Tea and sympathy

[sirch]

... or actually something a bit stronger

Anyway, its fair to say that I haven't had a film nightmare for a few years so one was probably over due. Having a few outings coming up a few weeks ago I decided to put a roll of Colour Plus in my ME Super which I haven't used for a year or two, it being small and light, with a view to knocking off some FPOTY themes amongst other things. Having taken a few shots in various locations I was taking a few more snaps today and it just didn't feel like it was winding on properly so I fired a few shots with the lens cap on, wound it back a little and fired a few more shots and it seemed to be winding. I took another and it was back to feeling wrong so I thought I would could my losses and process the film.

Much to my dismay there was absolutely nothing on the roll, there would have been 8-12 frames when I at least thought it was winding on okay. Anyway nothing to be done but unburden on TP, have a dram and soldier on

 

[ChrisR]

Sorry to read that, Chris. I discovered what seemed to be a film transport problem on my LX recently. At about 20+ frames, if I pre-tensioned the rewind, then winding on would cause the knob to move a little bit, then it stopped, while the wind lever felt all slipping clutch-ish! After spending a few days wondering, I remembered that the LX counts the frames down when you rewind. So I kept an eye on the frame numbers as I rewound... 24... 23... 22... and that was it! In the end it was clear the film hadn't loaded properly (a load in the field, of course). So I took the risk, reloaded it, took a few blank frames, and then took the roll. I've just devved it, and it seems my guess was right! Phew...

 

[Flighter]

Memo to self: pour the developer back into the developer bottle, not the half full bleach bottle!

Thankfully the developer was probably near the end of its life, I think it was mixed June/July 2021 and had done 16-18 rolls of 36exp 35mm film. so it could have been worse! (My notebook where I recorded my developing has gone missing - suspect accidentally thrown out in the last tidy-up - so I'm not quite sure but the last developing time in the Develop! app on my phone was 4mins 45secs so there had been a few rolls through it.)

Annoyingly, this is the second time I've done this, the previous time I think I had already done around 15 films so at least for both times I've had a bit of use our of the kit before wrecking it.

It looks like Rollei have stopped doing the Digibase kits (their site only shows the Colorchem kits now which use blix rather than a separate bleach and fixer) so unless I'm very careful with the remaining unopened kit that I have I won't find out their capacity.

 

[Asha]

Memo to self: pour the developer back into the developer bottle, not the half full bleach bottle!

Thankfully the developer was probably near the end of its life, I think it was mixed June/July 2021 and had done 16-18 rolls of 36exp 35mm film. so it could have been worse! (My notebook where I recorded my developing has gone missing - suspect accidentally thrown out in the last tidy-up - so I'm not quite sure but the last developing time in the Develop! app on my phone was 4mins 45secs so there had been a few rolls through it.)

Annoyingly, this is the second time I've done this, the previous time I think I had already done around 15 films so at least for both times I've had a bit of use our of the kit before wrecking it.

It looks like Rollei have stopped doing the Digibase kits (their site only shows the Colorchem kits now which use blix rather than a separate bleach and fixer) so unless I'm very careful with the remaining unopened kit that I have I won't find out their capacity.

Wrong bottle syndrome or in my case wrong slot syndrome!

I can feel some of your pain as last time i produced a 16x20 print , which involves using trays as the nova slots aren’t large enough for the format, i used the chemicals that were in the nova likes I usually do , developed the print , then replaced the chems from the trays back into the nova but got the slots mixed up and ended up putting fixer into the dev and stop slots, whilst putting the stop and developer into the fixer slots.

I only realised what I’d done when I went to develop another smaller print in the nova and was unable to get an image to show on the paper…… for obvious reasons. I was fixing a latent image

All is back to normal now but it involved a thorough wash down of all the slots to eliminate chemical contamination.

 

[Flighter]

Thanks Asha.

At least it didn't affect the film, the developer had been poured out into a jug at the end of the development stage and bleach poured into the tank for the next stage. When I went to pour the developer from the jug back into the bottle I got the wrong bottle. So it could have been worse!

 

[StephenM]

It's harder for me to make that mistake as I use single use developers and just pour it away. That only leaves getting fix and stop containers the wrong way round, which wouldn't be a big problem if it happened.

 

[Flighter]

Another indication of the number of rolls of film that had gone through the developer; these were all the marbles that had been added each time to bring the developer level up to the top of the bottle to try and avoid too much oxidation.

Most of the tine, it was a single film in the tank. There must be quite a bit of liquid left in the tank after pouring out.

 

[ChrisR]

Another indication of the number of rolls of film that had gone through the developer; these were all the marbles that had been added each time to bring the developer level up to the top of the bottle to try and avoid too much oxidation.
View attachment 383076
Most of the tine, it was a single film in the tank. There must be quite a bit of liquid left in the tank after pouring out.

I'd been putting marbles in my bottle of HC-110, mainly because that's what I did with my first two bottles of Ilfosol-3. Early on I started to wonder if it was a good idea, as it's so viscous. Recently I used up all the marbles and the bottle was nearly full of them, so I thought maybe I'd used up nearly all the HC-110. I bought 3 brown glass bottles, 2x100ml and 1x300ml, and decanted into them (after I'd solved the problem where a marble drops out of the HC-110 bottle into the funnel and completely blocks it!). After the first pour it looked like I had nearly 400ml of HC-110 left, but after leaving it to settle for day and doing another pour, it's getting on for 500ml! This bottle was bought (and opened) in October 2018, and has an expiry date of August 2020. Still appears to be working fine; it'll possibly outlast me!

 

[sirch]

Well, back to the OP ...

I just processed a roll of colour 120 and again nothing at all on the roll, the developer must be knackered. In the past I have used Fuji Express C41 and with that if the chems are getting old you start to see colour casts and know its time to make up fresh. This was the Bellini kit and I must admit that I was thinking it was getting a bit old but to go from working okay to completely blank negs it a bit crap I think.

 

[Flighter]

Yes indeed, one would hope for some gradual signs that it was getting tired rather than just suddenly nothing.

 

[excalibur2]

Well I don't know where to put this post and for me an annoyance and self sympathy:- Took the Canon A1 to Bicester (for classic car show ) to finish last year's film up and then put another film in to take a further 7 shots, anyway came back home and bored with the A1 and do what I mostly do i.e. put the film in another camera (to finish the film up) and decided the Nikon F4..well the F4 winds on auto for start but wouldn't wind on to get past exposed film (of 7 shots) with the lens cap on.......erm can't think of a way around this annoying safety feature.

 

[StephenM]

If it's just somehow detecting the lens cap (how?) could you just shoot 7 frames in manual at f/16 or f/22 at 1/1000th sec (or faster) in a changing bag?

 

[excalibur2]

If it's just somehow detecting the lens cap (how?) could you just shoot 7 frames in manual at f/16 or f/22 at 1/1000th sec (or faster) in a changing bag?

Guessing that on manual (never tried AV or TV) it probably needs the light sensor to work with cap on or changing bag? and also odd that (also on manual) the auto focus lens spin around try to focus with the lens cap on

 

[Nod]

Does the F4 have a "don't fire unless in focus" setting?

 

[excalibur2]

Does the F4 have a "don't fire unless in focus" setting?

You have got it one and brownie points for you (and silly me for not spotting it)......I put a manual lens on and it works with the lens cap on.

 

[sphexx]

... or actually something a bit stronger

Anyway, its fair to say that I haven't had a film nightmare for a few years so one was probably over due. Having a few outings coming up a few weeks ago I decided to put a roll of Colour Plus in my ME Super which I haven't used for a year or two, it being small and light, with a view to knocking off some FPOTY themes amongst other things. Having taken a few shots in various locations I was taking a few more snaps today and it just didn't feel like it was winding on properly so I fired a few shots with the lens cap on, wound it back a little and fired a few more shots and it seemed to be winding. I took another and it was back to feeling wrong so I thought I would could my losses and process the film.

Much to my dismay there was absolutely nothing on the roll, there would have been 8-12 frames when I at least thought it was winding on okay. Anyway nothing to be done but unburden on TP, have a dram and soldier on

I‘ve never had an ME Super but can’t you tell if the film is winding on by observing the rewind knob? Maybe I’m missing something as usual

 

[Nod]

You have got it one and brownie points for you (and silly me for not spotting it)......I put a manual lens on and it works with the lens cap on.

Glad to have been of help!

 

[Sangoma]

Bit of a nuisance!

I had a film camera mess up today too, was going through Zenits to see which ones would become organ donors, and which ones I would fix.

Wanted to check the viewfinder on one, so went to the half alive camera box and took the lens off a Spotmatic, screwed it onto the Zenit, then went to take it off.
Yes, you can guess, it wouldn't come off. Went to the tool box in the garage, and I still had my custom shaped feeler gauge from the last time I did this 25 years ago.

Forgot, don't put the Takumar 55/1.8 on a Zenit!

Took me almost as long to get it off as it did to remove the shutter from the Zenit, I'll blame it on age

 

[excalibur2]

Bit of a nuisance!

I had a film camera mess up today too, was going through Zenits to see which ones would become organ donors, and which ones I would fix.

Wanted to check the viewfinder on one, so went to the half alive camera box and took the lens off a Spotmatic, screwed it onto the Zenit, then went to take it off.
Yes, you can guess, it wouldn't come off. Went to the tool box in the garage, and I still had my custom shaped feeler gauge from the last time I did this 25 years ago.

Forgot, don't put the Takumar 55/1.8 on a Zenit!

Took me almost as long to get it off as it did to remove the shutter from the Zenit, I'll blame it on age

When cameras were going for peanuts I used a hacksaw on a Nikon 301 to get a vivitar lens off...at the time the lens was worth more than the camera.

 

[AndrewFlannigan]

..at the time the lens was worth more than the camera.

...and quite possibly still is!

I get the impression that the "plastic phantastic" cameras are generally not what the retro crowd want, although I think that most of them were better in many ways than the heavy metal monsters from the '60s and '70s. That said, I bought a second hand 301 from the London Camera Exchange in Exeter in the mid-80s and it was the only seriously troublesome camera I recall buying from them. To be fair, when I took it back a few days later, they refunded my money with a smile!

 

[excalibur2]

...and quite possibly still is!

I get the impression that the "plastic phantastic" cameras are generally not what the retro crowd want, although I think that most of them were better in many ways than the heavy metal monsters from the '60s and '70s. That said, I bought a second hand 301 from the London Camera Exchange in Exeter in the mid-80s and it was the only seriously troublesome camera I recall buying from them. To be fair, when I took it back a few days later, they refunded my money with a smile!

The Nikon 301 s a well built camera with a strong framework and did have a job hacksawing through it, but the original problem was pushing the button in and it didn't release the Vivitar lens...Canon have the release on the lens and also other makes which seems a better way......erm well unless someone knows diferent.

 

[AndrewFlannigan]

Canon have the release on the lens and also other makes which seems a better way......erm well unless someone knows diferent.

I wonder why Canon discarded the breech-lock FD mount, which seems to me to be pretty much fool-proof. The mounts that use a button to release a locking pin are surprisingly reliable but any lever can fail, as the components wear over time.

 

[excalibur2]

I wonder why Canon discarded the breech-lock FD mount, which seems to me to be pretty much fool-proof. The mounts that use a button to release a locking pin are surprisingly reliable but any lever can fail, as the components wear over time.

Yes the breech lock was a good idea to take up any slack when fitting the lens, but many people found it fiddling to put the lens on, probably because they didn't fully turn the collar fully to the left, then insert and turn to the right to lock