Unloading film goes wrong in the store

[andremartins]

THE EVENT:
So, today I went to a Photography Store to develop my first film. This event went terribly wrong. The fault was as mine as it was hers (the employee).
But, here's what happened: I told her I had never rewound a film in my life, so maybe it would be better if she did it. So, she tried to do so. She kept on rotating the rewind knob, but the film wasn't rewinding, so she said "oh, it must be already fully rewound. I'll now open the back side of the camera". Everything happened so fast that I didn't even have the time to think that doing that in such an illuminated room would burn the film, if it wasn't rewound like she had predicted. So, she opened the back and tchadan: the film wasn't rewound. She was like "humm, well, the film is now unrecoverable". And, then she probably felt like she didn't do the right thing, so she started saying that the film was "blocked" and that the camera wasn't very good at rewinding films . I was so upset that I didn't even say anything. Just fake-smiled and left the store.

THE PROBLEM:
Later at home, I went on "invastigating" the film and on doing some tests with it, and what I think it happened was the following: the problem in this situation was the film. You know that plastic thing on the top of the film that helps the rewind knob rotating the film? That plastic thing wasn't very good (probably not strong enough or not reachable enough), so it didn't quite help the camera on the rewinding process. Well, the film was one that I bought on a chinese store for 2,50€, but I never thought it would lack quality on the film plastic itself. I thought it would only mess up the tones a little bit (which I didn't mind at all)

THE SOLUTION:
Now, the solution for this would be... Before she had opened the back side of the camera, I should have stopped her and take the film home. And, at home, in a room without much light, I would have opened the back side of the camera and rewind the film with my own hands untill I couldn't do it anymore. That wouldn't save the 36 photos, but at least 14 would be ok. And, by ok I mean developable. Probably, they would have some fingertips and some damaging, but it could turn out to be something artistic.

What do you think: am I right or wrong?
Do you think this "solution" would have had success?
Do you have a different solution?
Do you have any suggestions for me?

Any feedback would be much appreciated .
Thank you,
André Martins .

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[dxqcanada]

If the plastic partition in the plastic take up reel breaks ... it would most likely be caused by not releasing the take up gear.
Normally I would expect the film sprockets to rip as the film is reeled in ... and usually the film tears.
I have never seen one break the plastic ... so yes it could be cheap manufacturing ... but it would not have occurred if the film was properly released.

What camera do you have ?

[bogeyguy]

My old SRT 101 had a button on the bottom of the body to push before starting rewind process. Just sayin.

[GeorgieGirl]

Film new bees. Old timers knew the risks of rewinding and understood them without blame games. Perils and pitfalls of film. You have to do it slow and deliberate and use your sense of hearing and touch. Sorry to hear of your misfortune.

[Mot]

I think I agree with what others are saying, it sounds like you may have forgotten to press the "Film Rewind" button before you wound it back in. Though it does surprise me that you didn't feel any tension as you, or the employee, attempted to rewind it. You didn't pull up the rewind knob before you did it? Or anything that may have stopped the film rewinding.

When rewinding you have to feel for when the film has been totally rewound back into the spool, you get a consistent tension for a number of turns until the film has finished, it should then go loose when its done.

Could I ask what camera you were using?

[ann]

You could take it home, and open the camera in darkness, not low light and remove the film and put it in a film cansister until it can be developed.

[andremartins]

First of all, thank you for the quick replies. Now, answering your post

@dxqcanada

The plastic didn't brake. It just didn't do the job of rewinding. As you can tell, I'm very new to this, but when I came home I did some tests to see what failed: I put the film, now spoiled, into the camera and tried to rewind it. The small bit of film that was attached (in the store, whe she opened the back side of the camera, she tore the film, so that she could remove it) did rewind. And, then I put the rest of the film inside of the reel with my hands. At the beginning, it was easy, but then it got harder and harder untill i couldn't insert it anymore. I put around 14frames out of the 36 inside of the reel. So, my conclusion is that the plastic partition was only strong enough to rewind almost half of the film. But, then again, this is my assumption. I don't know If i'm right or not...
The camera is a Kiev-19 .

@bogeyguy

I did push that button

@Mot


It all happened in a matter of minutes. Around 4 minutes, I would say... And, it was the employee that was rewinding it. She sure didn't feel any tension as she rotated the rewind knob. She was doing it so fast (I guess that's why she thought it was already rewinded, even though I told her in the beginning that I had never rewound a film). And, we couldn't hear anything. During the "rewinding" she did pull up the rewind knob too much, which ended up in opening the back side of the camera. I closed it right away, so it wasn't really exposed. I don't think that could have been the cause of the problem, though...

@ann

So, the solution I came up with was correct, right?Well, but acording to what you said, I could have saved my entire film and not only around 14 photographs...

[dxqcanada]

Find somewhere to buy some expired film really cheap ... or just sacrifice a roll ... use this to practice rewinding.

[O|||||||O]

Did you feel any tension at all when you attempted to rewind it?

I guess it's possible (with film of questionable quality) that the end of the film came off the spool...

Kodak tends to use smooth spools and tape the film to it. Fuji tends to use those slotted spools with the little teeth that the film hooks into. But are plenty secure...



I would imagine that if the film had come of the spool, it would have been quite obvious upon opening the camera though...



What camera was it anyway?
(Nevermind - you said that in your other post... Not familiar with that camera...)

Sounds like it could be a faulty (or just cheap) camera...

[BlackSheep]

Are there any camera shops (not a photo printing lab) or camera clubs near to you? It sounds to me like you need to physically show the camera to someone who knows film cameras, so that they can see what isn't working right, whether it is a problem with the the camera itself or something that the photo lab employee did wrong when trying to re-wind the film.

[sierramister]

My solution is to sell your film camera and buy a DSLR! Just kidding!

[manaheim]

What is this thing you call... "film"?

[cgipson1]

It was her fault, period! Knowing there was some issue with it, she should have taken it back to a dark room if she had one available and opened it there, and determined what was up.. to the best of her ability. OR she should have said "Sorry.. can't help you.. you will need to get the film out and bring it to us"! Back in the "old" days, when film was all we had, that would have been an unforgivable mistake if that happened at a lab.

waste a roll of film.. practice with it.. get to know how it feels when you rewind... do it until you KNOW!

also.. if you want decent images.. don't buy cheap junk film.... it ain't worth the headaches.....

[davepit]

If you want cheap shots, don't buy cheap film, buy a digital camera. You can't expect a salesman in a photography shop to know how to rewind film - 35mm film is dead.

[Mot]

You don't need to waste a roll of film to practice rewinding. You could just run the roll through with the lens cap on, if it's not exposed then it's still good to use. The problem is if you wind the film completely back into the spool, if you don't leave the leader out then you would have to use a special tool to fish it out. Then again, if you leave some of the film out and expose it when you open the back it's still better than wasting 36 shots.

If you are rewinding the film by hand then you'd probably want practice, that may be what people meant!

I would agree with Davepit in one sense, film is dead to the general market. Only the hobbyists, students and select pros use it these days. I wouldn't expect the 16 year old Sunday Job worker at my local camera shop to know how to rewind film, nor would I trust him to.