101 ways to ruin a roll of film

I've seen very similar effects from a digital compact, which is why I suggested it. Admittedly, they looked more red than cream though.
 
Well my finger over the lens (not on it) on a compact came out black and another guess:- a point of light reflecting off something, maybe someone was attacking you with a lazer gun to stop you photographing them o_O :rolleyes:
 
FishyFish said:
An alien finger. Did you notice any missing time after taking the shot @Thmaga ?.. :eek:
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I don't think an alien finger over the lens would be the thing to worry about....:)
 
StephenM said:
Looks skin coloured. Finger in front of lens?
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john.margetts said:
Looks very like a finger in front of the lens!
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FishyFish said:
An alien finger. Did you notice any missing time after taking the shot @Thmaga ?.. :eek:
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Andysnap said:
I don't think an alien finger over the lens would be the thing to worry about....:)
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Mr Badger said:
It can't be an alien finger, it's not green!
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Fingers all present and correct! :ROFLMAO:
 
Me again!

So today I've had a film jam in the Rollei 35.

I loaded up a roll of Portra 400 yesterday and took 6 shots, went out this morning, took shot 7 and wound on, the last bit of the lever movement felt a bit more resistance but moved along fine, trying to wind on again it stopped completely. I tried to wind back the film to reload the camera but it got stuck almost immediately.

I opened the camera in a changing back and pulled the film off the take up spool, there's a Z fold in the film which is stopping it winding back into the canister properly, I managed to get it back in with a push as I wound the canister

I ran a test roll through the Rollei twice and its working fine, it's shot a roll of film every week for about 6-7 weeks no problem.

Any ideas what's happened? :thinking:

I can't get the roll back through the Rollei 35 now, might have to try it in an SLR.
 
And, after a marathon slog through this thread I think I have another new offering. I recently acquired a Bessa 1 which makes eight 6x9 cm negatives on 120 film. However, they also originally came with a detachable mask so you could take 16 6x4.5 shots instead. These masks are missing in the majority of these cameras. Guess who didn't check, and ran a roll through assuming no mask. So I have eight cropped images interspersed with eight blank frames...!

But yay, I have the mask!
 
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Stegosaurus said:
And, after a marathon slog through this thread I think I have another new offering. I recently acquired a Bessa 1 which makes eight 6x9 cm negatives on 120 film. However, they also originally came with a detachable mask so you could take 16 6x4.5 shots instead. These masks are missing in the majority of these cameras. Guess who didn't check, and ran a roll through assuming no mask. So I have eight cropped images interspersed with eight blank frames...!

But yay, I have the mask!
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Every cloud and all that. :)

When I first got my Holga, I set the cover on the red window incorrectly, thinking I would be shooting 12 6x6 frames. It was only when the film counter advanced to 13 that I realised my mistake, ending up with one massive panoramic image made of multiple scenes for most of the roll!
 
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FishyFish said:
When I first got my Holga, I set the cover on the red window incorrectly, thinking I would be shooting 12 6x6 frames. It was only when the film counter advanced to 13 that I realised my mistake,
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And I did similar on my 6x17... It clearly states on the back "3, 6, 9, 12" indicating that's what you should have showing in the window, but no, not me. I did 1, 4, 7 and 10 and ended up with 3 1/3 panoramas instead of 4. That camera will be the death of my photography.
 
Harlequin565 said:
And I did similar on my 6x17... It clearly states on the back "3, 6, 9, 12" indicating that's what you should have showing in the window, but no, not me. I did 1, 4, 7 and 10 and ended up with 3 1/3 panoramas instead of 4. That camera will be the death of my photography.
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I did almost exactly that with my 6x17. After the first frame I realised my mistake and swapped back unto the correct sequence which resulted in one 6x25 (or so) double panoramic and two good shots.
 
I thought (arrogant me) that I had made every mistake in the book - and had mostly learnt from them. Well, this morning I invented a new way to ruin a roll of film. I was winding a roll of 120 FP4+ onto a Patterson spiral - went well, I usually struggle to get 120 film started, and I reached the end of the film. Felt for the scissors and cut the join between the film and backing paper. Some idiot, who shall remain nameless, also cut through the fabric of the changing bag at the same time. I did actually develop the film (Rodinol 1+ 50) but it was mostly black.

I also had a roll of Rollei Retro 400 to develop so I got my spare changing bag out and loaded that onto a spiral. When I reached the end of the film, I decided to be a fast learner and did not use the scissors. I tore the film from the backing paper - first four frames useless with static flashes.
 
john.margetts said:
I thought (arrogant me) that I had made every mistake in the book - and had mostly learnt from them. Well, this morning I invented a new way to ruin a roll of film. I was winding a roll of 120 FP4+ onto a Patterson spiral - went well, I usually struggle to get 120 film started, and I reached the end of the film. Felt for the scissors and cut the join between the film and backing paper. Some idiot, who shall remain nameless, also cut through the fabric of the changing bag at the same time. I did actually develop the film (Rodinol 1+ 50) but it was mostly black.

I also had a roll of Rollei Retro 400 to develop so I got my spare changing bag out and loaded that onto a spiral. When I reached the end of the film, I decided to be a fast learner and did not use the scissors. I tore the film from the backing paper - first four frames useless with static flashes.
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Sorry for laughing but when you say that the idiot shall remain nameless !!! :ROFLMAO:

I always used safety scissors, those with blunt ends that kids use.
Even so I was always wary of nipping the material when using a changing bag.

As for static flashes, I am now wondering if they can come about with sheet film like when one separates the sheets from a box of film or even when removing from a film holder.

i can’t say I’ve noticed anything since loading/ unloading on a work surface in the darkroom.
 
john.margetts said:
Some idiot, who shall remain nameless, also cut through the fabric of the changing bag at the same time.
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I live in perpetual fear of this. Kids scissors are on my list of things to get but also on the list of things I always forget.
 
So today whilst running a roll through my RB for the 52, I was using a lightmeter. Stuffing it into my back pocket as I moved everything closer to the window for more light, I neglected to notice this moved the bulb. So instead of reading the light coming through the window I was now reading the light reflecting off the clouds. I think I redefined "thin" negatives. Thankfully it was only 3 frames. But they were the best ones!
 
I bought a stainless steel developing tank (120) through ebay. It appeared to be in exellent condition. The first film I developed in it had some strange lines on the clear piece of the film at the end of the roll (the end nearest the centre of the spiral). After much examination I realised that it was an image of the wires that make up the centre of the spiral and the spring clip which holds the end of the film during loading. After many hours of trying to understand how this could have happened I eventually examined each piece of the tank under a strong light. I found that the lid had three indentations where it was spot welded to the light baffle. One of the three had a tiny crack which was allowing in light. I took the offending article to my garage, lit up my oxy-acetylene torch and filled in all three indentations with brazing rod. I have been using this tank now for five years with no problems.
 
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Oh dear... I only posted 2 people ago....

You know that sinking feeling where you can carry on winding on after the alotted number of shots? Today in Chester doing a bit of street photography while I waited for my windscreen to be replaced. 24 shot hand rolled Tri-X. Frame 25, 26, 27... Sure enough, the rewind handle wasn't moving... Sadly though, it wasn't a case of the film not taking up. It was a case of SELLOTAPE FAILURE whereby frame 24 was perfectly exposed, and I then (unknowingly) tore off the sellotape with my next wind. I reckon I must have screwed up the taping process because this has never happened before.

20/20 hindsight reckons it's easy enough to get this off the wind-on spool in a dark bag, but without that hindsight the roll ended up in the bin.

Not overly chuffed with myself this evening.
 
When I first started my own printing in about 1973, I was in the Air Force and my station had a darkroom, a very, very large darkroom. I was shown by a friend how to develop my black and white 35mm films and specifically how to get them out of their canisters by squeezing and pressing. I had done this many times but one day, there I am there in the pitch dark, dev tank and spiral to hand. I squeeze and push a particularly well-fixed canister until suddenly the end cap comes off and the entire film flies out across the room.

Fifteen minutes crawling around on my hands and knees in the darkness feeling around for that film until I eventually found where it had rolled under a kitchen unit on legs. Needless to say, in the future, I always kept one finger over the end of the canister. That is until I discovered the delights of the changing bag.
 
Harlequin565 said:
Oh dear... I only posted 2 people ago....

You know that sinking feeling where you can carry on winding on after the alotted number of shots? Today in Chester doing a bit of street photography while I waited for my windscreen to be replaced. 24 shot hand rolled Tri-X. Frame 25, 26, 27... Sure enough, the rewind handle wasn't moving... Sadly though, it wasn't a case of the film not taking up. It was a case of SELLOTAPE FAILURE whereby frame 24 was perfectly exposed, and I then (unknowingly) tore off the sellotape with my next wind. I reckon I must have screwed up the taping process because this has never happened before.

20/20 hindsight reckons it's easy enough to get this off the wind-on spool in a dark bag, but without that hindsight the roll ended up in the bin.

Not overly chuffed with myself this evening.
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I nearly had a similar issue at the weekend. I went out for a walk to finish off a roll of Delta 100 in my OM-2n. I took what I hoped would be a really nice shot of a cottage with a wooden door in the foreground. The counter showed 36 so I knew I was near the end of the roll but I often get a couple of extra frames, so I wound on after making the picture and heard and felt an odd crackling noise / sensation. Figuring it was the end of the roll, I rewound the film until I heard it come off the take up spindle and then popped the back to remove it.

Then, a couple of days later as I was loading it onto the spiral in the changing bag, I felt the film go taut indicating I’d reached the end. I’ve been fooled once before when I thought this was the case and cut the film only to find there were several frames still in the canister so now I usually put a bit more tension on the film just to be sure. This time it was at the end, but my extra force ripped the film about two frame lengths from the canister.

So, while I still got a full 36 frames, the final banger of a shot of the cottage, was ruined. :facepalm:
 
FishyFish said:
...This time it was at the end, but my extra force ripped the film about two frame lengths from the canister.

So, while I still got a full 36 frames, the final banger of a shot of the cottage, was ruined. :facepalm:
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Not a full roll, but you've reminded me, I'm slowly continuing my retro scanning, with the less interesting (don't tell my OH!) bits of the kids when very young. I had the packet covering the time when my son came home from hospital... but the film strip stuck in the 40+ year old sleeve (that's probably spent 15+ years in an attic in South Australia ranging in temperature from freezing to 45 degrees C). Tried to work it loose then gave it a tug, and "my extra force ripped the film" right in the middle of a delightful frame of daughter helping to bathe the new baby!
 
@Lindsay56 Well... your lens works(I think, although not sure if it is meant to read the aperture or not?.... in anycase as I at least have images, we can say it’s fine) but.., the roll is ruined so am not going to bother scanning it :LOL:215DC443-2B56-47BE-8714-3762958D74B0.jpeg
 
@Solo man I see what you mean - what a shame. As regards the aperture dial, I assumed that if you set the aperture ring to A then you can use the shutter priority setting on the 645, but if you set an aperture then you are in either M or Av mode on the camera, and the diaphragm is open/closed as appropriate. Sorry, maybe that's actually rather obvious, but I would have assumed the camera would read the aperture setting, yes.
 
Lindsay56 said:
@Solo man I see what you mean - what a shame. As regards the aperture dial, I assumed that if you set the aperture ring to A then you can use the shutter priority setting on the 645, but if you set an aperture then you are in either M or Av mode on the camera, and the diaphragm is open/closed as appropriate. Sorry, maybe that's actually rather obvious, but I would have assumed the camera would read the aperture setting, yes.
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Yes, that is what I had done... but I'm not entirely sure the aperture and shutter speed matched up. However, it could be user error as I haven't used the 645n for a long time. But I can muddle along with it.
 
Solo man said:
@Lindsay56 Well... your lens works(I think, although not sure if it is meant to read the aperture or not?....
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Out of interest...

I had a problem on my 645 thus:
Set lens to "A".
1st photo is fine. However the Aperture doesn't reset to wide open after taking. So the next image is metered using a stopped down lens (but the camera thinks it's wide open) which lets in less light. E.g. 2 photos of exactly the same scene. f/2.8 lens. Camera meters the scene (through the wide 2.8 aperture) and decides that f/8 is the correct aperture. Photo takes fine, but the aperture sticks at f/8. When you take the same shot again, the camera is now metering through the narrower f/8 and tells you you need a much longer shutter speed. You don't though and end up with over exposed images because of it.

I gave up trying to Google it because the fix is basically don't use auto aperture. If you set the aperture manually, it seems to be fine. It's not a lens issue (in my case) because it happens on multiple lenses. It's annoying.

Not sure if this is what you're experiencing but that over exposed neg looked familiar...

Also - consider changing your batteries unless you know they are new.
 
Harlequin565 said:
Out of interest...

I had a problem on my 645 thus:
Set lens to "A".
1st photo is fine. However the Aperture doesn't reset to wide open after taking. So the next image is metered using a stopped down lens (but the camera thinks it's wide open) which lets in less light. E.g. 2 photos of exactly the same scene. f/2.8 lens. Camera meters the scene (through the wide 2.8 aperture) and decides that f/8 is the correct aperture. Photo takes fine, but the aperture sticks at f/8. When you take the same shot again, the camera is now metering through the narrower f/8 and tells you you need a much longer shutter speed. You don't though and end up with over exposed images because of it.

I gave up trying to Google it because the fix is basically don't use auto aperture. If you set the aperture manually, it seems to be fine. It's not a lens issue (in my case) because it happens on multiple lenses. It's annoying.

Not sure if this is what you're experiencing but that over exposed neg looked familiar...

Also - consider changing your batteries unless you know they are new.
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It is possible this is a similar issue, but... it was a roll dated 2003{but I normally do ok with OOD film)... my 75mm 645 lens is fine. However this is a 67 lens, attached to the 645 using the adapter. When I first started the roll at f5.6 it was showing as shutter speed 1000, then when I looked again it changed to 180...? the first two images look correctly exposed.
Also, not sure how new the batteries were.

I'll have a bash in manual instead.
 
Solo man said:
When I first started the roll at f5.6 it was showing as shutter speed 1000, then when I looked again it changed to 180...? the first two images look correctly exposed.
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It's easy to tell if it's the same or similar problem because the viewfinder looks a lot darker if you're paying attention (I wasn't to begin with) and it isn't a super bright day.
 
Harlequin565 said:
It's easy to tell if it's the same or similar problem because the viewfinder looks a lot darker if you're paying attention (I wasn't to begin with) and it isn't a super bright day.
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Nope, doesn't appear to be noticeably different in the viewfinder between the two lens.

The 67 lens when mounted doesn't show the aperture in camera, in any mode. Still might be user error there though.

However, as I very often do odd things with my cameras and lenses it isn't a major issue...and it doesn't appear to be the same as your issue.
 
I sometimes split a 36 exposure film into two half lengths, using my bulk film loader. I place the 36 exposure cassette in the pay-off drum and wind on to an empty cassette in the take-up compartment.

For the last film I did, I carefully taped the free end on to a spool, put it in the winding position, closed the lid and wound on to about 18. I opened the compartment to find that I had forgotten to put the cassette's outer back over the spool. The only good point was that I had only ruined half a roll of film.
 
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