Beginner tips for loading film. Avoid blank rolls!

Hashem gives you some tips for loading a 35mm SLR. This guide will help ensure your film is loaded correctly to avoid blank rolls, and to get more from your film without wastage!

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#35mmfilm #loadingfilm #filmloading

[alirose]

I would actually cry if I developed my film and it came back blank

[gabippo]

Saw this just after sending my film to develop... pray for it

[pendorawunderkammer]

I have a tip too : when you rewind your roll and don't feel any "tension" (the film being pulled back into the canister kinda make you feel the pressure and the "pop" at the end) is a big indicator that you loaded your camera badly. :)

[tildamay]

one day recently I took 36 exposures in London, and went to rewind the film once I was home and realised it hadn't been loaded properly and was all blank :((( wish I'd watched this first!

[FrenchieFries]

i went on a 1 month trip to europe and guess what... i had 6 canisters and they all came back empty :(

[richardsilva-spokane]

We old wedding photographers learned these tips early on. Can you imagine the tragedy and shame if this accident happened during a wedding shoot? 😬😬😬😱😱😱😱

[escodoozer]

I really appreciate you making this video! I’m in San Francisco and took over 60 shots only to find out 24 were good and the rest were blank *cries* I checked my camera rn and followed your tips to find out that I was about to shoot more blanks! Fixed it and might have saved my trip. Shoutout to you and I hope more people my age (23) appreciate film and take photos on film!

[itscraigfontes]

I'm so glad I watched this, I was 10 shots into a blank roll in my OM20 man! Thanks again!

[voradorlinux]

It may sound silly and borderline patronizing but this YouTuber's advice is one of the most basic and useful tips anyone can learn when starting (or re-starting after years hiatus) with film photography. Cheers!

[kemi_jpg]

This whole time I’ve been loading film wrong. 😐 no wonder when I develop, my film has sprocket lines. Thanks for the tips! I appreciate it so much. ✌🏼

[martinchorich]

My daughter had the opposite problem. All of her first rolls in high school came back 100 percent fogged. No one told her not to open the back of the camera. Not her fault! Boomer teachers assumed that everyone knew this and didn’t mention it when they handed out the K1000s. Parenthetically, when I did news photography I was told to always come back with something. No excuses short of a bullet hole in the camera or meeting up with Sinatra on a bad day accepted.

[ngiorgos]

here is my extra tip: after you install your canister, carefully turn the rewind crank until it just starts pulling the leader. this takes all the slack of the film from inside the canister so you know imediatelly if the film is being advanced
The first time I shot film, I loaded the camera and kept checking if the rewind knob was turning. It only starting turning after 3-5 shots! Until then I was getting worried that the film isn't advancing.

[markharris]

It seems so simple loading film, yet it can easily go wrong, I do have a couple of EOS cameras that load automatically once you’ve put the leader in the take up spool cavity. I have a dead film that I always use in any camera I’ve just bought in case there any anomalies. I found learning to load a back off a system MF camera a bit different when I first loaded it. A very useful video, I think if there were more of the 'basic' videos around more people are likely to take to film as I think a lot of younger people are nervous about things like this and may be too embarrassed to ask.

[clintonr]

Magnificent information! Great video! A couple of warnings and explanations from a former Olympus repair tech, though...most important last.

Users may note that the take-up spool in almost every 35mm camera slips -- it's supposed to. If it didn't, it would try to pull more and more film each time the camera was wound as the film wrapped around it, making it effectively larger. This would waste film, as the space between shots would increase frame by frame. It is the sprocket (the toothed wheel just before the take-up spool) that actually meters the proper amount of film for each shot.

On the front of most early OM cameras below the shutter button is the "rewind release" that has to be rotated in the direction of the arrow to disengage the wind mechanism so that the film can be freely rewound into the cassette. It is supposed to snap back into the vertical position by itself immediately during the camera's next wind stroke. But sometimes, if the mechanism is damaged, it may not. If not, you may be able to gently turn it back vertical by hand -- don't force!

When loading a roll of film, be sure that the film cassette feeds the film flat across the back of the camera, and the film is not bowed up into the air. Otherwise, when closing the back cover, the film may become pinched between the spring on the back cover that holds the cassette in place and the cassette itself. Of course, if you are watching to be sure the rewind knob begins turning as the camera is wound, you will know something is wrong!

But most importantly! When loading a roll of film in most Olympus cameras, be sure to put the film leader INTO BUT NOT THROUGH the take-up spool. (This warning is in their manuals.) If you push the tip of the leader all the way through so that it pokes out the other side, the take-up spool will get too big too quickly, push back against the pressure plate, and the film will begin to jump over the sprocket teeth beginning around 14 frames into the roll, resulting in overlapping frames from there to the end of the roll.

Next most importantly! On OM-10's and later models (OM-G, F, PC, 20, 30, 40, et al), be sure to turn the rewind knob CLOCKWISE ONLY to rewind the roll! If you turn the rewind knob the wrong way, it will get harder and harder to turn as the film is forced to make an oblique turn back into the cassette. (On earlier models, the knob will simply unscrew -- no so on these models) As more force is applied, the rewind shaft or it's collar may fracture, or the film may receive "stress exposure". Stress exposure looks like shadowy lines radiating out from the corners of the sprocket holes of processed film.

Thanks for your patience!

[djsaucylady]

I did EXACTLY the mistake you mentioned here for my first Holga film loading experience. I got a call from the film processor and said it was blank and my heart sank. Then I Googled and figured out it wasn't loaded right and this Youtube video confirmed it further. Now I can confirm it was loaded properly. Got a Pentax KM in the mail last week too so I'm glad I learned this first. I used to only have point and shoot film cameras and disposables growing up so I never had to insert it this manually and wind it. Thank you so much for your video!

[EVRLYNMedia]

im literally just watching every video about how to use film cameras and mine in particular because i seriously dont want to screw it up

[johnilko]

I've been shooting an SLR for around 60 years, and in my excitement I just shot a roll last week that ended up blank because I didn't check the rewind knob like I always did. It can happen to anyone. Good video tip. I noticed when rewinding there was no pressure on the knob.so I didn't loose the roll.

[missyellowdot]

I only started shooting yesterday, thought I had 6 shots and was progressing well. Saw this video this morning and realised the rewind knob wasnt turning, opened up the back and the film wasnt even in the right place!! I cannot thank you enough for saving me not only the time and money, but the inevitable disappointment that would have followed a blank roll!! Hope you see this, and have a wonderful weekend.

[SpaceZombie]

Great video! it happened to me a while ago, shooting a roll over a longer period of time on different locations and getting back a blank roll. I knew I was fucked when it kept shooting past 36 and rewinding only took 2 seconds lol. Checking if the rewind knob is moving is definitely a good practise!

[VlogEva]

Thank you, you're an actual savior. I shoot with film all the time and have done so for 3 years or so now, so I've definitely gone through roughly 50 rolls or so. But last summer in Paris, I shot two rolls and they both came back blank. I was gutted, they were all shots I could remember taking which made me even more excited for getting them back, but everything was blank. It was heartbreaking. So once again, thank you so much 😇⚡️