Fuji Press 800

[cyanshine]

Greetings!

I made a (to me) baffling experience recently. I discovered a Fuji Press 800 roll which had expired for several years (I found only the roll, so I don't know how long it was beyond expiry) and decided to shoot it for some street photography. It was a really overcast, dark day and since expired high speed films quickly lose speed I shot it as ISO 400. However, when I got the roll back from the lab it was blank! Do such high speed films have such a narrow exposure latitude that overexposure by one stop burns them? Or is it a lab error? The markings on the side were ok... Thanks for your advice

 

[Erik Petersson]

I have exposed fuji 800 negative films that were a few years old. They always turned out reddish. I think that a totally blank film probably will probably be the cause of some mechanical problem with the camera. Or with the developing. Does the film have markings at the edge of the negatives?

 

[pentaxuser]

If the markings on the side of the film were OK this indicates that processing was OK. If the whole film is blank then it has never been exposed so the film was never wound through the camera. Was it a manual rewind? If so then when rewinding the tension should have ceased on the rewind handle very quickly as it was only rewinding a very small length. What do you recall about the rewind?

If it was an auto rewind then you might have noticed that the rewind time was very short? Do either of these two things I have mentioned ring any bells when you try and recall the rewind procedure?

pentaxuser

 

[hrst]

It is a camera error (wrong loading or shutter not working etc.) No question about it.

 

[cyanshine]

Thanks a lot for your replies! Unfortunately I do not recall anything weird about the manual rewind. I shot another 12 rolls that week (Elitechromes) and they all turned out fine. However, the fact I do not recall anything doesn't mean much, so I guess it's my fault in the end... Thanks a lot

 

[fschifano]

Yes, but look at the negatives. Are there any markings along the edges of the film? If they are present, then the processing was ok, and there was a mechanical problem somewhere along the way. If other films came out fine, it is quite likely that the camera was loaded incorrectly. If however there are no edge markings, something went seriously wrong during processing. I find it difficult to accept that even grossly outdated film would produce no image at all. The speed may be gone, the color balance all shot to hell, but there will be something there.