The film roll I bought said it was 24 exposures, camera let me take 36?

[Sirius Glass]

I'm not entirely sure what happened. Only the last exposure was overexposed. I'm using a Minolta X-700 and it continued to advance after the final (24th exposure) and kept advancing until it reached 36. I'm not sure why or what to do to make sure this doesn't happen next time. Should I stop at 24 and then rewind or would that damage the film? (Clearly I'm a beginner ahah..)

See post #14 on how to handle this in the future.

Keep going until the film ends, but turn the rewind crank until snug. When the film is advanced the rewind crank should move, if not the film broke and you will need to take the film out in a changing bag. Of course if the tongue of the film was not properly inserted in the take up spool will produce the resulting rewind crank not moving.

 

[MattKing]

Turns out the roll wasn't blank, but the last shot was way overexposed! Thanks for all the feedback!

I expect that the last shot had multiple double exposures on it - essentially your last 13 shots, all on top of each other.

That tells me that the winding mechanism started slipping when you got to the end of the roll, rather than just stopping you from winding further.

That doesn't bode well for future rolls.

 

[Arctic amateur]

I prefer to advance the film one frame with the back open, to be absolutely sure it's securely on the take-up spool. I'd rather lose the "extra" frame in the leader than lose many pictures because of a film that slipped off the spool - again.

 

[film_man]

I'm not entirely sure what happened. Only the last exposure was overexposed. I'm using a Minolta X-700 and it continued to advance after the final (24th exposure) and kept advancing until it reached 36. I'm not sure why or what to do to make sure this doesn't happen next time. Should I stop at 24 and then rewind or would that damage the film? (Clearly I'm a beginner ahah..)

You can rewind at any time you want. In fact you can rewind at, say, frame 10, then load the film again later, put the lens cap on and shoot at max shutter speed/aperture (eg 1/4000 and f/22) till you get to frame 10 and then continue normally.

As for that roll, if the camera does not stop winding when the film ends then that is an issue with the camera and needs to be looked at. Did you notice any bits of film in the chamber by any chance? If so use a blower to clean everything. I had an issue recently with some small bits of film interfering with the winding mechanism on my R8 (I assume they got in between the sprockets and the film), the film would not advance but it was immediately obvious as the winding action was very rough.

 

[zanxion72]

It could be that the end of the film came off the spool. Open the camera in the dark and check if the film is still running through. I suspect that it has all gotten rolled up to the take up spool in the camera.

 

[Xmas]

I've learned (but don't always comply) to pay attention to the counter and NOT advance until it won't let me anymore.
My Realist 45 appears to have a very robust advance mechanism, which tore the sprockets at the end of the roll once. I took a lot of pictures before questioning whether something was wrong.[/QUOTE

I try to keep the counter in my head to stop at 36 exposures.

It depends on the film and camera you can get torn sprockets holes on filmor film coming off the reel or damaged camera (with PET film).

If you tear the film you need to get all the bits out of the camera, before you load the next one.

 

[wiltw]

On a 135 format camera the way to ensure the film is advancing is to use the rewind knob to remove all the loose slack after attaching the end tab to the take-up spool and after closing the back. When you advance the film the rewind knob should turn backwards indicating the film is moving forwards. If the rewind knob turns backwards during all three advances to "1" then you should be good to go. You'll have to keep light tension on the rewind knob during this process. Otherwise, the tension of the film will loosen and the knob may not turn when you advance to frame #1.

This ...MUST be done for every roll, to discover SOON that you goofed in loading the camera!

 

[Sirius Glass]

It could be that the end of the film came off the spool. Open the camera in the dark and check if the film is still running through. I suspect that it has all gotten rolled up to the take up spool in the camera.

If one really want to be sure, open the back after taking each shot and watch the film advance.

 

[Wallendo]

I expect that the last shot had multiple double exposures on it - essentially your last 13 shots, all on top of each other.

That tells me that the winding mechanism started slipping when you got to the end of the roll, rather than just stopping you from winding further.

That doesn't bode well for future rolls.

I have had this happen once with a Minolta Uniomat, which has a robust winding mechanism. Although the problem in that case was that I had loaded a 24 exposure roll but thought I had loaded a 36 exposure roll. In retrospect, however, I do remember a little more resistance in advancing the film past frame 25. In my case, I could see where the sprocket holes had torn near the end

 

[Sirius Glass]

I have had this happen once with a Minolta Uniomat, which has a robust winding mechanism. Although the problem in that case was that I had loaded a 24 exposure roll but thought I had loaded a 36 exposure roll. In retrospect, however, I do remember a little more resistance in advancing the film past frame 25. In my case, I could see where the sprocket holes had torn near the end

Been there. Done that.