When was the last time you screwed up ...

[TheGreatGasMaskMan]

Next time slowly pour the powder in warm water. Small amounts of the powder at a time. And carefully follow the instructions. That will assure not putting powder in the air and will assure the powder completely mixes.

Sounds good- Kodak's instructions aren't very thorough.
Also, I did see a hair as I was mixing it as well.

 

[MattKing]

If it is one of those plastic envelopes, cut off the corner and then put the opened corner right into the water and start pouring from there. You can use the water to rinse out the envelope itself.
Best to wear gloves and to rinse off the outside of the envelope first.

 

[Ariston]

I just bulk loaded a roll backwards. Luckily it was easy to fix. I just started the leader on another empty cannister and went into the bathroom and cranked it onto the new cannister.

 

[Pentode]

Yesterday I mis-loaded a roll of 120 onto a Kindermann reel (haven't done that in a while!) and ruined one frame. Then, while I was cleaning up, I broke a 1000mL beaker. Bad day in the darkroom.

 

[pbromaghin]

Double-stacked 120 rolls on a plastic reel, but somehow didn't get the first one in all the way to the center and put the 2nd roll right on top. Completely ruined the first roll.

 

[etn]

Guess what I just did?
so I'm out with my new mamiya c220, and decide to take off my sweatshirt because it's warming up.in the process of doing this I manage to twang off my 55mm lens that's worth as much as the camera itself and it lands in a puddle. now I have to figure out how to clear some water residue out of the inside elements of the lens.

Oh man, almost exactly like I did... I had my Nikon with the 50 1.4 wrapped in a sweater in my backpack. I was feeling cold and wanted to take the sweater out, completely forgot about the camera. It fell on the lens from a height of about 50cm (the backpack was fortunately on the floor). The camera was fine but the lens...

The UV filter cannot be unscrewed from the lens. Some of the filter glass landed on the front lens (which otherwise looks fine). I am still debating having it repaired or finding a "new second-hand" one during my next trip to Tokyo... those 50 1.4 AF-D go for relatively reasonable prices.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Get a filter wrench set to remove the filter and ring. OR rubber gloves OR wide rubber band

 

[StepheKoontz]

Opened up the back on a camera today to load some film in it, there was already a roll in it with about 4-5 frames shot. lol

 

[TheGreatGasMaskMan]

Oh man, almost exactly like I did... I had my Nikon with the 50 1.4 wrapped in a sweater in my backpack. I was feeling cold and wanted to take the sweater out, completely forgot about the camera. It fell on the lens from a height of about 50cm (the backpack was fortunately on the floor). The camera was fine but the lens...

View attachment 226484

The UV filter cannot be unscrewed from the lens. Some of the filter glass landed on the front lens (which otherwise looks fine). I am still debating having it repaired or finding a "new second-hand" one during my next trip to Tokyo... those 50 1.4 AF-D go for relatively reasonable prices.

Yea, that's definitely more damage and I'd have been devastated if that happened to my lens in question.

 

[etn]

Get a filter wrench set to remove the filter and ring. OR rubber gloves OR wide rubber band

Thanks, will try this. I already tried rubber gloves. The thing is, this autofocus lens does not offer a good grip except on the focus ring, and I fear I'll damage the AF mechanism if I apply too much force. Hmm, not much to lose I guess. The lens is unusable in its current state anyway!

 

[removed account4]

I just tried mixing my own powder developer for the first time and I'm afraid I got dust particles in it because I didn't put my mixer in a bag.
We'll see what happens next.

the trick is to have the chemicals barely above the water, and to wear a vapor mask
its not the dust in the room you want to avoid, its the chemical dust you might breath in.
i figure with your handle you have a mask

 

[TheGreatGasMaskMan]

the trick is to have the chemicals barely above the water, and to wear a vapor mask
its not the dust in the room you want to avoid, its the chemical dust you might breath in.
i figure with your handle you have a mask

no filter though.

 

[HowieP]

If I had a dollar for each time I forgot to change the enlarger switch from Focus to Time and couldn't figure why the time wasn't moving....

 

[TheGreatGasMaskMan]

OK- at home dev story time
First round- last weekish
Roll 1- Kono! Rekorder- 8:10 min per recommendation, super thin/ some parts no image
Roll 2- sfx 200 35mm- the only success
roll 3- lpd4 (FPP recan) 10 min, super overdone.
Roll 4- fp4 120
Could not get the roll on my reel, it then stuck to itself and I rinsed it. I'm pretty sure I then got a ton of smudge marks after over an hour of trying and finally getting it on the reel.

today:
One Expired panf 120
Used a different reel, and would have been a success if I had been prepared for the nastily sticky tape holding the film to the paper, it then got all over the film, still had a hard time spooling it (but not as hard as the fp4) and I'm pretty sure this was the first time I had the film touch itself during development. If not, it would have been a success other than some scratches from the film sticking to itself.

live and learn, I guess.

 

[Tom Kershaw]

Not a major cock-up, but I have just processed three sheets of unexposed TMY-2 4"x5" film. At least I now know which dark slides have exposed film in them...

 

[TheGreatGasMaskMan]

That's it. no one can beat what I just did.
I left my 105mm mamiya tlr lens on top of my car trunk and then forgot about it. I get home and it's still there.

 

[Ken Bingham]

All the posts that mention forgetting to change various settings sound painfully familiar but ultimately reassuring (it's refreshing to know that I'm not the only dunce to have ever picked up a camera). I'd say my best one was managing to load a roll of film into my Mamiya 645 backwards. I was still new to processing my own film (still am, for that matter), and I spent a sleepless night trying to figure out how or why the entire roll came out completely blank. A Google search quickly reassured me, though . . .

 

[Pat Erson]

For months I got dull gray-ish contact sheets with Ilford RC paper. Then this morning I added 20% to my usual exposure time and boom! I suddenly got very very satisfying results.
I now feel so stupid...

Ok back to the darkroom!

 

[Sirius Glass]

All the posts that mention forgetting to change various settings sound painfully familiar but ultimately reassuring (it's refreshing to know that I'm not the only dunce to have ever picked up a camera). I'd say my best one was managing to load a roll of film into my Mamiya 645 backwards. I was still new to processing my own film (still am, for that matter), and I spent a sleepless night trying to figure out how or why the entire roll came out completely blank. A Google search quickly reassured me, though . . .

Everyone does that once. Only once.

 

[Ken Bingham]

Everyone does that once. Only once.

As I said (sort of): "Phew!"

 

[GarageBoy]

My dad's buddy loaded a mamiya 645 incorrectly and jammed the insert into the camera - took a lot of cutting to get the remains out

 

[Ken Bingham]

My dad's buddy loaded a mamiya 645 incorrectly and jammed the insert into the camera - took a lot of cutting to get the remains out

I didn't have to go to that length, thank goodness. No, the camera operated normally, just as it should have. The camera operator, however, totally failed.

 

[Ken Bingham]

New one! I'm used to using even development times (full minutes, rather than minutes and seconds), and so I also usually loosen the cover of my tank 30 seconds or so before I gotta pour the developer out. Well, the other night I had to modify my development times and wound up with a time like 8:30. Yes, out of habit I unsnapped the cover at 7:45. I also tried to agitate at the 8-minute mark, just like my timer said to. Jeez. Fortunately, I hadn't completely loosened the lid so I lost only a bit of developer; otherwise, I would have needed a mop to clean up. Reminded me not to let my mind drift too much when I'm developing film.

P.S. The images came out fine.

 

[Helios 1984]

I just ruined the JCII passed sticker on my Trip 35 with isopropyl alcohol.

 

[TheGreatGasMaskMan]

I didn't tell you guys my yashica broke again, then it fell off the tripod and broke some more, and I just had to blow most of my paycheck on the repairs.