35 photos per roll

Anytime I sense a break in the action around 30 shots or so on 35mm, I just rewind and reload. Film is cheap. There is nothing worse than to come across something photo worthy yet fleeting and realize you are on frame 35. If it is casual, where I will always have time to reload, I would be shooting 120 anyway.
 
steverett said:
My M3 frequently gets 38, occasionally 39 or 40.
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I get similar results with my M3 as well, but my negative files are 7x5. I call the extras "orphans" and have one (or more!) negative file sheets devoted to them. It's fun to go back and look through, occasionally there's some keepers.
 
Like retnull, both my Hexars dutfully squeeze 37 frames from whatever roll I load up with. However, more often than not, I'm with Bob when I'm shooting a lot of film at a given place: if I hit 30 frames, I instinctively rewind and load a fresh roll. Other than that, I rewind at Frame 36, since my glassine sleeves are six frames wide, and I'll only go the full 37 if the situation merits it.

This was the same case with my old Konica Hexar autofocus, and current Konica Auto S3 and Lexio 70 p/s as well. Clearly, the company believed in frugality, something a lot of us can grok right now (and yet another reason why I miss Konica so much).


- Barrett
 
i rewind at 35, too. nice and tidy.

when the fuji gf670 comes, i'll stop at 9 shots so a roll will fit in one sleeve.
 
There were only two photographers that captured the photos of the Space Shuttle Challenger exploding in 1986. Only those two had left a few unexposed frames at the end of the roll in their camera. Meanwhile over a hundred other photographers in the press pool, each with a 600 or 800mm lens were standing there having shot all 36-37-38-39 frames for the launch itself.

Those two photographers split up the covers of every daily newspaper and news magazine in the free world. Just because they had not shot to the end of the roll.

I knew one of those photographers, Michael Brown, who shot for the local Florida Today newspaper (the test for what became USA Today) He told me that Bob McDonald, head of the photo department there, insisted they always leave 5-6 frames unexposed "just in case".

Now it is highly unlikely that something of the significance of the Challenger disaster will happen while I am standing there with a camera in hand. But if it ever does, you can be assured that I will have some unexposed frames remaining at the end of the roll.
 
Often as not I'm shooting bulk loaded film, and I load by hand in the dark "measuring" by extending my two arms to the side. The exact length varies a frame or two from roll to roll. I take the developed roll and figure out the best way to cut it, maybe discarding a frame mid roll, perhaps keeping some of the blanks at the beginning, so all the strips are either 5 or 6 frames long even if they're not full of pictures. I keep the strips in individual sleeves. I prefer glassine. Supposedly not archival, but I've got thousands of negatives stored that way from the 1960's and they're still in good condition. I always print 5 strips on an 8X10 sheet. A piece of black tape across one end of the glass leaves a white strip at one end of the sheet so I can number the strips to match the numbers on the glassines. I ignore the frame numbers on the film. Movie film like Eastman Double-X 5222 doesn't have them anyway. I use letters A through F, counting from the white strip on the sheet, so the third image down on strip number 36,744 would be 36,744-C. That's the number that I scribble on the back of the final print.
 
Bob: That's a hell of a story.

Al: Damn, I admire that!

I haven't bulk-loaded in a dog's age (literally), but I have a Alden 200 bulk loader that's been untouched for ages (proof: it has whatever's left of a bulk roll of Agfachrome RS100 Plus Pro slide film in it expiration date 05/94; maybe I should roll up some and see if...oh, never mind!). I used to measure out my rolls the way you describe, but I got a bit nervous about it, and got a loader with a halfway-reliable counter to do the job. then I went back to factory-rolled stuff.

But I still use glassines. In fact, I use a single glassine per roll with no ill effects David Vestal turned me on to that idea). Makes rolls so much easier to keep track of.


- Barrett
 
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I don't pay much attention to the film counter - I know vaguely whether I'm near the beginning, the middle, or the end of a roll, but that's about it. And I shoot until it won't wind any more.

As for storage, I use negative pages that take 7 rows of 6 negs. I don't really see any need to keep to one-page-per-roll, so I start each new film in the next available slot - I put a small sticker at the edge of the first row to show where each film starts.

I also don't do contact sheets (which is another reason not to bother with one-page-per-roll) - I do a quick jpg scan of everything instead.
 
oscroft said:
I don't pay much attention to the film counter - I know vaguely whether I'm near the beginning, the middle, or the end of a roll, but that's about it. And I shoot until it won't wind any more.

As for storage, I use negative pages that take 7 rows of 6 negs.
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Dear Alan,

Same here. The only time I reload early is if there's not much happening; I glance at the counter; and see I'm over frame 30. I can't imagine carefully checking the counter every picture to see how much I've shot.

Cheers,

R.
 
35mmdelux said:
Once over 30 frames I remove the film.
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I usually use 24 exposure rolls, and when I'm up to 20 or so and it's a convenient break or I am anxious to get the results, I'll reload then. Otherwise I'll go for 25-26 if possible.

With 36 exposure rolls, I'll stop at 30 or so if convenient, otherwise I'll try for the 37th and 38th. :)

I admit I kinda miss the 20 exposure rolls. They were about the right length for me.
 
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