Possibly loaded 120 incorrectly

MattKing said:

Is there any chance that the film he loaded had already been exposed?

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That wouldn't show the start marks; nor would it cause the film to wind inside out unless the spool was inserted only by text upside down or right side up. Further, the film would almost certainly jam because the tail end isn't attached to the backing -- the film would fail to make the first sharp turn from the supply spool to the gate.

MattKing said:

Is there any chance that the film he loaded had already been exposed?

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Ah, no chance at all.. Had given him a roll straight from the box

stephsleeps said:

Hi, yes the black part/film emulsion side was facing towards the lens. Or so it seemed ??

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If the black part which is the inside of the backing paper was facing the lens, the other side of the backing paper with the frame numbers and usually a light grey colour is against the pressure plate so then yes you are right the emulsion when it appears has to be in front of the backing paper so the emulsion will have been exposed and there will certainly be exposed negatives there to be developed

If you are absolutely positive that this was correct then once the roll is tightly wound there shouldn't be a problem in terms of processing Just get it developed and on the next roll let him load as he thinks is right but watch everything he does. At the point what happened this time should become clear and corrective action can be taken

pentaxuser

FWIW, I save some rolls of backing paper after developing the film inside. (I know this verges on hoarding, but so what.) I then use this paper when I need to practice loading and winding cameras. This helps especially when switching between "normal" loading and reverse-curl loading like in a Mamiya 645 insert or Graflex / RB67 back. It's also useful for cameras/backs that have a complex start sequence requiring film counters to be initialized.

pentaxuser said:

If the black part which is the inside of the backing paper was facing the lens, the other side of the backing paper with the frame numbers and usually a light grey colour is against the pressure plate so then yes you are right the emulsion when it appears has to be in front of the backing paper so the emulsion will have been exposed and there will certainly be exposed negatives there

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Yes- this is why I’m in such confusion. Because I don’t understand how on earth the black side ended up being on the outside, when the film was finished.

Sounds like the spool was loaded with the ends swapped the wrong way around. It's likely the film is still unexposed (but scratched), though-- attempting to duplicate this in my Bronica (I also keep a spare spool of backing paper for testing), as the film unspooled, the backing was facing the lens, and the film would have been dragged across the pressure plate.