101 ways to ruin a roll of film

Hopefully not an entire ruined roll, but I reckon I've messed up a few shots today. The last time I used the F70, it had some Adox Silvermax loaded. As Silvermax isn't DX coded, I manually set the ISO on the camera (actually to 80, rather than the box speed of 100). Today, I loaded some HP5, but forgot to switch the camera back to DX mode and so I shot 8 frames of 400 ASA film at 80 ASA. I think I've also probably messed up a couple of shots by paying attention to the aperture and composition while not checking the (proably far too low) shutter speed, and also taken three shots indoors with the polariser still afixed. Not the most competent I've ever been, it must be said. Hopefully I have enough decent results to make up for the potentially ruined shots! :confused::(:D
 
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Hopefully not an entire ruined roll, but I reckon I've messed up a few shots today. The last time I used the F70, it had some Adox Silvermax loaded. As Silvermax isn't DX coded, I manually set the ISO on the camera (actually to 80, rather than the box speed of 100). Today, I loaded some HP5, but forgot to switch the camera back to DX mode and so I shot 8 frames of 400 ASA film at 80 ASA. I think I've also probably messed up a couple of shots by paying attention to the aperture and composition while not checking the (proably far too low) shutter speed, and also taken three shots indoors with the polariser still afixed. Not the most competent I've ever been, it must be said. Hopefully I have enough decent results to make up for the potentially ruined shots! :confused::(:D

Sounds like an average day in the office to me, Nige! There's ALWAYS at least one thing I forgot...
 
Well, my plastic reels chewed up another film, making me all hot and bothered in the process, which made the film stick to itself... long story short, I lost most of a nice roll. I suspect the little metal balls in the reels - am I remembering correctly that rubbing them with a pencil helps?
 
That's my recollection as well - although I've never tried it.
 
Well, my plastic reels chewed up another film, making me all hot and bothered in the process, which made the film stick to itself... long story short, I lost most of a nice roll. I suspect the little metal balls in the reels - am I remembering correctly that rubbing them with a pencil helps?

My loading technique became significantly better when I used reels with wide flanges - something like this (US site): https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/122989-REG/Samigon_ESA325_Multi_Format_Autofeed_Reel.html

AP does a similar model which is easier to get in the UK. I load the hanging exposed lip of 35mm in, put it in the changing bag, and load the rest inside the bag. Never had an issue.
 
My loading technique became significantly better when I used reels with wide flanges - something like this (US site): https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/122989-REG/Samigon_ESA325_Multi_Format_Autofeed_Reel.html

AP does a similar model which is easier to get in the UK. I load the hanging exposed lip of 35mm in, put it in the changing bag, and load the rest inside the bag. Never had an issue.

Those are the ones I have! The film was getting a few centimetres in, then sticking, then buckling and tearing. It didn't help that it was getting a bit damp in there from my sweaty little hands :(
 
Those are the ones I have! The film was getting a few centimetres in, then sticking, then buckling and tearing. It didn't help that it was getting a bit damp in there from my sweaty little hands :(
Jobo reels every time (y)
 
Is it possible to wear those creepy latex gloves while loading films on reels to reduce the sweaty mitts problem?

Filmdev every time ;)
 
I love filmdev, but fully automating the whole process of development would make my scanner, tanks etc all redundant, so I'm reluctant to give it up. I'd rather not buy new reels if I have to, especially at £25 a pop :/ I did think about the gloves, but they've got powder on, haven't they?
 
Ya can't beat a wide flange

I was just gonna say, I used to use latex gloves and I wasn't at all happy with the powder, anyway I stopped using them after I came across some blue ones at a print shop with no powder, so I pinch em from there now.
Can't remember what they are called, Nitrile....maybe, something like that..:)

I should add, I only use them for printing, not deving
 
Way to ruin a roll of Film. Be passed an old camera from the 1970s, be told there is a roll of film in there...completely forget, go to put a roll of film in the back of the camera...ruin said roll that was in the camera. Cry. a lot.
 
Or....

Pop all the kit into your changing tent, close first zip, then open it again rather than closing second zip. Stare out of window whilst loading film (perfectly and first time) and not notice that changing tent is open. :banghead:
 
Or....

Pop all the kit into your changing tent, close first zip, then open it again rather than closing second zip. Stare out of window whilst loading film (perfectly and first time) and not notice that changing tent is open. :banghead:

Nooooooo :( You win :(
 
Nooooooo :( You win :(

Funny thing was that Carl Hall recently asked if I'd ever done this and I said, 'of course not, that would be stoopid' :D
 
Funny thing was that Carl Hall recently asked if I'd ever done this and I said, 'of course not, that would be stoopid' :D

Subliminal suggestion. Not your fault at all...
 
Or....

Pop all the kit into your changing tent, close first zip, then open it again rather than closing second zip. Stare out of window whilst loading film (perfectly and first time) and not notice that changing tent is open. :banghead:

I think this might be worth a thread on its own, so we could easily find it and come back in wonder! :) That reminds me...
 
I think this might be worth a thread on its own, so we could easily find it and come back in wonder! :) That reminds me...

Oy.... moving on, nothing to see here.
 
My best mate lost a full roll of film from his newly acquired Olympus 35 RD. He didn't pay enough attention and tried to rewind the film the wrong way which resulted in the rewind crank unscrewing completely. Because they remaining bit of the crank dropped down into the body there was not way to screw the crank back on and no way to turn the rewind for the film. In the end we sacrificed the film so that we could open the camera and push the metal shaft back up to screw he crank back on. I doubt he will make that mistake again.
 
Photoshop is your friend, but let us know what Portra 400 shot at 1600 ISO looks like.

I will try and post some more images when I am back at home. I converted to black and white so it worked alright. I am toying with the idea of shooting portrait and converting to black and white for a while actually...

Below is without filter.


IMG_20170705_074459_082.jpg
 
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Decided to make a small dent in my backlog and developed three rolls of Tri-X that I shot earlier this year at the Oxford meet. I was delighted that the negatives look crisp and clear on the drying rack so decided to continue with a couple of rolls of 120. Loaded them both on one spiral despite one of them being Shanghai GP3, which is a complete sod to load usually because it's so thin and curly, then into a 50:1 Rodinal mix for an hour's semi-stand.

After stopping, fixing and washing I opened the tank and realised I could see the spindle through both films. :confused:

They're completely clear, not even a mark on the rebate. I'm guessing that in the excitement of activity either I put the fixer in first or the Rodinal's shot and the fixer took care of everything. It might have been over-confidence following the good results from the Tri-X or it might be the latter as my Rodinal's getting on a bit but I was told by the internet that it's supposed to last forever! :(
 
Rodinal (as made by Agfa) does; other "identical" formulations will give identical results in terms of developed image, but are anything but identical in terms of keeping properties. From memory, AP09 (or similar - perm the letters for the "P") is well known for not lasting long. Others claim to be the same as Agfa Rodinal, but I'm still using the original as I stocked up when Agfa had problems.

Fixer should dissolve the undeveloped silver halide and leave the image alone. Unless you overfix, as eventually the silver deposited by the developer will be dissolved as well. However....

The latent image which is developed consists in the beginning as small silver specks in the emulsion; some developers work by depositing more silver around the existing silver as well as the more conventional conversion of silver halide to silver. Therefore - it is possible to reverse the development sequence and develop after fixing, although the results are unlikely to win competitions. I've never ever tried it, not heard of anyone doing it. But it is a theoretical possibility if something must be saved. I can look up which developers to try if you really want to beat a new path for F & C.
 
And if it catches on - this could be another way to ruin a roll of film...
 
Decided to make a small dent in my backlog and developed three rolls of Tri-X that I shot earlier this year at the Oxford meet. I was delighted that the negatives look crisp and clear on the drying rack so decided to continue with a couple of rolls of 120. Loaded them both on one spiral despite one of them being Shanghai GP3, which is a complete sod to load usually because it's so thin and curly, then into a 50:1 Rodinal mix for an hour's semi-stand.

After stopping, fixing and washing I opened the tank and realised I could see the spindle through both films. :confused:

They're completely clear, not even a mark on the rebate. I'm guessing that in the excitement of activity either I put the fixer in first or the Rodinal's shot and the fixer took care of everything. It might have been over-confidence following the good results from the Tri-X or it might be the latter as my Rodinal's getting on a bit but I was told by the internet that it's supposed to last forever! :(

I feel your pain Dean. I did something similar with my one and only roll of JCH Streetpan after using a bottle of Rodinal that was clearly way past its' best and also a little less than I needed (but I figured I'd risk it..). Just console yourself that they were probably the best photographs ever taken by anyone before or since seeing as nobody can prove otherwise [emoji6]
 
My Rodinal-a-like is Adox APH-09, which is supposed to have been cooked up to a WWII-era German recipe so if any version of it is going to last, you'd expect it to be that one. The bottle states that it has an indefinite shelf life and according to an archived forum posting I uncovered, Adox used to claim that it would be good for 50 years. It's discontinued by Adox (link) because they no longer have any of the 20-year old chemicals used to make it, which implies that shelf life shouldn't be an issue.

Regardless, even if the developer is well past its due date there should be some signs of development. The film strips I pulled out earlier were completely blank, not even a small amount of fogging anywhere to indicate that the developer was doing anything. Either my dev is so defunct that it's effectively water or I messed up the order and fixed it before I devved.

I gave both bottles of made-up chems (stop & fix, fresh fix mixed today) a sniff earlier and either both smell like fixer or I'd got it on my hands. So that's inconclusive.

No matter, luckily no one was tempted into buying my bulk loader the last time I put it up for sale so I'm going to load up a couple of 6-shot rolls tomorrow, then one will get devved in HC110(B) as a control and the other will get a Rodinal stand with a fresh batch of stop and fix to ensure no cross-contamination.

Because science. o_O
 
The results are in and ... the dev's shot. :(

Made up some fresh stop and fix, the HC-110(B) control strip came out looking great, the APH-09 strip came out looking clear. At least this time I was devving a 35mm film so the leader had been exposed, which meant that an hour's semi-stand at least did something to it, turning it a very faded grey instead of the deep black you'd expect. There were one or two tiny marks on the strip but nothing else, not even in the rebates, confirming that the dev has climbed the curtain and joined the choir invisibule.

It's frustrating as I developed some 120 earlier this year without an issue; I guess that when it goes, it goes quickly. Lesson learned, though it's one I'm unlikely to repeat given that APH-09 is no longer available.

Now there's the annoying process of identifying a suitable replacement from all the R09-a-likes available. The convenience of developing various speed films in one stand process is worth it.

At least I know that my process yesterday was probably correct, that's a sort of silver (halide) lining. :tumbleweed:
 
I'm having a bit of a 'which developer' conundrum at the moment.

I have some Studional here which has been open for a couple of years and partially crystallised.

Hoping to avoid making another entry to this thread.. .

I have some Neopan 400 that's been in the drawer for a while to dev. But after that a small stock of HP5 to use up. Certainly need something with a decent shelf-life. Not sure whether HC-110 or Rodinal is my best bet...

I spent a day this week tearing the house apart for the columns which were missing for my Paterson tanks (I've only found one!) so last thing I need is to end up with blank negs...
 
I think the problem with Rodinal is knowing which one you have. Agfa apparently retained the name when they sold everything else off but they no longer make their own and there are a few different formulations under various "--inal" type names or R09 codes. I'm sure they'll all do a fairly similar job when it comes to developing, the bigger question for me is how long they'll last in the bottle. But when there are different claims made for whether your label states it's suitable for 1:40 or 1:50 dilution, it's difficult to know.
 
I found the new rodinal goes off pretty digitally. One day its fine, next its quite dead.
 
I found the new rodinal goes off pretty digitally. One day its fine, next its quite dead.
Explains my experience with the stuff, except that the APH-09 I had was supposed to be made to the old formula which lasted forever. No matter, it's not as though Rodinal is hellishly expensive, it's really just an annoyance. I'll know to clip test it first next time.

I found this in the archives of another forum, posted in 2012 by a chap who was the Dutch distributor of Rodinal at the time.

Adolux APH09 comes from Calbe and is R09. They changed the concentration of the formulae so it's also 1+25 and 1+50 now. Very confusing to Adolux and Rodinal/R09 one shot which is original (Agfa) Rodinal 1+25 and 1+50 in the regular dilution.
APH09 and Calbe R09 has a limited life span. Adolux and R09 one shot unlimited.
But after 5 years the activity is going to be slightly less when I look for the same film/batch on my densitometer.

So you're warned about above failure of APH09/R09.

The last change in Agfa Rodinal/R09 one shot was around 1992. In 2004 Agfa photo division went to Agfa Photo together with the chemical plant in Vaihingen-Enz. In 2005/2006 Agfa Photo went belly up and one year later the plant was sold to A&O. Two years later it was sold again to CCP&S the actual owner of the plant. Apart from photo chemicals they are producing pharmaceutical materials.
The packing is done by Compard in Hamburg (Germany).
It's done under a Nitrogen stream. In this way original Rodinal/R09 one shot is pretty clear.
Calbe R09/APH09 is packed without Nitrogen. It's already dark like Coke. Again: THIS version has a limited lifespan.

If you're using up he whole concentrate within two years or so, it doesn't matter what version you're using because the differences in development are rather small.

If you want to pay the smallest price: R09 Calbe / APH09 is your choice.
If you want to go for safety and an unlimited lifetime: Rodinal/R09 one shot or Adonal is the way to go. On the bottle of R09 one shot is written in small letters, made by CCP&S and it's the original Rodinal formulae.​
 
@Strappy does that deserve to go in the film devving thread where it might be easier to find later? Looks very useful...
 
It's very annoying when my young grandson (who is not interested in photography) takes a VG pano shot of a Lancaster bombing in poor light with his i-phone.....compared to me with years of experience who ends up with a crappy pano shot using flash :(
Something wide and black and fairly close probably needs floodlights or at least two flashguns with diffusers and the right lens for a two shot pano. Anyway in the future will have another go just with one flashgun and different lenses.
The problem is taking a shot of the front of the bomber where the man with the white shirt is standing

mcbCmKY.jpg
 
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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