HELP MY FILM IS NOT DEVELOPING

[andrewstephenlee]

I'm a photo student in college...

For some reason my Hasselblad is not working anymore. I developed 2 rolls earlier this week and the past 7 rolls I shot have not developed. When developed the film is completely clear and not blackened ( as if it were exposed to light ). It keeps developing with a clear film plane. I can't really be more specific than that because I don't know what the problem is either.

Are there a couple of things I could check?

 

[jotloob]

Andrew

I assume , you were using B/W negative film .
If that is true , it seems that your film is not exposed at all .
So what you should try is , take off the film magazine , turn the film crank at the camera , use an exposure time of lets say 1/8 of a second and press the release button .
You should see that the rear curtains of your camera open and you should also see , by looking through the opened curtains , that the shutter of your lens opens and closes again .
If the lens shutter does not open and close as expected , your lens has a problem .
If the curtains dont open and close , the problem seems to be with the body .
Assuming you loaded your film correctly .

Jürgen

 

[fotografz]

If it is clear then it WASN'T exposed to light, so a print would be solid black and not show any image.

Set the lens f/stop wide open and the shutter speed to 1/15th or slower, take the film back off the camera and look through it as you fire the camera. You should see the shutter in the lens open for a brief moment and then close. If not, then the shutter may not be working.

 

[fotografz]

Opps !!!! Jurgen beat me to it : -)

 

[jotloob]

Marc
Yes this time , but no competition
I just finished my update on the Scanner thread .

 

[garethd]

Hi Andrew

How frustrating. What lens are you using? I assume you are setting the speeds/apertures correctly? I also assume you have developed film before and know the chemicals you are using

To be completely blank (ie no light has reached the film at all) would indicate a mechanical fault.

1) Dark slide still in back (though camera shouldn't click with it in) 2) Shutter not opening at all (damaged) 3) Secondary shutter (in front of back) not opening when the picture is being taken. 4) Fim has not gone through at all - loading/back problem

You can easily check these by operating the camera without the back attached.

Let us know how you get on.

Good luck

Gareth

 

[wbulte]

Do you have the frame numbers correctly developed on the rim of the film?

You wouldn't be the first to mislabel fixer for developer..

Wilko

 

[edtbjon]

Apart from the all the other good advice you've already gotten, there is also another small thing to check for. (Quite similar to the frame number tip.) Most of my films do have a very thin black line along the edges. This comes from handling the film when loading the magazine etc. If you don't see any frame numbers nor any thin black line on the edges, there is something wrong with your developer. Else, it's camera related.
(Let's hope it's the developer... That will cost a bit less to fix. )