Help!

[technicolour]

OK ive got my film back from kodak, and its totally black!!!!!

What could of gone wrong?

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Jim

[Matt Pacini]

Lots of things.
The camera didn't expose the film at all.
1. Lens cap on (I'm assuming you didn't do this!).
2. Shutter closed. (What camera do you have, and does it have manual shutter option? For instance, a Nikon R-10 would allow you to do this).
3. Shutter is stuck closed in the camera.
4. Meter doesn't work, and is telling you it's reading at f2.8 or whatever, when it's really stopping down at F16 when you don't have enough light for that f-stop, so it's underexposing to the point of not seeing anything.

I'm sure there are other things that someone here can think of...
Be more specific about your shoot.
What camera.
Was it in Ext. daylight or Int. low light?
Did you use the cameras internal meter, or an external meter?
If the internal meter, did you set it on auto?
What film stock?


Matt Pacini

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[MovieStuff]

Well, my bet is that his advance claw didn't pull the film along, since he also said in a different post that another roll was missing some footage or something.

My two cents....

Roger

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Roger Evans
MovieStuff
http://www.afterimagephoto.tv/moviestuff.html

[Dominic3]

Jim

I am sorry to hear of your problem, especially after all your enthusiasm. I don' have a specific answer for you, but you have just received replies from two of the best minds on this board so I hope they can help resolve this matter.

What ever happens - don't forget we ALL have experienced our own "disasters" with super 8 - ( I recently buggered up several films after having stored the films in the fridge and then taken them out into a warm environment, thus resulting in the film not moving inside the camera due to condensation - when I received the film back it was all black ( unexposed) apart from the first few seconds!....

Don't get disheartened.



[This message has been edited by Dominic3 (edited November 20, 2001).]

[#Pedro]

Try to perform some basic test with the camera WITHOUT FILM:

1. open the compartment door and pull down the trigger, let the camera run. Look thru the gate. Flickering light should come in. Move the camera slowly, so that brighter light shines into the lens (window, lamp...). THe flickering light inside the gate should become dimmer, due to the closing iris.
If there isn?t ANY light to see, the iris could be in manual closed position or the variable shutter could be in closed position. Fist search for a iris dial or fade dial and set it to "auto" or "normal". If there is a variable shutter, set it to 1/1 or N. or sth. like that. You can test all this functions by looking thru the gate when camera running and moving the dials.

2. Look if the pull-down claw is moving. You should see that. When you put a piece of white leader into the gate and fix it carefully with your finger to the gate, it should be transported when downwards when running the camera. The claw should go into each sprocket hole and pull the film down, step by step.

3. Look if the take-up friction is turning. It should turn when running the camera with a certain force, but you should be able to stop it, holding it with your fingers. Then some cameras automatically shut off or turn on a red light.

If all this is o.k., the film should be at least exposed. During shooting, the needle or scale of the auto-iris should always move according to the amount of light and never keep at stop 22 or 32 or sth. like that. The sound of the camera should not be MUCH differnt as running without film. It should be rather soft than snarring.

When you are not shure, if the film is actually transported or not, you simply take out the cardrige (you will only loose 7 frames!) and make a mark with a pen directly on the film. THen shoot a few frames and look it the mark had dissappeard. Testing this in single frame mode, the mark should go down after each shutter triggering.

You always can film until the camera tells you, that the end is reached, independently from the meter. Simple cameras have a moving spot inside, indicating the film transportation. When this moving spot stops moving, the end is really reached and the letters "exposed" can be read.
If you happen to take the cart off without seeing the exposed mark, you can return the same cart to the camera and continue shooting. No problem for the film, only the meter reading of the camera will be reseted.

I hope this helps,

Pedro


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[technicolour]

Thanks for your responses guys,

My Camera is a Chinon 256 SXL, I was shooting with K40 in fairly light daylight, I checked what you said about the claw, its got quite a bit of pull on it but ive noticed something strange.

The film meter is at 0, whereas my other chinon camera starts at 50ft and slowly decreases to 0. The counter is supposed to reset to 0 after you take the cartridge out, but it hasnt.

The film is totally black, which means it hasnt actually been exposed. I didnt leave the lens cap on (it doesnt have one!!)

Im pretty sure the meter works, as when you put onto auto and move the camera around in different light the needle moves accordingly.

The werid thing is, the films totally black right up to the end, where there are about 4 frames of my garden and room i took with 1 fps setting meaning, all of the film must have travelled through the camera.

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Jim

[mattias]

i thought you said it *started* with the few frames from your garden? you need to be sure about this for us to help you...

/matt

[mattias]

ok, then it sounds *very odd*. i guess your shutter never opens at all then. weird that it should in single frame mode though (you don't really mean 1 frame per second, do you?). have you tried looking through the gate of the running camera yet?

/matt

[technicolour]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Courier, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by mattias:
ok, then it sounds *very odd*. i guess your shutter never opens at all then. weird that it should in single frame mode though (you don't really mean 1 frame per second, do you?). have you tried looking through the gate of the running camera yet?

/matt<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>


I do have a single frame mode, thats what i meant

The shutter does open,when you press the trigger with the door open you can see the shutter moving and the light coming through


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Jim

[mattias]

even in the same running mode and speed that you used for that air show? super weird. last resort: does the film have markings every few feet or so along the side? i don't remember what it's supposed to say, but something like "kodak safety film." if not, maybe you just shot a roll of black leader. a friend of mine had this problem before with a roll of 16mm. he thought the camera was broken, but then he noticed there was no edge numbers on the film. i seem to remember the lab gave him a couple of new rolls, even though they said they didn't think it was the processing.

/matt