The Downside of Film

In my last batch, I sent in three rolls of film. I posted the results in the works section under “Under Roll 13.” The other two rolls were taken with my Minolta X-700. I sent all of my film to Mpix for development and received an email reply stating that one roll was completely blank. The other roll had only six photos out of a total of 36 actually developed. 

I think the problem may have been with how I loaded the film; I have never had an issue in the past with this Minolta camera, so I am skeptical that the camera itself is broken. I suspect that the film leader may not have been seated properly, and the film wasn't spooling correctly with each actuation of the advance lever. 

I managed to get a couple of good photos out of it, including a neat double exposure on the beach. Unfortunately, I also lost many likely great photos of a family reunion in Saluda, NC. The only photo from Saluda that survived was a picture from the living room, with some mysterious blue line artifacts left over, perhaps from the film bunching up or moving incorrectly in the camera. 

The imperfections of film are part of the process, but losing about 50 photos is also why I combine my film photography with digital photography instead of exclusively shooting film, although I have recently picked back up on film photography. I shot a roll and a half in a day with the Minolta this weekend, hoping that the film is feeding correctly and that there isn't an issue with the camera. When I finish the roll, I will send it in to get developed.