Faultfinding.... Yay...

[Spleenrippa]

So, I recently received a changing bag- last piece of the puzzle! I grabbed my Watson 100, a bulk roll of Arista Prem. 400 and got to it.

In a dumbass move, I decided to use my new (to me) Bessa-R for the first roll... Dumbass, because it was the first roll through the Bessa.
I took it to Wally World... Negs came out blank...

So, today I filled another test roll and shot some rubbish pics with the Bessa. I also ran a store-bought (generic drug store stuff) roll through.

They both came out blank. Well, the store bought was 200 and a couple negs were there...

Light leak in the Bessa? The back door appears fine, and the light seal around the film window looks 100%.
With the back open, the shutter appears to be firing great. All speeds sound sweet.

I just filled another test roll, and will run it through a known good camera tomorrow.
I'm also going to load another one of my drug store rolls into the Bessa and tape everything up. We'll see...


P.S. The crappy drug store rolls I'm using as my controlled item have come out fine in other cams. From the same package of rolls, etc.

[aad]

Isn't Arista Premium 400 a conventional B&W film? If you take it to a Wal Mart they will process it as C41 and that will cause the film to be blank.

As for the other roll, I don't know. Lens cap on?

[bmattock]

Lens cap on, or perhaps the film is just not being run through the camera. That does happen.

[Spleenrippa]

Haha, lens cap was the first thing I thought of- but it was in my pocket for every roll shot.
To be honest, it hadn't occurred to me that the film may not be feeding through the camera properly. Too much trust in the lovely Bessa, I guess! I'll give that a go as well, and get back with my results.

[russianRF]

Arista Premium is not C41. BW400CN is specially made for C41. Arista Premium is classic black and white film. You CANNOT process Arista Premium as C41.

[Rogrund]

Arista Premium is not C41. BW400CN is specially made for C41. Arista Premium is classic black and white film. You CANNOT process Arista Premium as C41.

I don't think the OP wrote anything about processing Arista Premium as C41...

It doesn't sound like a light leak to me. My first question would be: does the rewind crank move when you advance the film? If not, the camera isn't loaded properly.

[russianRF]

I grabbed my Watson 100, a bulk roll of Arista Prem. 400 and got to it.

I assume Arista Prem. 400 refers to Arista Premium 400...

[Rogrund]

I assume Arista Prem. 400 refers to Arista Premium 400...

Of course it does, but did he mention processing it in C41? :)

[ItsReallyDarren]

mmm hot C-41 chems, that'll melt the silver clean off the film :)

[russianRF]

Of course it does, but did he mention processing it in C41? :)

I took it to Wally World... Negs came out blank...

Unless WalMart has started doing classic B&W processing that I didn't know about (which I guess is possible).

[sevo]

Walmart should forward recognizable B&W to external processing. But the OP seems to be self-loading film - which is positively unrecognizable.

Sevo

[Rogrund]

Unless WalMart has started doing classic B&W processing that I didn't know about (which I guess is possible).

OK, I guess you're right. My mistake.

[Spleenrippa]

Thanks for the replies, guys.
Yes I am an idiot and did not even consider that the Arista isn't like BW400CN- which I've had developed there before. OOPS!! Grant me some film-n00b forgiveness? Pleeeaaaase? :o
Idiocy doesn't explain why my colour film only had a couple negatives turn out, though. Unless, of course, it was the lab tech- in which case it explains everything nicely! :p
I've got all the chems I need to develop, I'm just busy hunting for suitable containers. All the stores here seem to be jug/bottle-free. I don't understand how people store things here, it's crazy :p

[bcostin]

If the roll of the C41 had any recognizable images then it's probably not the lab. If the tech can load the film into the machine then it should pretty much take it from there.

Most likely the film isn't feeding properly. I don't have a Bessa R, but the usual way I check that film is advancing with my other cameras is to gently turn the rewind crank just a little bit until I feel resistance. If I don't feel any resistance then I know something's wrong. Either the leader isn't entirely in the takeup spool's slot, the film has broken (an entirely different problem), or there's no film in there after all.

FWIW, if you have trouble finding suitable bottles you can use plastic water or milk jugs for your chemistry. Wash them out thoroughly, of course. They hold up pretty well. You can also use plastic bleach or vinegar jugs if you want something a bit sturdier. These sometimes appear in the neighbor's recycling bins. :)

[russianRF]

Processing traditional B&W at home is fun. It's very Zen...

[bmattock]

Processing traditional B&W at home is fun. It's very Zen...

Except you might find you want 'endarkenment' instead of the usual 'enlightenment'. Just a thought.

[Chris101]

Back to the problem. If your store bought (presumably C41) film had some images on it, but a lot of blanks, then it's time to look at the camera. First thing I'd suspect is that the aperture is stuck closed down. Look in the business end of the lens and twist the dial. Does it open and close properly?

If that's not the problem, then look at the shutter. Even though it sounds ok, check to make sure it's actually opening and closing. Open the back of the camera, aim at something bright and fire off some shots at long and short speeds. If you don't see light for all speeds, then the shutter is malfunctioning.

Then if that's not the problem, spool up some of your blank film and mark the frames with a sharpie. Close up the camera and take a shot and wind the film. Look inside to check that the film moved. If not, there's the problem.

Finally consider that you have just radically underexposed the shots. Try several different exposures for the same scene, and change it by 3 f-stops each time. One of them should be close enough to make a recognizable image.

Good luck!

[bmattock]

Then if that's not the problem, spool up some of your blank film and mark the frames with a sharpie. Close up the camera and take a shot and wind the film. Look inside to check that the film moved. If not, there's the problem.

Good one, I forgot that trick! A camera repair guy taught it to me. He did it a little differently, though.

He remove the lens, set the shutter on B. Loaded the camera with 'throw-away' film. Wound to the first frame, fired, and marked the edges of the frame with his marker, through the lens-hole onto the film itself on the emulsion side. Then he wound on to the next frame and repeated.

The danger is that you might let go of the shutter while you've got your pen in there, so you have to be careful. But he used this to ensure that a camera I was having repaired was actually advancing the film when I advanced the winder, and also to check frame spacing.

[Pickett Wilson]

Or maybe he doesn't know how to operate a manual camera.

[ItsReallyDarren]

Good one, I forgot that trick! A camera repair guy taught it to me. He did it a little differently, though.

He remove the lens, set the shutter on B. Loaded the camera with 'throw-away' film. Wound to the first frame, fired, and marked the edges of the frame with his marker, through the lens-hole onto the film itself on the emulsion side. Then he wound on to the next frame and repeated.

The danger is that you might let go of the shutter while you've got your pen in there, so you have to be careful. But he used this to ensure that a camera I was having repaired was actually advancing the film when I advanced the winder, and also to check frame spacing.

That's a neat trick. Better have a steady shutter release cable or concentration of steel!

[Spleenrippa]

Hey guys,
I should've been more clear- I did check everything out on the Bessa prior to my previous posts:
- Aperture on the mounted Jupiter-8 checks out fine.
- Shutter (checked with back open) opens and closes appropriately at all speeds
- Film advance works. I checked using the "sharpie-marked frame method" which -until now- I thought I had made up ;)

As far the Bessa's metering goes, I just set it and my Alpha 350 beside each other. They're pointing at the wall and set to the same ISO, shutter speed, etc.
Both meters read '0' so I guess that rules that out.

[Spleenrippa]

Or maybe he doesn't know how to operate a manual camera.

Power on, point camera whilst looking at LCD and hit the shutter. Duh :D

[bmattock]

Power on, point camera whilst looking at LCD and hit the shutter. Duh :D

OK, don't take this the wrong way, but are you setting the shutter speed and aperture correctly? The Bessa R has no autoexposure setting, so you have to adjust either the shutter speed or the aperture (or both) until you get the middle LED lit up in the viewfinder. Just pointing the camera while looking at the LED (not LCD) isn't going to set the shutter speed/f-stop correctly for you.

If you are, then sorry, just trying to help and it sounds a bit like you're not doing that.

[Al Kaplan]

I store my chemicals in 2 liter soda bottles. If you're not into drinking Coke or Pepsi then buy the store brand for 69 cents and just dump it down the drain! Cheap enough for a 2 liter bottle. They come with plastic caps and are about as air tight as you'd want ~ they have to resist the pressure of the carbonation if the bottle gets shaken a bit. Fill one bottle to the brim and put the rest in the second bottLe which is the one you use first.

[Spleenrippa]

OK, don't take this the wrong way, but are you setting the shutter speed and aperture correctly? The Bessa R has no autoexposure setting, so you have to adjust either the shutter speed or the aperture (or both) until you get the middle LED lit up in the viewfinder. Just pointing the camera while looking at the LED (not LCD) isn't going to set the shutter speed/f-stop correctly for you.

If you are, then sorry, just trying to help and it sounds a bit like you're not doing that.


Yeah, I know how to use a camera. I was just joking... It's okay, I never pull them off in real life either :o