Film Back

It’s funny, I went for a walk with a Hasselblad camera to finish out a roll, When I got home a couple hours later, I found there was no film in the camera. The next day I throw on another back that I thought had film in it on a camera that seemed to be skipping images. Same thing, the film back wasn’t loaded. The camera that’s skipping also has another problem, when I hit the mirror release button nothing happens. So I tried yet another film back on the camera, the one it came with, and lo and behold, the camera exposed three images on a twelve exposure roll. Something is going on, it’s been a lotta hit or miss with that camera. It’s as old as I am and could be due for a service, I think I’ll send it to Nippon in New York City. There’s some kinda craze going on in Colorado, several camera shops selling the old film based gear, this has caused the repair shop, I think there is only one, to have a year turn around. I may be exaggerating. When I began there were dozens of repair shops and film was available at the grocery store. I know my last post was about AI, maybe they can download a camera repairman into a robot and make an easy solution for the flooded market for camera service needs? Anyway, I tried another camera knowing the camera with mirror flip definitely needs an overhaul, and wouldn’t you know it, The back said it was on exposure three and there wasn’t any film in the camera. I also went to the mountains and got caught in a hailstorm, with the same camera and a different camera back that I thought had film innit, I was blasting images through the window, motorcycles trucking along drenched in water, hail and sleet, it was a major downpour, I was excited to see what the wide for a square camera 50mm lens I just had serviced locally with might turn up with. But alas, no film in the camera. So after four times spending countless hours hour photographing without film, I Think Diane Arbus told her students to tape up their cameras shiny parts and go out shoot all day without film, wait until you feel the picture in your gut before making an exposure. Well this isn’t that, but I saved at least forty dollars on film and chemistry by working without it. I’d be a hit at a wedding, I’m sorry but the cameras I thought that had film innit, didn’t and the one that did, missed four thirds of the exposures. So I try again this time with a film back I suspect might be loaded, or did I load it to make sure? I’ll have to ask him when he gets back, And what happened? I got back unloaded the actual film from the camera, Loaded into a developing tank, processed it and found out most of the pictures were destroyed because the light seals in the camera had dried up. So I jumped on eBay and ordered some light seals. This is a common thing with photography. Cameras have souls and when they’ve been neglected, Oh it’s the same with guitars, amps cars people, you need to take them out and exercise them, show them that they are loved, highly prized, valued and they will bring promising results. At this point judging from the negatives on about six rolls I was able to develop, several of the backs are showing signs of premature light leakage sure, A lens that was services 20 years ago but left unused needs another go at lubrication. And yes it’s basically a scene where if you wanna get the film rolling steadily in your cameras after plinking around with 35mm or whatever I’d been doing, there’s some mountains to hurdle. The other bag that I dropped about five years ago, I noticed this digging through older negatives is that, I was loading film into an old Barnack IIIc leica via the brass German film canisters, the cameras fuss and fight just as the backs had before, dislodging the tape used to adhere the film to the spool, coming out all foggy unless they approve of the subject matter. It’s a totally twisted world when dealing with cameras that are cranky because they’ve just been sitting around wanting to do what they were made for, but at the same time, it’s not really the cameras fault. Usually one has to embrace the age when these things were the predominant choice among photographers to engage in the world of image capture. Patience is key. A 1940’s German Leica ,probably made during the Marshall plan era, did not have the same robust spirit that say a 1936 leica A model had when Germanys economy was beginning to grow. Or as with the Mid Sixties Hasselblads, Victor Hasselblad made everything interchangeable so I might be riding 1980’s Glass on a 1960’s body all this intergenerational conglomeration got to be confusing for the film. Photography was Huge in the sixties, thousands of magazines and publications of every sort had a thirst for images. Luckily for these old tools there’s a bit of a resurgence. A mild pushback from the electronic camera vibe. The hipsters are using glass plates. The thing that’s missing is most everyone is still in a halfway house, IE, scanning the negatives, but to be positive in the darkroom, you need to print the negatives, Shine light through them onto paper. Then Scan the prints.