Film Picker/Retriever/Extractor

[JeremyLangford]

Roger, in my case the reason is the same always, and circumstances vary...

The reason is to use unused film.

The circumstances are: it was a sunny day, and I had shot 12 frames, and it became overcast, so I rewind the partially used roll because I have no other body with me, and load a new one to expose and develop for overcast sky. Or, in the middle of a B&W day I find a scene that asks for color film. Or comparing two films I want to avoid shutter differences, so I prefer to use immediately the same body with the same speed for a second film. Or I have to pass my camera through x-rays at the airport and there was a half used high speed film inside. Or I want to test different meters from different bodies with the same roll...

Cheers,

Juan

Exactly. It's not that I use cameras that automatically rewind my film, it's that I sometimes shoot slide film that costs 5 bucks a roll and so I don't want to waste half the roll to switch speeds. I used to try and not rewind the rolls all the way but I got pretty mad once after I came home from Brazil, looked at my developed film and realized that I had ruined the main picture that I was excited about seeing when I tried to switch film speeds. I decided that day to never do it again and to just waste the rest of the current roll when I need to switch film. I don't think I had ever heard of a film retriever then and so I'm hoping it will solve my problem.

 

[Ron G]

My Voigtlander Vito CL snags the film in the take up roller so it would be difficult to miss the end of the film when rewinding but my Bessamatics do not.
I am now working on and using a Konica Autoreflex T and am not use to it enough to remember if it snags the film or not but I am pretty sure that it does.I also carry a Canon AE-1P from time to time but can't remember if it does or not either.
In any case the film trick with the slots slit and bent a little works very well for me if I ever have to fish the film out of the canister for any reason.A couple of stabs and I usually have it.Ron G

 

[morback]

Never had a problem with double exposures (after I started using the leader as a notebook). There are many ways to tell yourself this roll is used or partially used:

+write the frame number you rewound at on the leader (both sides if you really don't look at your film when you load it)
+write the date on the leader
+fold / tear / tape the leader
+put a big X on the roll as in Xposed...

There are many option to keep track of what you're doing without rewinding the entire roll. But of course we all do things the way that fits us best. Maybe some of these ideas will inspire someone.

m.

 

[JeremyLangford]

I got this one in the mail yesterday.

It was $10 including shipping and it works great. I can retrieve the leader after a maximum of two attempts. I will probably buy this one as well just so I can compare them.