101 ways to ruin a roll of film

I once watched an old press photographer demostrate how to dev and fix a film quickly for the paper, the drying part involved dipping the fixed film in meths and lighting it, the idea is the meths burns off and drys the film. It sort of worked, it dried the film ok, burnt to a crisp is a better description.
But watching the panic and fire fighting operation was much more fun, he set the room on fire after dropping the blazing film.
I have to say personally I've not tried that method, it's a tad dangerous IMHO.
 
I did once manage to load an RB67 back with the film the wrong way round so the paper was on the outside!

Fortunately I saw my mistake when unloading the back and I was able to re-spool the film and put it back through the camera the right way. - Idiot.
 
Jakemico AE-1P said:
...Anyone rewind a film, leave the leader out and then accidentally re-use that film thinking its a fresh roll?
No me neither.
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No. Every time I've done it was 100% deliberate...
 
David_Mug said:
I did once manage to load an RB67 back with the film the wrong way round so the paper was on the outside!

Fortunately I saw my mistake when unloading the back and I was able to re-spool the film and put it back through the camera the right way. - Idiot.
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I half did that... I loaded the film the wrong way round (it was also a Mamiya 67, either RB or RZ). The half I didn't do was realising when I unloaded the film. That was spotted instantly when I took the film to be processed by Aviemore Photographic (as I was on holiday at the time). They let me use their darkroom to respool, so full marks to them. They closed years ago alas.
 
About a year ago I had 3 x 35mm BW films to develop and only two reels for my Paterson Universal tank. I also had a stainless tank and some Hewes reels which I hadn't tried before. Processed two films in the Paterson, all good. Had a few problems loading the metal Hewes reel and proceeded to process the roll. After final rinse it was obvious that the last film was touching in various places as it was loaded on the reel. Random parts of the film were not developed. All I could do was to fix this film and rewash. Most of the frames were OK. I have since done a lot of practise runs in loading a metal spiral. Think I've got it under control although I still mainly process 35mm in the Paterson. (Bought the Hewes reels mainly for 120 which I have no problem loading although I keep a spare sacrificial film to practise with to keep up the old 'muscle memory').
 
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MDJ said:
About a year ago I had 3 x 35mm BW films to develop and only two reels for my Paterson Universal tank. I also had a stainless tank and some Hewes reels which I hadn't tried before. Processed two films in the Paterson, all good. Had a few problems loading the metal Hewes reel and proceeded to process the roll. After final rinse it was obvious that the last film was touching in various places as it was loaded on the reel. Random parts of the film were not developed. All I could do was to fix this film and rewash. Most of the frames were OK. I have since done a lot of practise runs in loading a metal spiral. Think I've got it under control although I still mainly process 35mm in the Paterson. (Bought the Hewes reels mainly for 120 which I have no problem loading although I keep a spare sacrificial film to practise with to keep up the old 'muscle memory').
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I could never get on with those steel spirals, thank god for Paterson (but woe betide you if those spirals weren't absolutely dry before use).
 
The very first film I ever developed (in a Paterson Major II tank) was the only film I ever developed that produced no images at all... I was keen and eager to develop it, thought it was a doddle to wind a film onto a spiral in the dark, and didn't bother reading the instructions - after all, who wastes time doing that when they want to jump straight in? So, I wound the film onto the spiral. Literally. Hold the end against the centre rod, and rotate the spiral winding on the film. Grooves? What grooves? Wound on as if I was winding string around a stick.

The film had some fetching purple areas, some milky white ones, but nothing that remotely resembled an image.

I was about 10 at the time.
 
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MDJ said:
About a year ago I had 3 x 35mm BW films to develop and only two reels for my Paterson Universal tank. I also had a stainless tank and some Hewes reels which I hadn't tried before. Processed two films in the Paterson, all good. Had a few problems loading the metal Hewes reel and proceeded to process the roll. After final rinse it was obvious that the last film was touching in various places as it was loaded on the reel. Random parts of the film were not developed. All I could do was to fix this film and rewash. Most of the frames were OK. I have since done a lot of practise runs in loading a metal spiral. Think I've got it under control although I still mainly process 35mm in the Paterson. (Bought the Hewes reels mainly for 120 which I have no problem loading although I keep a spare sacrificial film to practise with to keep up the old 'muscle memory').
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The metal spirals are something else, I first had to use them at college after using Paterson plastic spirals at home for five years or so. Even though the metal spirals were loaded in a completely dark room I had no end of grief for the first term and would have hated to try using them in a changing bag, still with practice it became second nature for 120 and 35mm. Film processing in deep tanks is the only time I have ever said 'Large format is so much easier' clipping sheets of 54 to metal hangers was a breeze.
 
TheTimeChamber said:

Oh by S8, on Flickr
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Snap!

aAadqt2.jpg
 
FishyFish said:
Good job you only had the cheap film in the camera... oh...

Sorry this happened to you. :(
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It was my 1 roll of film in 10 days in Japan.

I was on Day 9...shot 35 frames out of 36 when i dropped the camera, you can see the winder in the photo bent.
 
Found a new way (for me)
Just back from a week in Scotland and realised I'd taken a 645 back with me.
All my shots were composed in 6 X 6.
I'll start processing this week but my guess is most pictures will be junk.
 
soupdragon said:
Found a new way (for me)
Just back from a week in Scotland and realised I'd taken a 645 back with me.
All my shots were composed in 6 X 6.
I'll start processing this week but my guess is most pictures will be junk.
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Oh, I don't know, it might teach you something about how constrained you are to the format you think you are shooting. I often made not square images from the Bronica SQ and similarly go through phases of turning out square images from APSC digital.
Keeep an open mind you could be surprised by the experience.
 
Getting back to photography and have made a disastrous mistake with my Canon A1, I was sure I set the lens on "A" for semi exposure readings (AV) for a classic car show (using up the film from Xmas)) but getting the film back from filmdev and all the shots of a classic car show were missing......on checking the lens and it was on F22 o_O and what's more annoying I put another film in without checking (the "A" setting") and will assume more shots were lost as well.
Well luckily I switched the film over to another camera (Nikon F4) and my shots of Bibury should be OK as I used manual setting.
These days with the cost of film, postage and dev costs, you can't make mistakes and miss only a few years back.....Asda for Dev and scan £3 and using poundland film £1 (y)
 
This is an almost ruined tale...

This evening I got myself all prepared to develop a couple of rolls of 120 HP5+ that I shot at the weekend. I decided to use the bigger Paterson tank I bought months ago, but which I've yet to develop any film in. Got both rolls loaded ok. Got all the rest of the stuff ready. Made up 1 litre of wetting agent with the last of my deionised water. Went to measure out the DD-X to make a litre of developer and suddenly realise that my pre-made stop and fix only amount to 600ml each - the quantity I need for my smaller tank. Lucky I noticed in time or that might have been a bit of a problem!

I decided to pack everthing away and will make up some extra stop and fix tomorrow to top what I have up to a litre apiece.

I then poured my litre of wetting agent down the sink instead of just saving it... :headbang:

I'll now have to wait for more deionsised water to be delivered before I can dev my film (unless I want to risk atrocious drying marks on them).

At least I didn't waste any developer. Just my time and pride.
 
FishyFish said:
I'll now have to wait for more deionsised water to be delivered before I can dev my film (unless I want to risk atrocious drying marks on them).
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If there's one near you, Robert Dyas sell de-ionised water, 10 litres for £8 IIRC
 
FishyFish said:
This is an almost ruined tale...

This evening I got myself all prepared to develop a couple of rolls of 120 HP5+ that I shot at the weekend. I decided to use the bigger Paterson tank I bought months ago, but which I've yet to develop any film in. Got both rolls loaded ok. Got all the rest of the stuff ready. Made up 1 litre of wetting agent with the last of my deionised water. Went to measure out the DD-X to make a litre of developer and suddenly realise that my pre-made stop and fix only amount to 600ml each - the quantity I need for my smaller tank. Lucky I noticed in time or that might have been a bit of a problem!

I decided to pack everthing away and will make up some extra stop and fix tomorrow to top what I have up to a litre apiece.

I then poured my litre of wetting agent down the sink instead of just saving it... :headbang:

I'll now have to wait for more deionsised water to be delivered before I can dev my film (unless I want to risk atrocious drying marks on them).

At least I didn't waste any developer. Just my time and pride.
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I got my DI water in 2.5l containers from Asda, and Tesco sometimes have it as well.
 
Wow, I am amazed that so many of you are using deionised water for the final wash. I have never been bothered by lime deposits just using tap water and a couple of drops of Kodak Photoflow, despite living in London which has quite hard water.
I did occasionally have problems in East Yorkshire using Patterson wetting agent and tap water, it may have been slightly harder water or it could have been the wetting agent, don't know.
 
ChrisR said:
If there's one near you, Robert Dyas sell de-ionised water, 10 litres for £8 IIRC
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Thanks Chris. Managed to get some from Halfords to collect tomorrow. We don't have a Robert Dyas near us, but there's a Boyes in Chesterfield (not too far) that I know sells it.
Peter B said:
I got my DI water in 2.5l containers from Asda, and Tesco sometimes have it as well.
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Thanks Peter. I've not tried Asda. Had no luck in the local Morrisons or Sainsburys when I've looked in the past though.
zx9 said:
Wow, I am amazed that so many of you are using deionised water for the final wash. I have never been bothered by lime deposits just using tap water and a couple of drops of Kodak Photoflow, despite living in London which has quite hard water.
I did occasionally have problems in East Yorkshire using Patterson wetting agent and tap water, it may have been slightly harder water or it could have been the wetting agent, don't know.
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I'm in Sheffield and suffer with drying marks quite a lot, although I found using a salad spinner to remove the excess water has helped tremendously. I might not even need to use special water any more, but I've not chanced it yet. Plus I can't spin 4x5 sheets. :)
 
It has, as far as I know, the shortest recommended time between exposure and development if any film. More like wet than dry plate in that respect. I hope someone can correct me, but I have a vague recollection that the ideal elapsed time is measured in minutes rather than days or weeks.
 
This was years...
 
Using a camera on auto then swapping bodies for a manual without a meter and forgetting that you have to do the calculations using a separate meter.(only once though)
 
Most of my film is not well stored, but generally results are fine. I recently used a roll of Tri-X expired 2018 in my GS645S, and was rather horrified at the number of images ruined by print through. Eg this:

2402JGS6BW10 TriX problem.jpg

You can clearly see these just holding the negatives up! I've had this packet since new, but didn't really have a MF camera I wanted to use. There was also a delay of 2-3 weeks after exposing the roll (at EI 400) and devving it (HC-110 bought 2018, nice tea colour now, dilution E).

I have two more rolls in this packet. Someone suggested giving them away at the Peak Meet (with the caveat that they are borked!); someone else suggested just use them, maybe rated at 200, see what you get. I'll probably try the latter. At least it doesn't take long to get through a roll (and with luck there'll be fewer blank frames now I've added a label that says "LENS CAP" to the top of the camera!
 
ChrisR said:
Most of my film is not well stored, but generally results are fine. I recently used a roll of Tri-X expired 2018 in my GS645S, and was rather horrified at the number of images ruined by print through. Eg this:

View attachment 418823

You can clearly see these just holding the negatives up! I've had this packet since new, but didn't really have a MF camera I wanted to use. There was also a delay of 2-3 weeks after exposing the roll (at EI 400) and devving it (HC-110 bought 2018, nice tea colour now, dilution E).

I have two more rolls in this packet. Someone suggested giving them away at the Peak Meet (with the caveat that they are borked!); someone else suggested just use them, maybe rated at 200, see what you get. I'll probably try the latter. At least it doesn't take long to get through a roll (and with luck there'll be fewer blank frames now I've added a label that says "LENS CAP" to the top of the camera!
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I would try another roll... I've had this problem with old very out of date XP2 120 film... out of the box of 5 only 1 was like it. The previous owner of the film(I bought 20 boxes from him) stored them under his bed :rolleyes:
 
First attempt to photo the city of London from 13 miles away using 300mm lens plus 2 Xs extender and polarizer.....I'll have to check the neg to see what when wrong, my guess under exposed :rolleyes:

b9wq3SC.jpg
 
After push processing several rolls of HP5+ over the past few months that I shot at 800ASA with my Olympus XA3, I've just realised that the XA3 will override the manual ASA setting if it detects a DX code. So I've basically been overdeveloping film shot at box speed by a stop.

Thankfully HP5+ and Ilfotec DD-X will clearly suffer fools and the results have still been good (enough that I haven't actually noticed I'd been doing anything amiss until now).

Not ruined then, but a potential close shave had I been using different film and developer.
 
Picked up my camera after a 20 year absence.

Bought a few rolls to shoot with.

Got to the end of the first roll and had completely forgotten that there's a button on the bottom of the camera to release the sprocket so it can be rewound.

Rewound it. Got tighter and tighter and tighter until it snapped.

In some ways it was like Schrodinger's Film - until I opened the camera, the film was both ruined and not ruined.

I'd estimate that maybe two frames went back into the canister, the rest was just spooled in the camera.
 
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