Took me 6 months to realize I was loading film reels backwards

I kept getting blank frames on every roll from my Nikon FE and couldn't figure out why. Finally noticed the film spool was turning the wrong way after a buddy pointed it out at the darkroom meetup last Wednesday. Anyone else ever miss something that obvious for way too long?

2 comments

2 Comments

blairsanchez1mo ago

Honestly, that's one of those things that feels obvious once you know it, but the real issue is how film cameras trick you into trusting them. A lot of people don't realize that the rewind knob needs to spin when you advance the film, and if it's not, you're basically shooting air. Ngl, I've seen guys at the camera shop load a roll backwards and then insist their camera is broken. They'll blame the shutter or the light meter before ever checking the spool direction. That's the embarrassing part - our brains just assume we did it right because we've done it a thousand times before. Tbh, this is why I always double-check that rewind knob after the first shot on any manual camera.

james_ross1mo ago

Forget double checking it, I just look like a paranoid weirdo tugging on the rewind knob after every shot on my old Minolta. People probably think I'm trying to break the thing off. But honestly, I'd rather look like a fool than waste a whole roll of Portra because I was too confident to check. That little knob not spinning is the universal sign your brain is lying to you, and you just wasted a whole frame of nothing.