A little Help?

[CaptainHowdy]

First off, I'm sorry my first post in the forum is a question. I assure you, I intend to stay active, i'm not here just to ask this question. Also, I'm very sorry if this is in the wrong thread, and if it is, please feel free to move it.

My question is about some problems I'm having with my 35mm SLR. My dad gave it to me for my 17th birthday about 3 weeks ago. It's the one he used for his photography in high school. My problem is that when I went to get some film developed a couple of days ago, both of the rolls I developed were essentially unexposed. What I mean by this, is that on one roll, one out of 24 frames was exposed. The rest were totally blank. On the second roll, 13 out of 24 were exposed. the rest were blank. The only thing I can think of is that maybe the shutter isn't opening even though the film is advancing? But when I take the picture, I can definately hear the shutter click. I'm almost positive I didn't load the film incorreclyt either- I followed the directions step by step, and on one of the rolls my dad helped me. Any help? Thanks.

[mdmc]

CaptainHowdy, welcome to the forums. I can understand youre frustration. I have had similar problems. Once I shout a whole roll of film(I thought) and realized after windig past 36 frames the film was not advancing. Another time I found that my shutter was stuck open. out of 5 rolls of film 2 1/2 were exposed correctly, the rest were over exposed .
We do need some more info in order to help you though. What type of film are you shooting. color or black & white negative (print) film or color slide (transparency) film?
Over exposed slide film will be clear after proccessing, while over exposed print film will be dark. Under exposure will cause te opposite effect.
Other things that could help us help you, what camera make, model. what type of metering does it use. etc..
Mark

[CaptainHowdy]

Hey, thanks for the info man.
Well both rolls that screwed up were color, ISO 400. The camera make is Nikon and the model is FG-20. As far as the light meter goes, it has one in the left corner of the viewfinder, but when I took these pictures, the batteries for the light meter were dead. I just recently replaced them. (after I developed these pictures.) I don't know if that would have had any effect on it?
If it was just under exposure, the film would have turned out transparent? If that's true that might have been it. I'm still getting used to the concept of Aperture and Shutter speed, so if it's true that under exposed print film is transparent, then that's most likely the problem. However, I can't be sure that even though I'm not used to exposure techniques, that I under exposed 23 out of 24 frames. I think that's a bit unlikely, although definately plausible.

[another view]

If it was just under exposure, the film would have turned out transparent?

Transparent - as in completely clear - negatives are from no exposure, not just underexposure. Any number of things could have happened but since you did get at least one shot on each roll you did load the film correctly and apparently the camera is working, at least some of the time. This could be an intermittent camera problem, being an older camera - but it's not likely. If it hasn't been used in a long time then maybe it developed (pun!) problems due to lack of use - the same thing would happen to a car if it wasn't used for a long time.

Light meter batteries may affect camera operation depending on what exposure mode you're in. If it was in manual exposure mode (not familiar with the camera so I don't know the choices) then the light meter just helps you determine what exposure should be but using it without batteries won't hurt anything. However, some cameras have an electronic shutter and require batteries for use - atain not likely that this is the problem. Since you put the new batteries in I'd try another roll and see how it works.

[Erik Stiegler]

The FG-20 requires a battery to operate at any shutter speed setting other than M90 and B. However, you must have been using one of these settings, or the film wouldn't advance.

I'd think you should get at least something on the negative, unless you were shooting in very low light & a very small aperture.

Look at the rewind crank as you advance the film. If the film is loaded properly, it will turn as the film advances. It's easy to misload film in older cameras like that.