Camera door opened--what would you do.

[Jeffrey A. Steinberg]

So I just spent the afternoon with my OM-3Ti and it the rewind on the motor drive and it finished after a few seconds. I then manually checked and their seemed to be no resistance.....I opened the back and quickly closed it realizing the film wasn't in the canister.

My question: I know I lost the "horizontal" film but most of it was on the take up spool. Is it wound tight enough to keep it light tight or not?

I guess I could always just develop it but was curious about the answer.

--Jeffrey

 

[JBrunner]

So I just spent the afternoon with my OM-3Ti and it the rewind on the motor drive and it finished after a few seconds. I then manually checked and their seemed to be no resistance.....I opened the back and quickly closed it realizing the film wasn't in the canister.

My question: I know I lost the "horizontal" film but most of it was on the take up spool. Is it wound tight enough to keep it light tight or not?

I guess I could always just develop it but was curious about the answer.

--Jeffrey

The short answer is develop it. The variables are vast- how fast the film is, how opaque the backing of that particular emulsion is, how much light hit it, and from what angle, how tightly that particular camera winds, etc. I suspect that if most of the roll was wound, you may have some salvagable frames. Often, it's not as bad as you think.

 

[bdial]

You will likely lose the outward facing portion of the first 3 or 4 layers, and will probably have some edge fogging farther in. Assuming a fully used 36 exp roll, 1 - 30 or so will probably be ok, as a guess. If the take-up spool doesn't completely cover the edges, then the edge fogging will be a little worse.
But, as Jason says, you might as well process it, you can always claim the light streaks are artistic intention.

 

[DarkroomExperimente]

definitely develop it...

it's happened to me and I got usable shots....some images needed to be cropped to eliminate fogged areas, but ya never know how lucky you are until you try

 

[jovo]

The dumbest thing I ever did was to rip the film out of the camera and throw it away after I did what you did. Ever since I've just hoped for the best, and developed it anyway.....not that I do such things very often..:rolleyes: There has never been a totally useless roll as a result.

 

[23mjm]

Yep the only thing to do---DEVELOPE it!!! been there done that---all was not lost!!!

 

[PhotoJim]

I did that once. 12-exposure roll too. 10 images were usable, and at least six had no visible evidence of damage.

 

[Jeffrey A. Steinberg]

Thanks, guys. Its what I thought.

 

[photobackpacker]

The late Dean Collins told of being in school in Europe and being on a photography field trip. He opened the back of his camera and upon seeing the un-rewound film, hastily slammed it shut again. His German professor happened to be standing beside him and, with a deep accent, said: "It isn't the shutter speed, Mr Collins - It's the aperature."

You will normally be able to salvage the pictures on the start of the roll.