6x17 film exposure issue

[rguinter]

It lines up pretty well with the window. One window one format. I have a different film holder for the 6x12 and 6x9.

Hi John, absolutely no LEDs or power on this baby ! This is one very agricultural piece of Chinese machinery.

I have a poor memory of the event but I think I must have loaded it in the dark tent the wrong way round and was winding for some time before I realised I wasn't seeing numbers (it isn't that easy to see them), taken it out, reloaded, then shot all 4 exposures anyway.

I do sound a bit vague to be an LF photog but please realise the trip was a 2 week mad dash around Tasmania ... after about a year of not using the equipment.

This is the only explanation I can come up with. I only remember being cross at myself for something and forcing myself to take the photos on a different roll also. It turns out I have 3 reasonable exposures of the same scene.

Oh for an automated camera! My brain and me are incompatible.

Steve:

If you accidentally loaded the film upside down and wound for several frames before realizing, I'm wondering how did you rewind the roll in order to start over? Do you recall?

Myself I have one camera that is very quirky and sometimes I fail to reset the counter properly to zero before reloading. Then when I load and start winding I realize my mistake. But these rolls are usually wasted since I've never figured out how to rewind the film successfully and start over. Probably could do it if I was at home with my loading tent but in the field I usually just trash the roll and start over.

So I'm wondering what method you tried to re-roll? Bob G.

[swmcl]

Bob,

The Da Yi film holders are very basic. No film counters to speak of. One would unclip both spools and rewind the original by hand and then re-set into the film holder. It means you have roll film flying everywhere inside the dark tent generally.

The film holder has a rachet to stop rewinding on the take-up spool. That is why you have to completely dismantle the whole thing.

I must have gone into denial about the event because I can't think of how else it must have happened. The trip was quite film-eventful because I was loading in the dark tent which has a great many difficulties (hence the other post about loading). On one occasion it took me 45 mins to load a film because of various stuff ups !

It didn't help to have such an agricultural device either. I have, upon my return, filed away bits and pieces of both roll film holders so that I can load much more successfully.

The camera is still in the shakedown mode and so is the photographer !

Cheers,

Steve