development problem or faulty camera??

[J. Borger]

Hello folks.
I picked up a minty Nikon F3 last week and shot 3 rolls of film with it.
The film i exposed last was the first one i developed.
All negatives of that roll came out very dark gray almost black, barely visible images.
My first impression was: all frames heavily overexposed. So i though about a shutter or meter problem, perhaps driver error setting the camera in X mode??

The other 2 rolls came out great though.

So i had a second look at the negatives of that faulty roll.
Strange about it is that there is no clear bright vertical separation line between the 36 frames... the vertical deviding strips are also dark gray instead of bright cleared. So now i thought about a fixing problem but i think that is also out of the question because the sides of the film where the filmmanufacturars name and framenumbers are cleard perfectly?
Besides i used the same fixer with he other 2 rolls without problems.

Any pointers??


Thanks in advance.

 

[Dwig]

Hello folks.
...
All negatives of that roll came out very dark gray almost black, barely visible images.
...
Strange about it is that there is no clear bright vertical separation line between the 36 frames
...
the sides of the film where the film manufacturars name and frame numbers are cleard perfectly?

Just a SWAG* but...

clear film around frame numbers + fogged images and gap between images = film rewound while shutter was open.

Fogging under other conditions would fog the edges. Exposure issues wouldn't fog the gap between images.

I suggest checking the camera carefully. Might have been a one-time issue (firing shutter in a dim room by accident and rewinding before shutter closed,...) and might be a serious issue.

(*SWAG = Scientific Wild Ass Guess)

 

[mfogiel]

AS Dwig suggests, take a look at the borders of the film, where the sprockets are. If they are also fogged, then the film had to get fogged outside of the camera, if they are clear, the most likely issue is as he has pointed out above.

 

[haempe]

Same thought as dwig here.
I had a similar effect after rewinding a film in a Zorki with a jammed shutter (in a half-open position).
But I dont know the F3, I do not even know if it has a horizontal shutter... a full open vertical shutter seems a bit unlikely.

 

[J. Borger]

Thanks guys. Dwig put me on the right track.
That is what most likely happened. I made a fake last exposure with that roll: indoors stopped down and probably even with lenscap on before rewind:bang::bang:

 

[NeeZee]

Thanks guys. Dwig put me on the right track.
That is what most likely happened. I made a fake last exposure with that roll: indoors stopped down and probably even with lenscap on before rewind:bang::bang:

And then you took the lenscap off for rewinding? 😕

 

[J. Borger]

And then you took the lenscap off for rewinding? 😕

Thinking about it for a couple of hours now i come to the following conclusion: What i actual did, was putting my hand over the lens to expose for a black frame. Then i took my hand of the lens to rewind with the shutter open :bang::bang:
From the bright side: this was the first rol of film i ever completely ruined😎