Think I've snapped the film in my Zenit...

[chrisfowler]

So I just finished a film in my Zenit E - walking along the beach and absent-mindedly began to rewind the film... apart from I forgot to depress the little release button on the top, resulting in a lot of pressure on the rewind knob, followed by a thunk and a lack of pressure on the rewind.

Snapped film? Should I just be taking it straight to a decent lab to get sorted?

Chris

 

[VirtualAdept]

Sounds exactly like my zenit does... I take it you dont have a dark bag or anything like that?
If not, take it to a lab and make sure they understand what the issue is.

 

[chrisfowler]

I don't - I'm in a hotel at the moment so the closest I have in an internal room. I could probably get the camera open in complete darkness but I wouldn't have any idea what to do once I got the back open

 

[Strapps]

Get an opaque film canister (if possible) and some tin foil (the hotel kitchen should have plenty), then open the camera under the duvet of the hotel bed, remove the film, roll it up and pop into the canister and wrap it in the tin foil. Take the film to a 'proper' camera shop for developing as they'll be more likely to understand what's happened and deal with it appropriately than a supermarket developer.

It worked ok when the same thing happened to me years ago, though the film is likely to be very dusty and you'll need to blow out the back of the camera with a rocket blower or canned air to clean it up.