Lost film, maybe.

[Mike Kennedy]

I shot a bunch of film during our local Blues Festival.Night work using pushed tri-x and P3200 pulled to 1600. I am missing one roll, and there lays my dilemma.
There are 2 rolls of film in my fridge with their leaders pulled into the cassette which could mean 1 of 2 things. #1.An exposed roll of film. #2.Film that had been rewound without being exposed.
Can I do any sort of test (like a clip test) to see if the film has been shot? It might sound penny pinching but I have neither the time nor the money to waste.

Thanks,
Mike

 

[timeUnit]

I appreciate that time is money and film is not to be wasted, but in this case I think you should just go ahead and develop both films. IMO there is no choice if you want to know if you did lose that roll.

 

[knutb]

I'm not aware of any non-destructive tests... But if you are prepared to sacrifice the first couple of images on the suspect roll, you could always cut the film where you expect frame #1 or #2 to be. Should be fairly easy if you use a developed (but not cut) film as reference. According to Murphy you will of course split a frame when cutting.... For a very Q&D test just put a little piece of film (not the leader, as it is already exposed) in a little cup with developer, and develop for a few minutes. If the film is exposed you will see it when the lights come on. You might save some money, but not much time...

 

[Mike Kennedy]

Heres the solution.

Thought I should post this in case anyone else has run into the same problem.
The chap who runs the last true camera shop in town,and has 30+ years of experience developing B&W film told me to cut a few inches past the leader and develop it along with my next roll of film. I just finished souping a roll of Tri-x and the added bit of film came out cleat,ergo,it had not been shot.
Mike

 

[timeUnit]

The question arises: why was the film leader retracted?

 

[Mike Kennedy]

x

My own stupid mistake. Most likely I had it loaded into one of my auto-rewind cameras and changed my mind about shooting it. The camera would have pulled the leader into the cassette and I forgot to extracxt it.
Lesson learned.

Mike