Confused about advancing film in Diana F+

BunnyCharmer

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I know this is a stupid question and I've done as much research as I possibly can but haven't found an explanation...I loaded 120 film (my first roll in new Diana F+) and advanced it until it stopped. Thought that was the beginning of the roll. Started taking pictures. Every time I pressed the shutter I would wind the film until it stopped. I *thought* that's how it was supposed to work. BUT then I started seeing numbers in the window on the back of the camera and the film no longer stops advancing on its own. What's going on? Anybody know? I gather from trying to find out what's going on that I probably *should* have advanced until I saw the #1 and then advanced to each subsequent number without expecting it to stop, but why would it stop in the beginning? When I load my next roll of film should I just keep pressing the shutter release and advancing the film until I get to the #1, or ??? Any help is greatly appreciated. I'm very excited to be getting into photography again.
 
I have various cameras that are similar and I can't remember offhand with the Diana if you have to keep releasing the shutter to advance it but yes - you'll have to keep advancing the film til you see the #1 in the red window. Depending on what film you use you might see some dots on the paper backing as you're getting closer to 1.

I think it seems like you have to turn it way more times than you'd expect to finally get to number 1. Hope you get it working and have fun with it. If you post in the Film section you might get more responses.
 
Thanks! I'm starting to get the hang of it. Very excited to find out if my creative clicking will end up in what I see in my mind or if I'm overexposing the film! LOL!!
 
Glad you're getting the hang of it. Sometimes experimenting can be fun, I like seeing if it turned out the way I thought, or if nothing else I might have learned what not to do or what didn't work (which can help you figure out what does work!). Hope you have fun with it.
 
The diana F+ has an advancement knob. DON'T advance until the film no longer advances, that will literally waste an entire roll. You have to advance until you see the number "1" in the window, then take your shot, and then advance til the number "2" appears in the window (unless you're doing more than one exposure on the frame), and so on. I could see your confusion if you aren't used to 120 cameras such as the Diana because 35mm cameras just need to be advanced until it stops, then you take your exposure. But that is not the case with the Diana and most of the medium format analog cameras I have used.

Hope you enjoy the camera though! I own 15+ film cameras (from Polaroids, to toy cameras) and my Diana is easily my favorite camera to shoot. So simple and lightweight, if loaded with the right film it can yield some amazing results!

Also, as Vintagensaps said, there is a lot of paper backing on the film before you get to the actual numbers. Even til this day I'm astounded by how many times I have to turn to knob just to get to the number one.
 

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