Film Camera Problem

The_Gatsby

Ok so I'm in Chicago at the moment and the other night we visited a bar on the 95th floor of the Hancock Building. I decided to bring my film camera, a Praktica MTL5. I took some lovely photos and went to get them developed.

However, when I returned to collect them the guy at the store said the film was blank. Now I don't have much experience with film but I was certain I had done everything correctly. The film was loaded properly, the shutter and everything else on the camera works perfectly. The light meter works also which means the problem wasn't the battery. Anybody got any ideas? I was really disappointed because it was such a unique photo taking opportunity and I took some really nice shots. Thanks for any help!

humberklog

Are the negs bright or dark? As in: was the film exposed or not exposed?

The_Gatsby

humberklog wrote: »

Are the negs bright or dark? As in: was the film exposed or not exposed?

They're dark so I presume they weren't exposed? Not sure how though because it was loaded correctly and the shutter opens and closes fine

humberklog

Yike, it can be a bit of a killer like that.

Do you remember when you got to the end of the roll?

Did it stop normally and do you remember winding the film back and feeling the camera's vibration as the film re spooled and notice the sound the film made as it came off the take up spool? And all that felt normal on the winder?

I ask as I've messed up a good few rolls by my own hand and had a few cameras go a bit potty too.

The_Gatsby

humberklog wrote: »

Yike, it can be a bit of a killer like that.

Do you remember when you got to the end of the roll?

Did it stop normally and do you remember winding the film back and feeling the camera's vibration as the film re spooled and notice the sound the film made as it came off the take up spool? And all that felt normal on the winder?

I ask as I've messed up a good few rolls by my own hand and had a few cameras go a bit potty too.

Yeah when I wound the film it did make a different noise after I wound it for a while and then it felt different when I wound it. I presume that was me fully rewinding the film and the noise meant that I'd fully rewound the film. I'm not very experienced with film but there was nothing that seemed out of the ordinary to me so it's very frustrating!

DaireQuinlan

What film was it ? are there any edge markings on the negatives ? Can you see the individual frames ? Or is the entire strip a uniform colour ? Have you a correctly exposed roll of the same film to compare it to WRT to exposed/unexposed colours ?
Also, open the back of the camera and fire a few shots to determine that the shutter is actually working.

magicbastarder

if the negs are dark, that implies the film was exposed; don't forget that dark areas on a negative imply light areas on a print.
was there a leader sticking out of the roll after you opened the camera, can you remember?

kelly1

People still use film?!?!? :pac:

amdgilmore

kelly1 wrote: »

People still use film?!?!? :pac:

Exclusively. And yes, I do also own a DSLR, though I call it a 'light meter'.

PopeBuckfastXVI

Yeah dark negs are a fully exposed film.

Might have been a ****up at the lab?

DaireQuinlan

PopeBuckfastXVI wrote: »

Yeah dark negs are a fully exposed film.

Might have been a ****up at the lab?

Depends on what you mean by 'dark'. The base colour of some negatives can be pretty dark. If the edge markings are visible but nothing else it probably means it was completely unexposed but developed correctly. If there's nothing visible at all and the film is completely opaque then it was never developed. If the film is translucent but there are no edge markings visible then most probably either
1. the film was put through fix before dev. Very unlikely in an automated mini-lab.
2. Original film was a non-chromagenic B&W put through a c-41 process. This will completely blank the film.

The_Gatsby

Through my massive disappointment I didn't think to take the film with me. I also didn't want to have to pay for a blank roll of film. From what I saw the whole roll was black except a small white spot on each frame. It looked like this was repeated on every frame. I don't think it was a f*** up in the lab because I used this film which says it can be developed using the C-41 colour process. Also, the camera works fine. I tested it without film and with the back open and the shutter works perfectly.

EDIT: Never mind, it was this film that I was using. Maybe it was an error in the lab then?

DaireQuinlan

The_Gatsby wrote: »

EDIT: Never mind, it was this film that I was using. Maybe it was an error in the lab then?

Combination of your error and lab error. You shouldn't have given it to them to process, and the lab operator didn't really know what he was doing by putting it through a c-41 process. It's a conventional silver B&W film, so putting it through a c-41 process will just blank it completely.

Mrcamera

amdgilmore wrote: »

Exclusively. And yes, I do also own a DSLR, though I call it a 'light meter'.

I call my DSLR a Polaroid

The_Gatsby

DaireQuinlan wrote: »

Combination of your error and lab error. You shouldn't have given it to them to process, and the lab operator didn't really know what he was doing by putting it through a c-41 process. It's a conventional silver B&W film, so putting it through a c-41 process will just blank it completely.

Ok thank you. At least now I know it wasn't anything to do with the camera! Live and learn I suppose...it's a shame I lost the photos though

humberklog

Woohoo!

CabanSail

Back in the days of film 90% of my best shots were on rolls of film which messed up.






Same thing happens to fishermen.

amdgilmore

Much safer to just take bad photos. I take bad photos and have never lost a roll.