What to Do When Your Film is Stuck in the Camera?
What to Do When Your Film Stuck in the Camera?
Guides and Tips
What to Do When Your Film is Stuck in the Camera?
Problem: Film Jammed / Broken and Stuck
Unbox the film, load it in your camera, shoot 36 exposures and then rewind. These are the basic steps to take when we shoot film, they look simple and normal but what if one day your film stuck in the camera and you don’t know what to do? It is common that you forgot to press the film rewind release button and accidentally broke it or the film is jammed inside the camera.
Answer
The Answer is, place your camera in a light seal bag and take the film out of the camera and put it in the canister and send it to the lab, make sure the film canister is all black, not transparent canisters from Fujifilm or Kodak where light can pass through it. If you don’t have a black cloth bag to unload the film, you can put the camera underneath your quilt and perform the same steps to avoid light exposure on the film. Do not apply force when you rewind the film, the process should be smooth and easy, whenever in doubt and you want to save your precious photos, bring it to a dark area and unload it. Bring it to your nearest film processing lab and they will have the dark cloth bag to unload it.
Cause
Normally caused by
- Rewind without pressing rewind film button
- Some gears/parts jammed inside the camera
- You didn’t load the film properly
- You have not finished rewinding the film
DO NOT open the film door to check whether the film has been rewind or not because 90% of the time you will mess up the film.
This also applies the same to everyone who wants to change the film when they shoot halfway or they want to make sure there isn’t any film inside the camera but not accidentally opened the back door.
Need Film Photography Assistance?
If you have any questions related to film photography or you would like to understand more about it, feel free to email me or simply comment below.
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