what was the biggest MISTAKE you made, and was it really a mistake ?

DannL, I made the same mistake, when I sold my FM-2 in 2000. This mistake is going to be fixed next week, when a beautiful FM-2n is delivered to my door! APUG classifieds to the rescue!


Sent with Tapatalk. Please, forgive autocorrect and my fat fingers.

If I had not joined APUG I would still be shooting only 35mm color film with one camera instead of owning from single frame 35mm to 4"x5" cameras, lenses, a darkroom and spending time posting on APUG!

fdonadio said:

DannL, I made the same mistake, when I sold my FM-2 in 2000. This mistake is going to be fixed next week, when a beautiful FM-2n is delivered to my door! APUG classifieds to the rescue!


Sent with Tapatalk. Please, forgive autocorrect and my fat fingers.

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May the healing process begin.

Mine is too horrible & embarrassing to mention, but it involved processed & dried leica M negs I tried to remove excess photo-flo from (smoke came out of the developing tank!) Still usable w/a Componon & RC glossy, though.

I'm glad I've never done the fixer in the tank first

I forgot another interesting one- I had three rolls that needed to be developed- 2 TMAX 3200 and one Tri X-
Grabbed two rolls and threw it into my reels and tank- open the bag and noticed it was one TMAX 3200 one Tri-X - well...crap...
Luckily, when I cut the film off, I cut them both in distinct ways and I was able to feel in the dark which reel had which film on it

After unloading a roll of 120 I had shot of casual photos at a wedding reception, I went to seal the "Exposed" tape, but instead let it slip out of my hand. It unrolled in the light!

Thankfully, it was the least critical of the 8 or so rolls I shot that day.

Fix you

GarageBoy said:

I'm glad I've never done the fixer in the tank first

I forgot another interesting one- I had three rolls that needed to be developed- 2 TMAX 3200 and one Tri X-
Grabbed two rolls and threw it into my reels and tank- open the bag and noticed it was one TMAX 3200 one Tri-X - well...crap...
Luckily, when I cut the film off, I cut them both in distinct ways and I was able to feel in the dark which reel had which film on it

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Another fixer in the tank guy.....but not for 30 years and counting!

Distracted developing!!!

When I was in High School, I was talking to somebody on the phone while in the darkroom. Topic was prom night - and the pics I had taken were in the tank getting developed. Was developing the only roll of film of the prom no less... So I properly developed it, put in stop bath, then poured in what I thought was rapid fix into the tank, 3 mins later opened the tank to look at everything. Watched the film go crazy wierd... what???? it was totally solarized at that point beyond repair... Somehow I poured more developer into the tank instead of fixer. Poured fixer in... got something, half neg/half pos each frame. Never made that mistake again...

kreeger said:

Distracted developing!!!

When I was in High School, I was talking to somebody on the phone while in the darkroom. Topic was prom night - and the pics I had taken were in the tank getting developed. Was developing the only roll of film of the prom no less... So I properly developed it, put in stop bath, then poured in what I thought was rapid fix into the tank, 3 mins later opened the tank to look at everything. Watched the film go crazy wierd... what???? it was totally solarized at that point beyond repair... Somehow I poured more developer into the tank instead of fixer. Poured fixer in... got something, half neg/half pos each frame. Never made that mistake again...

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and thus a new trend was born

If your Rodinal bottle makes a rattling sound you probably shouldn't use it... I use Fomas rodinal clone that comes in a plastic bottle, and this one was opened around two years ago and only had a small amout left (and the rattling crystals in the bottom). Well, I poured some on a bit of film and it turned black fairly quickly. Good to go I thought and used it 1+25 for 12 minutes with Delta 3200 and HP5+@1600.

Weak! So weak! Even the edge markings are hardly noticeable. On the plus side (since the images are visible) it was mostly crap on the rolls.

I forgot to flip the multiple exposure switch after shooting some lighting tests with Fuji instant film and switching to my regular back. It remains the mistake I've been most pleased with.
(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

MattKing said:

After unloading a roll of 120 I had shot of casual photos at a wedding reception, I went to seal the "Exposed" tape, but instead let it slip out of my hand. It unrolled in the light!

Thankfully, it was the least critical of the 8 or so rolls I shot that day.

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Exactly THAT happened to me last week with a roll of Fuji Reala. Only four shots survived, but they were the important ones.

confusing chemicals; using fixer instead of developer. I see I'm in good company here.

and not winding on...

The same mistake, twice repeated: An avid outdoors-person, it has generally been my habit when shooting nature/landscapes (done the majority of the time on medium format), to stuff a Nikon with the AF-D 80-200mm and the 400mm in my backpack (just in case). Twice in the last year-and-a-half, when I have neglected to do so, I have missed opportunities that I will likely never have again. To wit: In April of last year while snowshoeing near Bow Summit in Banff National Park, I had an adult Lynx pass within, I would estimate, 15 metres of me. The Hasselblad, with a 100mm lens was on the Tiltall, slung across my shoulder. Worse, still, was another missed opportunity last weekend at Cavell Meadows trail in Jasper National Park. Crossing the trail within 10 metres of me was the foulest-smelling carnivore, the elusive and very nasty wolverine. He (or she, I didn't ask) paused momentarily, looked me over, and bolted. Again, the Hasselblad was at the ready, albeit with a 50mm. Letting loose with a enough cuss words to scare a priest, I promised myself there would NEVER be a third time.

Both occurred while shooting in the great outdoors. First, shooting a parade of antique cars, intent on changing rolls quickly, put my thumb right through the shutter leaves. Second, doing street photography on a hot day in New York City, sat down and, for reasons unknown, opened the camera back, and lost an entire roll of film.

The worst I did was when in 1993 I went to the mighty Neuschwainstein Castel in Bayern..... I was so happy.... and took a whole 36 frames roll of slides with my Nikon F 401s..... Unfortunately, when I went back from there, I realized that film didn't advance at all.......

Poured Kodak Indicator stock solution into a developing tank with APX 120. I thought "wow did I mix that wrong?" then realized. A black goo came out of the tank.

Biggest mistake?

Switching to digital, but luckily I didn't sell my film cameras before I came to my senses.

Similar here, paid £1100 for an M8 which seemed fine when I got it. A year later and about 800 shots ( I don't shoot any differently with film ) I sent it up to Ffordes only to find it had by then 4 dead pixels. ISTR they sold it for £800 so I got back about £640. Digital rot is properly painful.

Sticking to the Leica theme I have a small regret with spanking to much money and buying to many lenses and kit prior to trying medium format, I think that was a definite mistake I should have tried to get on with MF first before expanding on my M6 and one or two lenses.

My guess would be cleaning tea toner muck from dev trays with bleach(sodium hypochlorite). And not long after using the same tray to bleach a cyanotype with ammonia. I guess some bleach was left behind. For the next minute or so i contemplated why this ammonia smelled so nice. As far as i know ammonia and bleach make chloramine and hydrazine. Not a healthy mix to breath in. Light headed and all i ran out of the bathroom for air and came back later to carefully ventilate it out.

Anyway. Once and never again

Having had shot several hundred feet of legacy pro in bulk, i bought a hundred feet of hp5. Opened the box and took out the thing out of black plastic bag in light, and immediately realized that unlike legacy pro, hp5 bulk film does not come in a metal tin. Put it back in the bag right away. It turned out that only the first two rolls were exposed, ant the rest were just fine.

Not my mistake, but years ago I was part of a small group that had a very unusual opportunity; a tour of Canterbury Cathedral given by the (then) current architect with access to all areas, including the ceiling (walking on top of the ceiling, it's several feet thick), the towers and the high ledges. The high ledges were narrow and required walking while hanging onto a shoulder height safety wire with a stained glass window to one side and a big drop to the other. At one point we were told we'd reached the area from which William of Sens had fallen in 1178 or 1179 almost dying, becoming paralyzed.

Three of us had this unusual opportunity. We all took the "best" cameras we had available, this was in 1994. One of our group reckoned herself a frustrated artist and spent a considerable period of time mulling over each exposure, discussing the best viewpoints with the architect. She wasn't sure how to load her husband's SLR so only had 36 exposures with which she could give form to her creative vision of the cathedral.

Very unfortunately her husband had forgotten to load film in the camera. She realized this after the tour had ended. Her previously urbane conversation gave way to a stream of invective against her husband that made me fear for the man's safety that evening. I think the moral of the story is not to take unfamiliar equipment on an important job. I gave her copies of my photos, as did the other member of the group.

thinking I could make a living as an artist!, Yes it WAS REALY a mistake!!!!!

Back in the days of living in the darkroom most of the time I got over confident one day and after I went through the familiar developer, stop bath, fix, hypo clearing, wash, etc., I was in total shock as I pulled the negatives from the reel to find nothing but clear film!! Zilch, nothing. I went back and smelled every container I used and the graduate I "thought" had developer in it smelled more like fixer. Yep, it'll do it every time. Fortunately, it was nothing important. I just cussed about two hours off and on.

I see from post #8 I'm not the only one that's done this.

ColColt said:

Back in the days of living in the darkroom most of the time I got over confident one day and after I went through the familiar developer, stop bath, fix, hypo clearing, wash, etc., I was in total shock as I pulled the negatives from the reel to find nothing but clear film!! Zilch, nothing. I went back and smelled every container I used and the graduate I "thought" had developer in it smelled more like fixer. Yep, it'll do it every time. Fortunately, it was nothing important. I just cussed about two hours off and on.

I see from post #8 I'm not the only one that's done this.

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Indeedy.....