I think the film isn't winding on my SLR?

Question

I normally use a film SLR which is wound on electronically so you can hear the film wind on.

but I just started using a fully mechanic film SLR and I am not sure if the film is winding off after pressing the shutter???
I can only hear the shutter mirror clicking and no other sign (visible or sound) that the film is winding on.

Is there any way I can be sure that the film is winding on so that I dont waste a whole roll? If it has worked... ive already exposed half the film!

Is it best just to expose all 24 shots and then rewind it???

thanks

Answer 1

If you have a completely automatic camera w/o a manual rewind knob (I'm assuming you do, because if you could manually advance/rewind you probably wouldn't be wondering whether it was working) ... It's a little tricky, but with any camera you can go into a closet at night with all the lights off in the room (or wherever else you can find where there is NO LIGHT at all, any light whatsoever will fog the film), and then you can open up the camera and touch the film to see if it's on. If you want to know if it's advancing properly, you can pull out the film. You should be able to tell pretty easily whether it's halfway rolled out of the canister, or whether it's still at the beginning. If the film HAS been working and you want to keep using the rest of the film, then (still in the dark) manually rewind the film (by turning the thing at the top of the canister) and put it back in like a new roll, take the number of pictures that were taken already with the lens cap on/in the dark to advance it to where it was before, and then you can continue taking pictures where you left off on the roll.

However, fully automated cameras tend to know what they're doing, so really it's probably fine.

Answer 2

You say you have a completely mechanical film SLR. From that, I assume you have to manually rewind the film. That being the case, there is no need whatsoever to open the back or follow any of the other complicated procedures mentioned earlier. If the film is advancing, the rewind knob will turn as you advance the film. If it doesn't, check two things. Slightly lift the rewind knob and tighten the film - you really need to do this every time you load a film. Secondly, make sure that the rewind button on the base is not pushed in. This releases the clutch on the film spool and will stop film advancing.

Answer 3

First if you are using a fully mechanical camera the film will not advance until you advance it, via film advance lever.

Answer 4

Put the camera in a COMPLETELY DARK ROOM then open the back. If you feel the film on the roll then you're fine. If not then try again.

No harm.