Got called out for my sloppy film loading technique

At a camera meet in Seattle last month, a guy saw me load my Pentax K1000 and said, "You're pulling the leader out way too far, you're going to get light leaks on the first frame." He was right, I was pulling it out about six inches past the mark. I started leaving just an inch of leader past the arrow, and my last two rolls from a trip to the coast came back with clean, clear edges on every shot. Has anyone else had a simple tip like that fix a problem they didn't even know they had?

3 comments

3 Comments

loganthompson1mo ago

Clean edges on every shot" is the dream, and I had the same thing happen when I finally learned to properly tension my film back.

brooke_park1mo ago

Forget the leader length, check your take-up spool tension. A loose wind from the start lets the film canister rattle inside the body, which is a sure way to get those weird, wavy edge fog lines that look nothing like a typical light leak. I ruined three rolls of Portra before an old timer at a swap meet spotted my floppy advance lever and showed me how to feel for proper resistance.

kevin_adams1mo ago

Man, that floppy advance lever feeling is the worst... you don't even know something's wrong until you get the ruined scans back. LoganThompson has it right, clean edges really are the dream. It's one of those things the manual never mentions, you just have to wreck some expensive film to learn it. That old timer at the swap meet saved you a lot of future pain.