Help, I am killing film

[akptc]

Tonight I tried to develop a freshly exposed Fuji Acros 100. To my horror, the entire roll came out blank, except for the leader.

I am trying to figure out what I did wrong. I used Super 76 mixed 1:2 for 10.5 min, washed several times, then fixed in Nu Fix 1:4 for 3 minutes. Only thing that was odd was that when washing out the fixes, the water was coming out purplish for a long time. I don’t develop film often and could not recall if any color in the water after fixing was normal. The film was then washed under running water for 2-3 min until clear.

I am very puzzled and quite afraid to try and develop any more film for fear of ruining it as well. Any idea what could have gone wrong? I am 100% certain I did not leave my lens cap on and the film was not exposed to light while loading into the tank. I’d appreciate any advice.

 

[MikeL]

Hi akptc,
Did the films labels on the top and bottom develop?

 

[akptc]

Hi Mike, the frame numbers and "ACR-100" on top and bottom are clearly visible.

 

[drewbarb]

I won't ask if you took the lens cap off, so- are you sure your shutter is opening?

 

[MikeL]

Hi Mike, the frame numbers and "ACR-100" on top and bottom are clearly visible.

Hi Andy, sounds like your development went fine, so the problem's camera related. I'm wondering if the film loaded properly, and therefore the leader developed but nothing else. That would be my bet!

 

[telenous]

Hi Andy,

Sorry to hear about your misadventure, I hope you didn't lose any important frames. I was thinking the same as Mike. Is everything OK with your take-up spool? Are you sure you loaded correctly? It wont hurt if you run a test roll in the camera.

 

[Ororaro]

The good news is you are developing correctly 🙂 Now you just need to expose correctly ;-)

 

[Pherdinand]

it is definitely a shooting problem, not developing.
I guess your shutter farted. I know, it's painful, for 36 times in a row!!
Are you sure you loaded the film correctly?maybe it was not wound and you have shot 36 frames on the leader.

 

[Freneticist]

I concur with the others. In a college photgraphy course, we set up a studio for our "glamour/portrait" session. One-time-only deal. Loaded a fresh roll, took some great pics, etc. Thought it felt awfully easy to rewind. Seems it never actually "caught" on the take-up spool, and I had 36 pics on the leader, and 36 perfectly clear frames. Give-away is the frame number and film type visible on the film. If it was development and/or bad film, you would probably not see those. If they were there, and the film came out solid black, it could be light-leaks or bad film or exposure issues. Bummers. I can definitely sympathize with you. Now, I waste first two frames, and double-check myself to make sure the film is caught on the sprockets, and advancing.

 

[Ash]

Are you sure you developed the right film?

Stupid question maybe. If you have more than one roll. you may have developed your second unused roll of film in lieu of the 'real' (exposed) film.

 

[akptc]

Thank you everyone for your replies, they are all very appreciated. The roll of film was shot with the Contax G2, which has always been problem-free.

This morning I tried inserting a dummy roll in the G2 so that would not catch, what happens then is that the film counter LCD blinks with "00" so you know the film is not winding.

As much as hate to consider the possibility, there is a chance I might have actually developed an un-exposed roll as I had several rolls of the Acros 100 in the bag. This is so embarrassing I am gonna develop pimples from flushing!

I guess my big initial concern was to make sure I was not somehow mixing the chemicals in a way that was causing it to destroy the exposed film (not sure if that's possible or not). I would hate to give up developing my own film, even though my chemistry skills are very rusty.

So, to make sure I don’t develop unexposed film again, I will now always rewind all the way to hide the leader in the canister and will mark each exposed roll (I used to do that but got a bit lazy and too sure of my memory).

Again, than you all for your advice and support, it helped a lot.

 

[Ash]

always store your exposed film separately. If you let the leader go into the film can you might risk a light leak... it's unlikely.

Either way buy yourself a little pouch (for gems, money, lenses, whatever...) and put your exposed rolls in there.

 

[akptc]

always store your exposed film separately. If you let the leader go into the film can you might risk a light leak... it's unlikely.

Either way buy yourself a little pouch (for gems, money, lenses, whatever...) and put your exposed rolls in there.

Amen to that, this was a lesson that's going to stick as I'd not want to go through this kind of frustration again.

 

[peterc]

I always rip the leader off exposed rolls after taking them out of the camera. Makes it obvious which rolls have been used and hard to accidentally reload them.

Peter

 

[Xmas]

A G should pull the film back into the cassette, unless you have fiddled with the options, so you should know it was exposed.

Though I think you need to just have enough film to engage the tractor, not too much to cause a birds nest.

Did you push the rewind button, or did it rewind automatically when you got to the end, of the 24 or 36. Was it a commercial coded cassette, or home brew?

If you left the cap on the exposure with a normal lens would be real long...

Noel

 

[jtzordon]

At least you were developing it yourself. I dropped some slide film off at my local lab when I was just starting and picked up a blank roll the next day. Fortunately they didn't try to charge me.

 

[akptc]

A G should pull the film back into the cassette, unless you have fiddled with the options, so you should know it was exposed. ...
Noel

Crap! My G2 *is* set up to rewind the leader fully into the cassette, so having seen the leader stick out before I started developing should have told me something was wrong. Yup, I feel like an idiot.. (not the first time) 🙄

 

[akptc]

At least you were developing it yourself. I dropped some slide film off at my local lab when I was just starting and picked up a blank roll the next day. Fortunately they didn't try to charge me.

When that happens to me, I always tell them it was my kid's film, the lab folks at least pretend to believe me... 😉

 

[Gid]

Andy,

Welcome to the "I shouldn't have done that club". Unfortunately, I've done the same, as well as opening the back before I've wound the film and taking real "killer shots" (at least a dozen, honest) with the Bronica RF645 before realising that the film was wound on 😱 Recently I've taken some great shots of the inside of the R-D1 leather case - the front cover will swing back across the lens when you shoot in portrait if you don't pay attention.

 

[Xmas]

akptc
Well you can select to leave it sticking out.
But it may be possible to not have it catch (independent of option) and though I've not dont this, it would annoy if you push the manual rewind option.
The G1 will make noises like it is loading film even with a empty camera... dont know about the G2...
Good luck in the future.
Noel