meter! The number of times with my Leitz CL (which has a funny meter on a stick thing) that I've thought "darn it, that meter's not working again" and tried shaking and knocking the camera to dislodge it, only to realise that the lens cap was indeed still on!
 
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