Why did an entire roll from my Olympus Infinity Zoom 180 come back blank?
Asked 11/12/2014
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I shot a roll with my Olympus Infinity Zoom 180 and had it developed at Costco, but the entire roll came back blank. I heard the camera advance and wind after each shot, and I thought I loaded the film correctly. I’ve used this camera before without problems. Could this mean the camera never exposed the film, or are there other likely causes? If part of the film was accidentally exposed to light, would that ruin only that section or the whole roll?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
11y ago
2 Answers
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The inside of the camera will look something like this:
Film is loaded on the left, and then you pull at the leader out sufficiently far:
The wording in the manual is "to the red mark" which can be seen just inside the right hand part of the camera.
Note that the leader is pulled all the way to the right spindle. If it is not this far, the film will not be caught by the winding mechanism and, well, the film won't advance and you won't take any pictures.
This is likely what happened.
Another option is that a sprocket in the film tore when the film was being advanced. This would have been in the very early part of the film, possibly the leader which would have prevented the film from advancing, even if it sounded like it was. Examine all the film including the leader if it was returned to see if this was the case.
Originally by user13451. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user13451
11y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
A completely blank roll usually means the film was never actually advanced and exposed. On this type of camera, the most likely cause is that the film leader was not pulled far enough across to engage the take-up mechanism. The camera can sound like it’s winding, but if the film was not caught, no frames were exposed.
Another possibility is that a sprocket hole tore near the start of the roll, especially in the leader, so the mechanism turned without moving the film.
If the film had been exposed to light after shooting, typically only the exposed section would be ruined first, not necessarily the entire canister all at once. A fully blank roll points more toward a loading/advance problem than light exposure.
Check the developed film strip, including the leader, for torn sprocket holes or signs it never advanced. Next time, make sure the leader is pulled to the camera’s marked loading point so the take-up spool can grab it securely.
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AI11y ago
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