Rewinding an unused roll

<p>Probably a stupid question, but I've loaded my Nikon F-100 with a roll of the soon-to-be-rare Fuji Velvia 50, with the specific intention of capturing a beautiful sunset last afternoon.</p>

<p>I missed it.</p>

<p>I want to rewind the film back into the cartridge and save it - so that I can practice a few things with some B&W film (still relatively new to film and the F100). I understand that the film lead will be sucked back into the cartridge, but I figure that I can get it back with a film lead retriever that I have.</p>

<p>Pending that the lead retrieval goes smoothly, is it safe to assume that the first few frames that were extracted from the cartridge are still usable?</p>

<p>Thanks</p>

 

<p>Some cameras with motor driven wind and rewind offered the option to leave the leader out at the end of rewinding. If you have an F100 instruction manual...</p>

<p>'... is it safe to assume that the first few frames that were extracted from the cartridge are still usable?' Yes, they're usable. But using these leader retrievers can often be a time-consuming hassle as the process is hit-or-miss. If you're at the beginning of the roll I suggest finding a perfectly pitch dark room, opening the camera back, gently elevating the cassette and manually rewinding the film off the take-up spool. Don't touch the film. You'll hear the leader release from the take-up spool and know when to stop rewinding.</p>

<p>Powering the camera off or opening the door won't interrupt the auto-rewinding but opening the battery door at just the critical moment will do the job. The 'leader-out' option on the F100 must be programmed, <em>for a fee</em>, by Nikon Service. It is not a standard feature. How about that for pettiness?</p>

<p>Is there any chance your F100 is programmed to leave the leader out? Asking since of the dozen or so late model Nikon AF bodies I've bought, all had been set up this way. If so, complete rewind into the can requires another push of the rewind buttons.</p>

<p>thanks guys, I'll try pulling the battery during rewind.</p>

<p>Unfortunately its not programmed to leave the leader out. I thought about having it done, but it'll probably cost more than I paid for the camera itself. </p>

<p>I just use a film retriever and wind 2 frames past where I believe the last exposure was. Over the years it has worked well for me, although last month I was trying out a camera brand I had never used before, and ended up with an overlapped shot.</p>

<p>Yeah - see you how go. I had a F100 when I went to EU for a trip and thought about this film retriever thing. You may afterwards consider a 2nd light body, just a light simple camera if you don't need the absolute quickest AF. May be simpler. Or a manual focus body, they lack the grip so smaller.</p>

<p><em>"I thought about having it done, but it'll probably cost more than I paid for the camera itself."</em></p>

<p>Jason, it's about a 30 second job done through the 10-pin port.</p>

<p>Most all cameras allow you to rewind the film back into the cassette. This can be a safe procedure however, since most do this infrequently, the film can be at risk. Be mindful that we can rewind carelessly and cause the tongue to disappear into the cassette You need to practice this a few times. If the tongue is lost, you will need a tongue extraction tool. These are not expensive but again, it takes practice to extract a tongue.</p>

<p>When you rewind you risk damage to the sprocket holes, fogging of frames, crease and stretching of the film causing pressure marks. Again, practice makes perfect. Never done this? Perhaps best to go in a darkened room, remove the camera back, take out the cassette with its length of film and rewind it back in to the cassette by hand pitch dark conditions. </p>

Slightly off-topic perhaps, but why do you call Velvia 50 "soon-to-be-rare"? If it's to do with Fujifilm's announcement on film discontinuation from a few months ago, in fact only large format Velvia 50 is being discontinued. Medium format and 135 format Velvia 50 (which your F100 takes of course) are unaffected by the announcement.<br>

<a href="http://www.fujifilm.eu/uk/news/article/news/fujifilm-announces-film-discontinuations/">

http://www.fujifilm.eu/uk/news/article/news/fujifilm-announces-film-discontinuations/</a>

<p>well that's good news. </p>

<p>I'm probably losing it, but I swear I bought my first few rolls of it for ~$4.00ea; just about 6 months ago. Then I saw that they're selling for $8-$15 now, so I figured that this price fluctuation was due to discontinuation. </p>

<p>Thanks</p>

<p>Velvia in 135 wasn't $4.00 6 months ago, it's now $8.39. Still the best result.</p>

<p>"is it safe to assume that the first few frames that were extracted from the cartridge are still usable?"<br />Maybe, but not guaranteed.<br />I've never used an F100 but on most cameras, once you put the film cartridge in and attach the leader to the takeup spool and close the door, you advance the film anywhere from two to four frames to end up on frame No. 1. If you do that with the lens cap off, then those first few frames have been exposed to light the same as if you had shot pictures with them. (If you look at a roll of developed film, the first few frames are often of the photographer's feet.) Even if you had the lens cap on, lens caps are not necessarily light-tight.<br />So, if you remove the roll and then re-used it, I would load normally but then advance to frame No. 3 or 4 just to be on the safe side.</p>

<p>Further on Craig's comment. With the F100 when you initially load the film with the lens cap on or even if you compose the shot, the F100 isn't able to select a shutter speed or aperture until the loading of the film is confirmed and at the "1 figure. I would just load the film (again) as usual, if you wanted frame #5, I would put lens cap on fire off 5 frames and maybe 2 or 3 after that to be sure. Maybe with the highest shutter speed and F#.</p>

<p>I don't believe that what Craig says is correct. It might be true for older cameras with manual film advance, but not for a modern camera with automatic advance.</p>

 

<p><em>"I've never used an F100 but on most cameras, once you put the film cartridge in and attach the leader to the takeup spool and close the door, you advance the film anywhere from two to four frames to end up on frame No. 1."</em></p>

 

<p>Once you have inserted the film and closed the back of the camera, <em>you</em> don't advance the film to frame 1, the F100 does this automatically, and does so without firing the shutter. (You might have to press the shutter release on the F100 to initiate the process, but I don't believe the shutter itself opens.) Therefore no light is given the opportunity to enter the film chamber, so no film is exposed (other than that which was exposed prior to the camera back being closed). Whether the lens cap is on or not is irrelevant. You might not even need to have a lens attached.</p>

 

<p>If you load a film, take no pictures, rewind the film, retrieve the film leader and then successfully reload the same film, then you can start taking photos at frame 1 and waste no film. Use frame 1 for something unimportant if you're paranoid. This is valid for most modern automatic cameras as long as you load film in a consistent manner.</p>

<p>Dunno about if it actually fires off a frame while loading ...<br /> <br />Even if I not take a shot, rewind, reload to #1, it may depend how you loaded the film. If there was more slack or if you pushed more film into the right hand side spool before closing the door it would begin #1 a bit further into the roll ... Or if you wanted #5 the second time, you pushed in less film before shutting the door you might find that #5 started partly at the end of #4.</p>

<p>Hi,</p>

<p>film retrieval cost just the price of a piece of double-sided tape. I have done it according to this video already several times (I need the film lead as I develop in an Agfa Rondimax), and it's really a piece of cake...<br>

<br />Good luck,<br>

Rob.</p>

<p>Colin O is correct. The F100 advances film to frame 1 during autoload <strong>without</strong> exposing any frames, and the shutter does not open. The only film exposed is the leader that has been pulled out while you were loading the camera prior to closing the back.</p>

<p>So you can safely reload the film and use it as if it were a fresh, never loaded roll.</p>

<p>If you were reloading a <strong>partially</strong> exposed roll, then it would be prudent to advance to frame x + 1 with a lens cap on to avoid overlapping (and double exposed) frames, but that's not the case here.</p>

<p>It's a shame that Nikon did not include a leader-out custom function. It can be convenient occasionally to have that feature. It can also bite you in the arse if you forget that the roll of film tucked in a corner of your bag with the leader tab sticking out has been partially exposed. Been there, done that. More than once I'm embarrassed to admit :-) >:(</p>

<p>Colin/Michael -- Thanks. I was not aware of the loading process on the F100. I have four F2 bodies and an FM, then skipped ahead to the D200 and more recently a D7000. A big gap in my hands-on knowledge.</p>