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Exposed Film Accidently - Should I Bother?


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Here's what happened: I had 400' of Kodak 250 Double X B/W loaded in a magazine, unexposed. I was in a very dim room, almost dark. The magazine lid was opened for maybe a second and a half. Should I bother to shoot this film and process it? Or just trash it? I'd hate to waste all that money. The roll was for a camera test and not for a real project. I'd appreciate some expert opinions. Thanks!

 

Daniel

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Well, if you never shoot it, that's a waste of the filmstock anyway, no?

 

This is just a complete shot in the dark, er, in the dim light. Even if the side of the film is slightly light damaged, in theory wouldn't most of the film still be OK? So if it's just a test, you would end up with part of the film "normal", and part of the film slightly "fogged".

 

I think the key is to be able to learn from the film by really observing it and studying it, maybe it will become part of your repertoire in the future?

 

Maybe it can be recanned and turned into Super-8 film, heck we don't care about quality control! :D

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If the roll was tightly wound, you may have slight edgefog. For a camera test, you will probably be able to "look around" any edgefog to make your judgement. I would not use film that is likely to have any edgefog for anything important or that you can't reshoot.

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Since it is a negative there are chances for fog. Go for the fog test if you think it is worth to do it because 400feet of negative is really expensive then a simple test.

 

L.K.Keerthibasu

 

By fog test you mean when they snip a small portion of the film and test it? The only problem with that is the outer most part of the film will probably be in the worst shape.

 

Even if it's slightly fogged, won't that just bring out other types of imperfections as they relate to scratching and film chipping? Other issues to consider since it is a test is you are testing the lab for quality control in terms of scratching and dust. You're also looking to see how quickly the camera creates gate mung from the claw and the registration of the camera as well.

 

Also, sometimes a lab will give you a break on the processing price if it's strictly a test roll. If you can get a bit of a discount that way and have already paid for the film, it just seems like a good learning experience no matter how the film comes out, just consider what happened as part of the test.

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