Almost Blank Neg Roll

[jonathan_zerger]

<p>I just shot an Ilford XP2 Special on my Konica TC and almost my entire roll, except for the last 7 or 8 frames is blank. I chatted to a friend of mine and he had me check all the functions on my camera and everything works fine. My aperture opens up and closes like it should, my shutter works - I am not sure what happened. I was shooting outside almost the entire time as well</p>

[Andrew Garrard]

<p>Just to clarify for whoever is better qualified than me to diagnose this, blank as in "fully exposed", or blank as in "no exposure"? If "fully exposed", are the sprocket holes exposed too? And it's definitely the last few frames that worked, not the first few (from the pespective of the roll, not what you thought you shot)? Just checking the direction of film transport and what might have happened to it.<br />

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Accidents do occasionally happen in labs, without the staff knowing (or owning up). Or did you develop it yourself? I don't know your camera, but what metering were you using? (Any chance the meter could have got confused or used the wrong film ISO setting, and give you no exposure time?)<br />

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I'd make very sure of the aperture - sticky blades do often open, just not until too late. Maybe some dust wedged the aperture and then came free? (That seems more likely to give you overexposure than nothing at all, though.)

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I'm not sure that's any help, but if you can answer any of those questions, it might give an expert a better chance of narrowing down the problem! Good luck.</p>

[ali_baba2]

<p>aperture and shutter that work wont tell you the whole story since its the last frames that are exposed correctly: maybe they were stuck and at one point let go, you are checking after the fact... Also as mentioned before you have to take in account if blank mean completely unexposed or completely exposed as per "stuck open"... the completely exposed option though should have left something like a portion of a frame faded to a correct exposure, you say 7 <strong>or</strong> 8 so its not clear if you have a faded frame edge but thats a clue you can look for. If you let the camera sit unused take some empty shots every once in awhile.</p>

[paul_noble]

<p>Film SLR's typically have two shutter speed gear trains; a slow speed train that operates at shutter speeds of 1/30 or slower (perhaps 1/60) and another train that operate at higher speeds. It is possible that one train of the other in your camera is not working properly, while the other is. Were the failed exposures at high speeds and the successful ones at slow speed (or vice versa)?</p>

<p>Another possibility is that you have a dragging shutter. A focal plane shutter consistes of two curtains. One opens while the other remains stationary. A fraction of a second later the second curtain closes. At higher speeds, typically 1/60 or faster, the second curtain begins closing before the leading curtain has completed its travel, resulting in a moving slit across the film. The higher the speed, the smaller the slit.</p>

<p>A common occurence in old focal plane shutters is that the leading curtain slows down, allowing the trailing curtain to catch up. In severe cases, the leading curtain may never get out ahead of the trailing curtain, resulting in the film not being exposed at all. In moderate cases, the film may be exposed on one end of the frame but not the other, as the trailing curtain catches up in the middle of the movement.</p>

<p>If either of these scenarios is happening, a good CLA may very well cure it.</p>

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