Have to share a screw-up

[David_Manning]

Idiot alert:

I was strolling in Nashville, Tennessee on the Shelby St. Bridge and saw a nice family trying to take a picture of themselves. I offered to shoot one with all four of them in the shot and downtown Nashville in the background. The younger of the two gentlemen, probably a son or son-in-law, asks if I'm carrying a Leica in his Australian accent. "Why yes, it is," I reply, chest expanding slightly.

So, while chatting with them about travel, I begin the process of changing out the finished film with a new roll of Tri-X. No sweat, looking casual, I open the bottom, turn over the M6, and give a slight tap to dislodge the film cartridge. Nothing comes out. I look...it's in there alright. Hmmm. Then I notice...a whole crapload of film on the takeup spool. OMG...I forgot to wind the roll before opening the bottom!!!

So, I'm a complete idiot. I casually replace the bottom, bid farewell to the impressed Aussies, and beat a retreat to a quiet expanse of bridge to berate myself, spool the film, and change it out properly.

This NEVER happened to me with a memory card!:bang:

 

[payasam]

So what's the problem? The Aussies were impressed, weren't they?

 

[Ronald M]

Probably nothing but a few wraps wer ruined. Most will be ok.

 

[David_Manning]

I hope so. Such is the price of arrogance. But boy, those Aussies thought I was cool...

 

[Dfin]

Yeah, right mate.

 

[slumry]

Recently did the same thing with a F100, only lost 2 1/2 frames. Of course, they were the most important frames.

 

[Renzsu]

Haha I did the same thing last week, didn't think, was sitting on the couch preparing a new roll for the next day and just opened the back without thinking... it was a roll of T64, quite pricey, but I still got it developed.. I'll know tomorrow if I ruined the photo's (keeping my fingers crossed).

 

[Paddy C]

Funny.

Had an embarrassing moment myself this weekend (didn't tell anyone).

I was shooting at a friend's family farm with three completely different cameras. Switching quite frequently.

When not in use, my ZI was in my bag. When we got home I looked at the three cameras to see how much film was left in each. Then I checked the ZI to see what I had in there. Nothing!

I now recall that after the last roll I couldn't decided what film I wanted to shoot and put the ZI back in the bag unloaded. When I went for it later in the day, I forgot it was unloaded (it's always loaded) and went to grab some last shots. 20 or so shots of nothing. How I didn't realize from the film advance that there was nothing in it is beyond me. :bang:

 

[David_Manning]

Dfin, you got me...nobody thinks I'm cool. I guess I was just hoping 🙂

 

[David_Manning]

It ended up fogging the entire roll.

 

[robinsonphotography]

Too bad about the fogging. The other day, right after I got my m2, loaded in the second roll. Started shooting away, was having a great time. Then I got to frame 36...37...38...39....45...wtf? Opening it up--film had never caught on the take up spool since I'd tried to get another frame and closed it before checking well. Whoops! Never gonna make that mistake again....

 

[Renzsu]

Too bad about the fogging. The other day, right after I got my m2, loaded in the second roll. Started shooting away, was having a great time. Then I got to frame 36...37...38...39....45...wtf? Opening it up--film had never caught on the take up spool since I'd tried to get another frame and closed it before checking well. Whoops! Never gonna make that mistake again....

Hah that happened with my very first roll! 😀 Bad part, I was shooting my coworkers on a company outing (just for fun though), so I keep hearing about it whenever they see me coming with the Leica 🙄
David, sorry to hear about the fogging, I guess my roll will also be rubbish then.. live and learn I guess.

 

[Lilserenity]

I've done this a couple of times with my M2. Once with Kodachrome (double d'oh) and once with some Superia 1600 which well... that roll was knackered the moment any light hit it!

:bang:

 

[Mcary]

Idiot alert:


This NEVER happened to me with a memory card!:bang:

That's what DSLR's have "Delete All" for. 😱

OK yesterday I go over to a friend's house to take some picture of her son as well as some of her and a friend. We've finished taking all the shots of her son and I'm shooting some test shots with her friend to get the lights the way I want them. When I had a 2-3 minute brain fart during which I hit the delete all button a number of times.:bang:
Luckily we had time to take some more shots of her son.

Think I need to go back to my old rule of changing memory cards after each set, even if the card isn't full

 

[Benjamin Marks]

I think each of us is due for an incident like this about once every 5-10 years. We are paranoid for a while . . .Then we get cocky and casual again and whoops!

In 1990, I failed to confirm film take-up with a Pentax LX while shooting the opening of a nightclub. It sure seemed like I was getting a lot of pictures on that roll . . .

In 2002 I accidentally deleted all the photos from an SD card while my kids were climbing all over me. The once-a-year group picture of some very old friends was on the card . . . oops should have paid more attention to the message that said, "Files are too large for recycle bin. Delete forever?" I did recover a number of images using an image recovery program -- but not the priceless ones.

Two weeks ago, my son approached another kid with a fancy digital game and the kid was teaching him how to play. M5, 35 Summicron, priceless moment. . .did I check the film take up by turning the rewind crank (or visually checking to make sure it was engaged). Why, no I did not.

And I didn't even have any Australians to impress. There is plenty of idiocy to go around; sometimes I feel like I have more than my fair share.

Ben Marks

Ben Marks

 

[JohnTF]

Talking to someone while changing cards/film, is like trying to count money while talking to someone, except you can't start over.

I had that, "I forgot to rewind" feeling just yesterday, fortunately, it was the Demo M9, but it is kind of a creepy feeling--

I had taken to leaving the tongue out on rolls of film after watching ham-fisted tech folks work the roll over to retrieve it, but immediately tore off the end so that I knew it was exposed.

And when you don't do it to yourself, you can always have a friend do it for you, I had dropped a camera in the office to switch to another during a demonstration during which I survived the mounted club swinging authorities riding past me through the crowd, and someone else opened my camera.

Nothing like risking your head for nothing.

Regards, John

 

[batterytypehah!]

The other day, right after I got my m2, loaded in the second roll. Started shooting away, was having a great time. Then I got to frame 36...37...38...39....45...wtf? Opening it up--film had never caught on the take up spool since I'd tried to get another frame and closed it before checking well. Whoops! Never gonna make that mistake again....

See, that's why a lot of the old German cameras had the shutter energized off of the film sprockets. No film movement, no click. Never understood why this feature gets a bad rap so often.

Not that I haven't had my share of idiot moments over the years. I had to stop using lens caps on my RFs. That's what skylight filters are for 😉

 

[sojournerphoto]

Yep formatted a cf card that i thoght I'd downloaded once and then took halfa dozen frames. Managed to recover al but one corrupted file though - a digi advantage (don't fill the card again though!)

Mike

 

[cnphoto]

The other week a friend of mine purchased his first rangefinder from a secondhand store while we where out (a Minolta Hi-Matic 7s). While talking over a coffee I told him that he may need the light seals replaced soon, I had my Minolta Sr-T on me and for some reason picked it up and opened it up to show him the new lightseals I had replaced a few days prior, only to spin the camera around and show him a lovely roll of loaded film. Ugh.

Luckily it was a dimly lit cafe and ISO400 film, so I lost 4 frames and no important images. We did have a laugh over it for quiet a while though 🙂

 

[RAZOR]

These small mistakes are all part of "learning a new system" I know how you feel, coming from digital myself. I can never remember to adjust my film speed when switching between 100 and 400.