Trouble rewinding film

Hawkguy · Mar 23, 2019

Hi, I’m trying to rewind the film on my Yashica Electro 35, but there is a lot of resistance and crackling sounds. I don’t want to break the film...what should I do?

shutterfinger · Mar 23, 2019

I assume/hope you have fully depressed the rewind button on the bottom of the camera. The button should be flush with the bottom of the recess around it, it may go past the lip of the bottom plate slightly. The crackling sound is the film tearing. Continuing to try to rewind without the takeup released may damage the winding. If the film will not release by the rewind button then remove the botom plate and manually operate the release lever/button so that the film rewinds correctly.

Theo Sulphate · Mar 23, 2019

Once you get the film rewound, inspect the interior of the camera (film chamber) for chips or other fragments of film. You don't want film fragments falling into the mechanism.

glbeas · Mar 23, 2019

Also helps to be sure you are rewinding in the right direction.

Luckless · Mar 23, 2019

How friendly are Yashica Electro 35s to being opened in a darkroom and having the film manually pulled and respooled?

[It is something that sits high on my list of go-to options if I suspect an issue with film feeding on any rolls with frames I'm keen to save, but I also mainly use medium format cameras, which are more likely to have easy extraction methods than some 35mm cameras I would imagine.]

John Koehrer · Mar 23, 2019

If the sprocket holes aren't torn out it should be no problem.

AgX · Mar 24, 2019

If nothing works, the camera should be brought into a complely dark room, the back door opened, the cassette taken out and by this the film perforation taken off the sprocket wheels. Now the film can be rolled off the take-up spool by twisting that spool at one of its flanges. It should turn against the resistance of a friction brake.
Alternatively after cutting off the cassette the film could be threaded out around the take-up spool.

Peltigera · Mar 24, 2019

shutterfinger said:
I assume/hope you have fully depressed the rewind button on the bottom of the camera. The button should be flush with the bottom of the recess around it, it may go past the lip of the bottom plate slightly.

And keep the button depressed while you rewind (OK, I do not know this particular camera but keeping the button depressed is usual).

guangong · Mar 24, 2019

My Rule#1. Never force anything! If no darkroom or changing bag handy, go under bed covers and remove film. Then load with an old test roll and see what happens after examining interiors of camera.

RalphLambrecht · Mar 24, 2019

Hawkguy said:
Hi, I’m trying to rewind the film on my Yashica Electro 35, but there is a lot of resistance and crackling sounds. I don’t want to break the film...what should I do?

easy does it.best would be to open camera in darkroom and take out film by hand.Go to a local lab to have that done.

Trouble rewinding film

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