I'm a dope...

[tripanfal]

So here we go. I bought a used ZX-5n and grabbed a couple rolls of film and

went to my 4 year old daughters soccer game. I just got this thing so I wanted

to burn a couple rolls to check everything out. I stick in a bulk load of HP5

as is was geting a bit dark. I close the door and get a load error (my crummy

leader cutting) I shift stuff around and try again, the film grabs and off I

go. I shoot two frames and start to wonder if it's loading OK. I open the

door - yep, all is good so I close the door and hit the rewind button to reload

knowing I lost two frames, not thinking it would pull the leader in the

canister. (dopey move #1)

 

Dammit.

 

I stick that roll in my pocket and load a roll of Foma 100 and set the ISO to

250 (I'm losing light by the minute) and shoot half the roll. Figuring I'll

soup in diafine to get *something*, I'm not too worried. My main goal was

making sure the camera was operating OK.

 

Cut to later that evening, I put the kids to bed, do some odds and ends and

remember the HP5 in my pocket. Not wanting to waste a roll, I grab my Ilford

leader grabber thingy and finally the stupid thing grabs my film, I cut a

couple inches off the leader and recut it, knowing I lost a couple frames from

earlier. I then put this in my darkroom sink.

 

For some strange reason I then grab a tank, shut out the lights, and proceed to

load the HP5 on a reel. (dopey move #2) It never crossed my mind that I did not

have to open the canister, I just cut straight across the leader I had recut

seconds earlier, pull it from the canister,and load away.

 

At this point I'm wondering if the frames were spaced correctly, if there was a

shutter problem, how the Foma will be at EI 250 in diafine, etc... as I hapilly

pour solutions in an out...

 

After fixing I eagerly peek at the tail of the film, spot HP5, slowly inspect

the crystal clear film and it dawns on me, I'm a dope.

 

Tell me I'm not alone...

[nealcurrie]

I'm one up on you.

 

I developed an unused roll of Technical Pan with Technidol. Neither are cheap and plentiful these days.

[willscarlett]

Oof... how'd you do that, Neal?

[willscarlett]

I've got a good one too... the first time I tried shooting with a Pentax 645, I loaded the film in the wrong way, so that the backing paper was facing the shutter instead of the emulsion.

[ole_hjalmar_kristensen]

A couple of years ago I found some rolls of pretty old film in the freezer. I had loaded them from bulk film myself and put labels on them, but they had fallen off. Thinking (or not thinking) it was from a roll of HP5 I proceeded to expose at ISO400. Turned out it was not HP5 at all, but an even older batch of Tech Pan which I had completely forgotten. Surprisingly, the results were not completely terrible.

[steve m smith]

Twice this month with two different cameras I have assumed I had FP4 loaded. After exposing at EI 100 in each case, I was surprised to remove HP5 from the film back.

 

Both times I developed with Rodinal at 1+100 at a bit less than the recommended time for EI 160 (on mass. dev. chart). Negatives look fine.

 

 

Steve.

[nealcurrie]

JP, I will frequently load film into my camera and decide I want a different film after zero or a few frames. Since my Pentax LX has manual rewind with an accurate frame counter, I'll rewind and later re-use the remainder of the roll. In this instance, a roll of Techpan went into my camera, came out of my camera without any pictures having been taken, and somehow ended up in my "To be Developed" area in the couple months I was busy at work not developing any film.

 

 

Ole-Hjalmar, how did you process the Techpan that had been shot at 400?

[willscarlett]

Here's a good story... I was shooting an NYU thesis project once for some aspiring graduating senior. I decided to shoot night scenes on Vision2 500T and day scenes on Vision2 100T. The first day of the day shooting, the key grip, who was a hired professional who'd done gaffer work before and offered to do the light readings for me, to make my job easier. I gave him my meter and told him we were using ASA 100 film, but I had a polarizer (2 stops), ND6 (2 stops) and an 85 (2/3 stop), so he'd have to compensate the meter reading. Instead of telling him what to reset the meter to, I just told him how many stops he should compensate by and I never bothered to check how he set the meter.

 

Anyways, at the end of the day when I saw my meter, it'd been set at ASA 16. After doing the math in my head, it should've been set at ASA 4, so both rolls we shot that day were two stops under, but it wasn't anything a one stop push and a telecine transfer didn't fix. Needless to say, I took over the light readings after that... and yes, we did have enough light to shoot at ASA 4 - the beaches of Montauk, NY - but I ditched the ND6 for the rest of the shoot.

[cj_bas]

I once 'developed' a couple of rolls of film in fix and then 'fixed' in developer. Got the clearest strip of film out of that operation that you can imagine.

[christopher_dold]

Finished a roll of adox cms. Loaded it in a tank, didn't have time to develop it so I labelled the tank for later.

 

Later I mixed up the last of the special developer.

 

Checked temperature, timed, inverted etc.

Stop bath, fix.

Many inversions of washing, one drop of Ilford rinser.

 

Open tank... no film.

 

Don't leave labels on tanks after developing.

I think I've found the right one now.

Guess I'll try caffenol.