You did it, you finished a roll of film, and now you need to get it out of your camera. If you’re brand new to film photography, this may look like something you think could be messed up. Luckily, I’m here to tell you it’s not that bad at all.
Taking the film out of your camera is very easy and only takes a couple steps. To help out, even more, there are a few tips I can give you to make the whole process fly by.
*Locate the film rewind lever.
Up on top of your camera on the left side, you’ll see that there is a lever inside of the circle where you select your ISO. What you’ll want to do is lift that lever out of where it’s housed so that it’s sticking out, we’ll be using it shortly.
*Locate the rewind release button.
The rewind release button is the little button on the bottom of the camera on the right side. That button is what you’ll press to take the tension off of the film that’s being held in place. Hold in that button while going back to the rewind lever and rewinding the film clockwise. What I like to do to make sure I don’t slip or drop the camera is hold the release button with my middle finger while my thumb grabs the top of the camera. Once you have a good hold on it you can start rewinding your film. If it has some resistance to it, then you know you’re reeling it in. After a couple seconds of reeling it in, it should click and you’re done reeling.
*Pull up on the camera back release.
That circle the rewind lever is in that we talked about earlier, next you’re going to want to lift up on that entire piece. What this will do, is release the back of the camera where the film is held giving you access to taking it out. Once you have it out all you have to do is shut the back of the camera, push the camera release back down, and put the rewind lever back in place and you’re done. You just got your film out and you’re ready to get it developed!
There are so many different places to get film development and there are thousands of photographers that probably have different recommendations. Personally, I like taking my film to a place that puts more of a personal touch into developing film. Places like Walmart and Walgreens send film that they’re given to a large facility to be developed. Even though it does get developed, they don’t have as much customization as the location I use. I take my film to the FindLab. The developing team at the FindLab are all professional film processors that develop film daily so, I know I can trust where my pictures are going. When deciding what you’d like to customize about your film development, their website makes it easy to navigate and find. After deciding, I mail my film off and it’s all about patience from there.
The FindLab is my absolute favorite place to get my pictures developed, let me know if you’ve got a spot that you like to go to. If you liked my post feel free to comment on it and share it with friends or family. If you want to see more by me and to stay up to date on my blog, follow me for another day in the life of music and media.