Some modern film Nikon tidbits

<p>I often go to Thom Hogan's site to read his reviews and advice on equipment I own or would like to own. I have both his field guides and guide to Nikon flashes up to the SB-28. I was perusing his 35mm Q and A section yesterday, and noted that there was a lament from one his correspondents that some of modern cameras with auto rewind didn't provide the option to leave a few inches of film outside the cannister. I don't engage in chemistry so was not concerned, but today I was moving some boxes of 3-ring notebooks that contained printouts of some older blogs, for which I used my former employer's printers shamelessly. In the notebook there was article written in 2002 by Edwin Leong of Vancouver. It was an excellent 22 page review of the Nikon F100. On page 4, he states that pushing both rewind buttons will rewind the film on the F100, F5 and F90X but leave a three inch leader out. A second push of the two rewind buttons will wind the leader into the cannister.</p>

<p>Looks like a lot of good stuff on his web site which is:</p>

<p>http://www.camerahobby.com/</p>

<p>A related note for Canon EOS film cameras. Many of them have a parameter that can be chosen that will leave a portion of the film outside the canister. It's rarely an obvious thing, but the choice is built-in on a number of them.</p>

<p>This feature is becoming more important for those of us who frequent drugstore photo labs, where personnel are becoming dismally incompetent at extracting the leader. My local CVS ruins the first few frames on about 50% of my film when I leave the leader in, so I now always leave some out, and on autowinding cameras without this feature I have to use a film picker to do it. It's a hassle, but the looks of relief on the techs' faces when I drop off my film with the leader hanging out tells me it's a good call.</p>

<p>Also, often these days I find myself testing second-hand bodies and often half a roll is enough for a test, so I'll rewind and test another camera with the second half. There again, cameras that can leave the leader hanging are a useful convenience.</p>

 

<p>Nikon cameras, including the F100, F5 and F90X, do not leave the leader out, by default. The cameras have a "leader out" parameter in their flash configuration memory, but it requires a Nikon service tool to change it. Apparently, Edwin Long had this done to all of his cameras, or acquired them from someone who did. Canon, on the other hand, makes it user changeable with custom functions.</p>

<p>The story, supposedly from Nikon, is that they were afraid that opening the back with a leader out could result in the leader poking the shutter curtains, increasing warranty repairs. Personally, I'd be more worried about accidentally reshooting a roll. ;)</p>

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<p> Personally, I'd be more worried about accidentally reshooting a roll. ;)</p>

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<p>I know that's what my disorganized self would do!</p>

<p>"Personally, I'd be more worried about accidentally reshooting a roll."</p>

<p>I have made almost every mistake possible in photography, and yes, I've done this too. Now I carry a mini Swiss pocketknife on my keyring and I cut a small V on the leader when removing the exposed film from the camera. Two Vs if it needs pushing.</p>

<p>I don't remember (but that's more common than it used to be) ever having reshot a roll of my own, but I have reshot a couple of rolls of found film that looked like they were unshot because the leader was hanging out. I like to think of it as not only found film, but also found <em><strong>art</strong></em>.<br /> Holga users, eat your hearts out!</p><div></div>

<p>For goodness sake! Rampant trivia... Any respectable lab (or photographer) can produce a leader from a rewound cassette inside 30 seconds, it's all part of the process. I have a $3.00 tool sitting on the front of me which serves the purpose for the films I push through a newly-acquired camera to test the winding mechanism. When you've shot a film, <em>always</em> wind it right back into the cassette. It's hard to find a reason not to...If you want to delineate a film, mark it on the can.</p>

<p>Hmmm...Rather a strong response on my part; I fear stress levels are a little high, down here in the South Pacific. My apologies; it's a relevant discussion, and it would have been better served by my pointing out that several unfortunate incidents involving twice-exposed film convinced me long ago that the only safe option is to rewind film completely.</p>

<p>Your point is fair, Rick, but my latest "reason not to" occurred just last week, when I finished a roll from a Nikon F-801s, it autowound all the way in, but I wanted it done quickly so I dropped it off on my way home rather than use my $3.00 tool to fish it out and have it done the next morning. Result -- the first 3 frames of my kid's piano recital ruined. It's getting so I'm going to have to get a few more $3.00 tools and carry them with me when shooting, if I'm not using cameras that can leave the leader hanging.</p>

 

<p>You must deal with some very rough labs, <strong>August</strong>. Anyway, here are a couple of the pattern I use, though they've gone up a little in price since I bought mine, about 5 years ago!</p>

<p>http://cgi.ebay.com.au/New-AP-35mm-Film-Leader-Retriever-Extractor-Picker-/380274521121?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_2&hash=item588a20b421<br /> http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Pro-Film-Retriever-35mm-Film-Leader-Picker-RRP-12-/380191772561?pt=UK_Photography_DarkroomSupplies_SM&hash=item5885320f91</p>

<p>or try this:<br>

<p>Rick, you response was pretty strong, especially coming from a mild-mannered Kiwi, whose photography I admire. I posted it because in one of Thom Hogan's articles, he was pondering why Nikon had never made this option available, and shortly after, I stumbled upon a review I had printed years ago which indicated that the option was available. I posted the comments primarily as a public service, since I never develop my own film, and it really matters not to me. But I value knowledge, and it might have been important to someone. The cameras mentioned in the article, the Nikon F5, N90, and N80. only came into my possession in the last three months.</p>

<p>Best wishes to you, and your beautiful country.</p>

<p>Not what I need, but there's a custom setting on the F6 to leave the leader out after a film rewind.</p>

<p>You're right, <strong>James</strong>, and I regret responding a little acidly; I'm just back from a much-needed break on one of our smaller islands, and hopefully my disposition has improved! I guess I also sometimes take our members' level of expertise for granted; after about eight years experience in running film processing laboratories without, (to the best of my knowledge), having ever damaged a film in the leader retrieval process, and having always carried a retrieval tool in my kit, it just seemed such a non-issue. But I recant, and admit that the subject is of use and interest to many of the forum members.</p>

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<p>You're right, <strong>James</strong>, and I regret responding a little acidly.</p>

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<p>They weren't that bad, Rick, but merely caught me off guard, because you are one of the most mild mannered, and helpful posters. But I do hate you because your photos always remind me how inept I am as a photographer. Just kidding, of course about the hate, but not about my ineptness.</p>