Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/07/23

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Stupid mistake
From: "Mxsmanic" <mxsmanic@hotmail.com>
Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2001 09:26:34 +0200
References: <F125iZIHd0TlKn4ZHkR00001aa7@hotmail.com> <003501c112fd$a38df560$acd1bcac@oemcomputer>

Rob writes:

> I have just returned from a friends 40 th b/day,
> i was taking photos with my SLR and M6 first i
> unloaded my SLR (auto re wind) then i opened the
> M6 to take out the last film. Forgot to rewind what
> i want to know is the film ruined is there any
> point processing it Ilford XP2 400 exposed under
> artificial light for 5 sec.

Yes, absolutely.  The images around the edge of the film (the part that was on
the outside when you opened the camera) will be lost, but the rest of the roll
should be okay, with perhaps a few whitish spikes on a few frames.  My
experience (identical to yours, except I was using Tri-X 400, and I had the
camera open for more than five seconds) is that the opacity of the film protects
the inner winds of film on the take-up spool, and the only light that leaks into
the images on the inner winds is the light that can leak up through the edge of
the film.  The manifestation is soft, ghostly "fingers" of light extending down
into some of the images on the roll, which may or may not be bad enough to
damage the shot.

For examples of the results see:

http://www.atkielski.com/ParisStreetScenes/Pic040.html

This photo came from the exposed roll.  As you can see, it did not suffer.  It
was about half the way through the roll.

Another example:

http://www.atkielski.com/ParisStreetScenes/Pic043.html

This photo does show some effects, along the top edge, but they are visible only
on the right, where you can see three "fingers" of overexposure.  The photo was
still nice and the sky was white anyway, so I used it.  The overexposure looks
almost like a special effect, instead of an accident.  This image was closer to
the end of the roll.

The last few images on the roll were lost completely, as I've previously
explained, since they were on the outside of the take-up spool and were
completely exposed to light.

Anyway, it's still worth developing.

In reply to: Message from "Simon Wong" <drsimonwong@hotmail.com> ([Leica] Loading SM Leicas)
Message from "robmellor" <robmellor@onetel.net.uk> (Re: [Leica] Stupid mistake)