I wonder if they know that film is light sensitive?

Craig · Nov 23, 2007

E bay item # 330189345301

I don't think I'd be buying film from someone that has opened the box to photgraph it!

Sirius Glass · Nov 23, 2007

Craig,

Maybe they think that they are supposed to open unexposed film to check on its condition. How else would they know that it has fine grain structure? :rolleyes:

Steve

PatTrent · Nov 23, 2007

Actually, the item description states that it comes in two sealed foil packs, so those exposed sheets and opened box are presumably just for newbies who have never seen sheet film before. But, yeah, that photo does get your attention.

jim appleyard · Nov 23, 2007

Ya don't never know! When you work in a camera store, you see it all. I had a customer come in one day, open the back of the camera, 35mm, with all the film on the take-up spool and tell me he wanted to get in developed!

fhovie · Nov 23, 2007

I noticed it was for 48 sheets - maybe those are the sheets he didn't pull out of the package.

Photo Engineer · Nov 23, 2007

The Kodak board of directors includes many top people from other companies who sit on it. During one meeting, they were passing around samples of a new film in new trade dress, and one of the new board members popped the seal on the 120 roll and pulled it out onto the table and said, "Oh, how nice and smooth". There was dead silence. Then the member said "Oh, did I do something to hurt it?"

They explained 'film' to the new member. Then they passed out the prints that were part of the demo!

PE

MP_Wayne · Nov 23, 2007

I hate to state the obvious, but they obviously opened it to demonstrate that it was "silver" coated, not lead-coated like many other products. Based on that, this film is obviously safe for use by children too. Sorry, I could not resist. ;-)

Sirius Glass · Nov 23, 2007

MP_Wayne said:
I hate to state the obvious, but they obviously opened it to demonstrate that it was "silver" coated, not lead-coated like many other products. Based on that, this film is obviously safe for use by children too. Sorry, I could not resist. ;-)

So this is a product that I can sink my teeth into?

Steve

MP_Wayne · Nov 23, 2007

Sirius Glass said:
So this is a product that I can sink my teeth into? Steve

Probably - as long as it does not have Malachite Green like the frozen shrimp from that region. ;-)

Stephen Frizza · Nov 23, 2007

ive had my fair share of shocks I once had a woman come in with a plastic bag and inside was a few rolls of undeveloped 35mm film. the film was not in canisters just loose in the bag.
when she asked me to develop it I had to ask innocently why? if you would like some blank film I have some i can just give you now? and she didn't understand so in confusion i quickly sorted out that something was amiss she didn't seem to understand her film was blank. so I had to explain that her film was blank and she was asking why why why? and getting upset. well I had to explain to her that you must not take the film out of the canisters it winds back into. that it was very hard for her to get the film out of those canisters for a reason! they are only meant to come out in a darkroom by a trained lab professional.

well she was very upset that her film was ruined and I was very shocked to discover a grown woman could think after taking a few rolls of film and shooting on them that she should pry them out of the canisters to bring to a lab.

jim appleyard · Nov 23, 2007

Stephen Frizza said:
ive had my fair share of shocks I once had a woman come in with a plastic bag and inside was a few rolls of undeveloped 35mm film. the film was not in canisters just loose in the bag.
when she asked me to develop it I had to ask innocently why? if you would like some blank film I have some i can just give you now? and she didn't understand so in confusion i quickly sorted out that something was amiss she didn't seem to understand her film was blank. so I had to explain that her film was blank and she was asking why why why? and getting upset. well I had to explain to her that you must not take the film out of the canisters it winds back into. that it was very hard for her to get the film out of those canisters for a reason! they are only meant to come out in a darkroom by a trained lab professional.

well she was very upset that her film was ruined and I was very shocked to discover a grown woman could think after taking a few rolls of film and shooting on them that she should pry them out of the canisters to bring to a lab.

Am I missing something here? If this woman had pulled all the film out of the canisters, then they would be exposed and then deveoped into black negs, not blank. Blank would mean that they never saw any light.

Is black what you meant to say and we just have a language barrier here?

Craig · Nov 23, 2007

Slide film would be clear if exposed to light and developed. I think he means blank in the sense that there would be no useable images on the film.

Stephen Frizza · Nov 24, 2007

weather its e-6, c-41 or black and white total exposure of that nature for that time period ain't going to leave you with an image so either total or nil exposure blank is blank as blank can be.

Removed Account · Nov 24, 2007

Stephen Frizza said:
ive had my fair share of shocks I once had a woman come in with a plastic bag and inside was a few rolls of undeveloped 35mm film. the film was not in canisters just loose in the bag.
when she asked me to develop it I had to ask innocently why? if you would like some blank film I have some i can just give you now? and she didn't understand....

SOme of my customers have a problem understanding aspect ratio. Unfortunately, when they take pictures with their 3:4 sensor digicam, get 4x6 prints done, and ask, "Why are the feet cut off?" I am not allowed to answer, "Because we thought you'd like us to cut their feet off instead of their heads."

- Justin

Mark Antony · Nov 24, 2007

Yes my favourite lab experience is when I was handed a roll of film and dropped it on the counter. The woman shouted it's ruined now, they'll all be blurred. Nonsense I said you can't blur a film by shaking or dropping it.
She came back an hour later and sure enough they were mostly blurred.
I had a hell of a time explaining it was the 1/15 shutter speed rather than 'film shake'
Mark

http://photo-utopia.blogspot.com/

Tom Kershaw · Nov 24, 2007

By what means did the processing person think you could blur a film by dropping it?

Tom.

Mark Antony · Nov 24, 2007

I was the processing person as I owned the Lab, she was the customer.
Her argument was that as they hadn't been fixed yet they were still movable. She was slightly how can we say – 'eccentric'
So to her mind shaking a film could move the pictures around and blur them, when in reality she had her MTL3 set on 1/15.
People think the strangest things Tom.
Mark

PS you probably knew my Lab Coe Photo in Mountergate Norwich, I won't mention any names as if you live in South Norfolk, then you may know the Lady ;-)

Pete H · Nov 24, 2007

Does it work with prints too? I'll try dropping the paper next time I'm in the darkroom and want some motion blur ...

Michael W · Nov 24, 2007

I once had a student give me this explanation as to why his assignment hadn't been done. He was shooting at a pop concert in Parramatta Park (Sydney), general crowd shots. A woman came up behind him from the other direction & told him that she was a witch & didn't permit her image to be captured for some magical reasons. She was accompanied by some heavy biker type. My student protested that he had been shooting in the opposite direction & that she wouldn't appear in any of his photos, but she insisted that he had done something wrong. There was a bit of argument but eventually he was intimidated into opening the back of his camera & letting them see that he had ruined the roll of film. This was an adult guy telling the story, not some kid making up an excuse. It wasn't a compulsory assignment & I doubt many people would be able to invent such a wild tale so I believed him.

Stephen Frizza · Nov 24, 2007

ive had the film shake experience myself, where the hell do people come up with such outrageous ideas that dropping a canister of film will blur its contents???

Stephen Frizza · Nov 24, 2007

actually similar an associate of mine dropped a canister of 35mm once in front of the client before processing and when the film was processed it turned out that the film had not advanced and all frames were shot at the first frame position #1 the client then said it was the labs fault for the staff memeber who dropped it the drop caused the frames to all fall to frame #1......

fhovie · Nov 24, 2007

so thats what happened! another mystery solved lol

gainer · Nov 24, 2007

I heard about a photographer instructor who came upon two of his new students with an open box of 4x5 film between them. One was going "One for you, one for me..." When the instructor told them they had ruined the film, they said "No we haven't. It hasn't been in the camera yet."

JBrunner · Nov 24, 2007

jim appleyard said:
Am I missing something here? If this woman had pulled all the film out of the canisters, then they would be exposed and then deveoped into black negs, not blank. Blank would mean that they never saw any light.

Is black what you meant to say and we just have a language barrier here?

True, but printing a totally exposed neg produces a blank sheet of paper.

I had somebody send a roll of motion picture film that I shot to a telecine, without processing it. Reportedly the person who opened the can was fairly traumatized. We use black tape on the cans to indicate exposed film, but it wasn't noticed.

b1bmsgt · Nov 25, 2007

where the hell do people come up with such outrageous ideas that dropping a canister of film will blur its contents???

It helps if you remember that the human race is basically a bunch of $#@%$# idiots.

(C'mon, you all know I'm right...)

Russ

I wonder if they know that film is light sensitive?

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