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

[laylaj12]

I shot my first roll of film today and am not sure why this is? I was told that it could have been because I forced the advance lever but I never did this and when I rewound the film, it rewound perfectly and without a problem.

 

[frank]

Did the film advance stop at 36 or did you stop because the counter said 36?

If the latter, then the film didn't advance at all due to improper loading. Good news is that the film hasn't been used and you can try again. Happens to most of us. Keep your eye on the rewind knob as you advance the film. It should rotate.

 

[pentaxuser]

Wait until you have the film developed and see if there is 24 or 36 frames. It is not impossible for the manufacturer to load a 36 into a 24 I suppose. The cassettes are the same size but I think the odds against this kind of a mistake are very high

I take it you have opened the camera after rewinding to be able to say it has rewound perfectly. As the film didn't break and has rewound without damage I can only assume that after 24 frames the film slipped off the sprockets and was not being wound on.

pentaxuser

 

[removed account4]

i once loaded up a roll of 24 exposure film into a half frame camera i have ( this happened last year )
i was prepared for 48 exposures ... i was happy .
well it went beyond 72 and kept going and eventually i went into the darkroom
and opened it, ,, the film wasn't even on the take up spool.

happens to us all

don't forget to have fun
john

 

[railwayman3]

My guess is that the film slipped off the take-up spool and was not advanced at all ; it would then appear to rewind with no problem. You'll know if the processed film is blank (as said above, we've all done it. )

You'd have to have been quite brutal in winding-on to tear sprockets, and obviously you didn't tear the film itself, or pull it from the feed cassette.

 

[pentaxuser]

frank makes an excellent point. If the film never caught on the take-up spool then you should have felt very little resistance on the rewind and it should have been very short. Did you notice either or both effects on the rewind?

pentaxuser

 

[Old-N-Feeble]

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.

 

[laylaj12]

Thank you all for the help! I suppose I'll see if it's blank when I go to get it developed tomorrow!

 

[Patrick Robert James]

At least you didn't shoot for a couple hours before realizing you haven't changed film for a long time.... I did that once on Mount Tamalpais in the morning fog. I must have shot over a hundred pictures then realized I was using a film camera. I blamed my becoming accustomed to shooting digital for that one. Still stung though since it was incredibly beautiful. On the upside, I learned my lesson. Haven't done it in the decade since, although I admit to being a bit paranoid about it now.

Happens to everyone eventually.

 

[Truzi]

I once bumped the double-exposure lever on my Bronica GS-1 while taking it out of the bag. The camera was still new to me, so I didn't think to check. Took me a while to figure out each of the three backs should have been out of film several shots earlier. Fortunately, there was no leader-extraction to deal with when I figured it out.

 

[Dennis S]

Mistake made by all of us at a certain time in our lives. After that I always shoot a couple of lame shots to make sure the rewind turns properly. Those who say they didn't are not being truthful. ;o)

 

[trythis]

I had the same thing happen, but it had been reloaded with a different film and they hadn't relabeled it. I am developing it tomorrow and I have no idea what film it was. Interesting.

 

[Theo Sulphate]

Mistake made by all of us at a certain time in our lives. After that I always shoot a couple of lame shots to make sure the rewind turns properly. Those who say they didn't are not being truthful. ;o)

Haha - I'm not lying when I say I've never made that particular mistake - but I've done much worse: I would always leave the leader out after rewinding... so, once after a 300 mile trip, I reached into my bag and reloaded a previously exposed roll -- thereby ruining both the first and second series of 36 exposures and also having a completely blank roll.

 

[Sirius Glass]

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.

 

[Dennis S]

Haha - I'm not lying when I say I've never made that particular mistake - but I've done much worse: I would always leave the leader out after rewinding... so, once after a 300 mile trip, I reached into my bag and reloaded a previously exposed roll -- thereby ruining both the first and second series of 36 exposures and also having a completely blank roll.

That will be another of my mistakes. This was done very recently. Double exposure on some nice weather when I was dock side of the Canadian Place DT Vancouver. Had some really good shots of boats, that got mixed with people and a helicopter. I even scanned it hoping for a fluke exposure. NOTHING... Useless 36 shots.(actually 72 now I think about it) I usually always reroll them completely except for this one....

 

[MattKing]

That will be another of my mistakes. This was done very recently. Double exposure on some nice weather when I was dock side of the Canadian Plaza DT Vancouver. Had some really good shots of boats, that got mixed with people and a helicopter. Useless 36 shots. I usually always reroll them completely except for this one....

A friend of mine did this with a roll where the first set of shots were taken at a friend's wedding, and the second were taken at an aquariom.

The resulting wedding shots had fish swimming in and around the happy couple.

 

[Xmas]

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.

No the way to load 135 film is to take up the slack before closing back (or attaching baseplate) by first pinning the film to guide rails or sprocket shaft with thumb or little finger then taking up slack.
If you have a M4 or post M4 (film) Leica M then you also need to ignore the diagram on the baseplate and RTM.
I could tell M users from memory, but RTM is more credible, and is free to down load.

You can waste a lotta shots, if you ignore this advice.

Noel

 

[frank]

A friend of mine did this with a roll where the first set of shots were taken at a friend's wedding, and the second were taken at an aquariom.

The resulting wedding shots had fish swimming in and around the happy couple.

Now that's art!

 

[tokam]

If you leave the leader out after rewinding, put a couple of sharp folds in the leader of the exposed film before placing the cassette back in your bag.

Then you won't accidentally attempt to reload this film cassette into your camera a second time.

 

[laylaj12]

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

 

[Marvin]

There was no information on what camera they used, but my N80 and N75 give a warning if the film is not advancing properly. On older cameras the advice on watching the rewind knob is good. The two cameras that I indicated you just have to pull the film over to the mark and close the back. The N75 winds the film forward and rewinds back into the cassette as you take pictures. My Minolta X700 you have to thread it to the take up spool then advance. The newer cameras have windows so you can see that there is film in the camera. I too have made the mistake of thinking I had film in the camera when I didn't. Older Minolta SR-T101 didn't have that window so watch that rewind knob. Another mistake of old was forgetting to set the ISO dial and exposing at the wrong film speed. I think that the Nikon N80 was one of the best medium priced film cameras made. It had auto wind, and rewind, a great Matrix exposure system. The N75 was also a good camera but didn't have manual ISO only DX.

 

[pentaxuser]

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

I am curious I think you are saying that all the frames were exposed but was it a 24 or 36 frame film? If it was a 24 frame film then do you know what happened after frame 24 to the frame counter to give you an apparent 36 frames?

pentaxuser

 

[Prest_400]

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

So, the film slipped and all the exposures went into a single frame?

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.

Will try next time. With films being pricey, an extra shots are welcome.
Usually I thread, wind once, and close the back. I never just leave the leader threaded and close the back, as I have a fear of it slipping. I waste a couple of those "extra" frames at the beginning but at least it's tight and winding as it should.

 

[laylaj12]

So, the film slipped and all the exposures went into a single frame?

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..)

 

[Truzi]

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.