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I finally figured out why my film keeps coming back blank after 6 weeks of frustration
Ngl it took me 6 weeks and 4 ruined rolls to realize I was loading the film backwards in my Canon AE-1. The spool notch needs to face the lens, not the back plate. Has anyone else made this dumb mistake or just me?
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ross.angela4d ago
Oh man, I did this exact thing with my first roll of film in a Pentax K1000. I loaded it backwards and felt like such a fool when the lab guy showed me the empty frames. My brain just assumed the spool would catch the film no matter what direction it faced.
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... and that's exactly the kind of thing where you think "how could I be THIS dumb" but really it's just the way brains work. We get so focused on the BIG thing we're trying to do that we skip over the tiny details that Actually Matter. It reminds me of how people lock their keys in the car or leave the stove on - it's not stupidity, it's just that your brain has this tunnel vision thing where it assumes the obvious step is already handled. Film loading is especially brutal because it has that one little trick that makes or breaks everything, and nobody bothers to TELL you until you've already ruined a roll. You're definitely not alone though, I bet half the people who shoot film have a similar story.
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