[Leica] New to Leica, advice a-plenty wanted!

[tgray at 125px.com (Tim Gray)]

On Nov 5, 2008, at 8:32 AM, Peter Cheyne wrote:

 > One mistake was that I used my EOS 580 EX II as an auto-thyristor
 > flash, but forgot to change the flash's ISO to 400 from 100.  So I
 > suppose the film was pulled by the over-the-counter camera store
 > developer.  Do you think this is so?

Color negative film is usually pretty resilient with overexposure.   
You only overexposed by two stops, which isn't that much.  Probably  
just lowered the contrast in the pictures a hair.  Not a big deal.   
The lab didn't pull either unless you told them too, they just  
developed normally.

 > Do you think the camera store developer can save the film for me to
 > use again?

Since you don't know which roll it was, there's no way for the lab to  
know until they develop it.  I guess they could do a snip test or  
something, but it hardly seems worth it to save one roll of film.   
Besides, it did get exposed to light through the base, so I wouldn't  
want to reuse it.  It probably has a faint red image on it.

 > And I have a feeling that if I load my film in a black changing  
bag, I
 > should be able to get 1 or 2 extra exposures from my film.  Is that
 > so?

Not worth the bother.  I routinely get two extra frames at the  
beginning of my roll when I load normally.  I usually don't use them  
on shots that I really want; instead, I make a quick casual photo.   
Some of these I actually end up liking, and I've never actually lost  
one due to exposure.  These are frames -1 and 0.  I also usually get  
an extra frame at the end, frame 37.  Some commercial labs might trim  
this one off though since its right at the end of the roll.  If you  
develop yourself and open the canister when loading the film, it  
leaves an extra margin of film for removing it from the spool.

 > Um, what else? Oh yes.  Most people use Leicas for b&w.  What are  
your
 > thoughts on using it for transparencies and for colour negatives?

It's great.

 > Finally, I'd like to develop my own films.

Black and white is easy.  Color and slide a bit more of a hassle, but  
not too much, not that I've ever done them.  The biggest hassle in  
color is getting the chemicals in reasonably sized batches.

Have fun!