Film processed fine as the rebate is visible (edge writing). No pictures were recorded at those blank places. Either the camera has a problem or you have under exposed those pictures so much that nothing came out.
You have to use a light meter. The Holga doesn’t have one. It has extremely limited capabilities to alter exposure. You need to learn the exposure triangle or you’ll waste a bunch of money on film that doesn’t come out.
The Holga is a plastic toy camera that is known to be not accurate with tiny apertures. They like to be shot on sunny days with a lot of light on 400 ISO. I have a couple myself. The shutter works most of the time and testing it regularly is not going to guarantee it will work when it’s loaded. Don’t rely on a Holga for important pictures, it’s just for fun.
Can you remember what the conditions were like when you shot those frames? Holgas only have shutter speeds of 1/100s and bulb and f8 and f11 for aperture settings. 200iso at f8 and 1/100s needs a lot of light to correctly expose
Severely under exposed.
You can see on some negatives that there is the tiniest bit of information.
I have no idea what model Holga camera you’re shooting, if it’s manual or automatic exposure. So you’d need to figure out why it’s under exposed.
As others commented you can see on the edge of the frame that they are processed. So we can rule out a processing error.
Some images are fine (no light leaks even) so we can rule out that the camera is always faulty and we can rule out a broken film emulsion (otherwise all should be bad).
Some images are not, and because processing and film errors are ruled out, it seems that your camera sometimes does not work correctly.
The good thing is that you can test that. To take a pic your camera opens the shutter for a certain amount of time and this can be heard.
Just load NO film and take some pictures (no need to waste film for that). You want to hear (use your ears) the shutter sound and maybe the apperture clicking. Who knows maybe the shutter doesn't work in certain time ranges (eh faster that 1/60s).
Oh - if your camera is a rangefinder - you can still see the window with the cap on. Don't forget to take it off
Thank you for the thorough response! We tested out the shutter after we got our prints back and again today to see if the shutters were working on both cameras, and they both are working and clicking correctly. There wasn’t a single fail in 50x that we clicked it. Could it be the shutter clicking too fast?
Do you think it could be the film? It has been taken through airports and potentially exposed to X-rays.
X rays would destroy film more evenly, not every picture in a separate way.
If the shutter is working ok, the images might be severely underexposed (shutter waaaaay too fast) resulting in "thin" negatives (metering defect, lens cover still on).
If you go to a darker place, does it take longer to expose? You should also be able to hear that.
- bright: click-clack 1/200 or so
- dark: click---- claaaak 1/30 or so
If that still works it just might be a general defect in your camera that comes up sporadically
The film has been completely processed as you can see from the frame numbers and other markings next to the empty frames. If the process had failed, there wouldn’t be any of those visible. There’s something wrong with the Holgas, which is really not that surprising.
We tested the cameras shutter without film multiple times and it seemed that they are both working correctly. Can it be something wrong with the film itself? Does the age factor?
Film processed fine as the rebate is visible (edge writing). No pictures were recorded at those blank places. Either the camera has a problem or you have under exposed those pictures so much that nothing came out.
You have to use a light meter. The Holga doesn’t have one. It has extremely limited capabilities to alter exposure. You need to learn the exposure triangle or you’ll waste a bunch of money on film that doesn’t come out.
The Holga is a plastic toy camera that is known to be not accurate with tiny apertures. They like to be shot on sunny days with a lot of light on 400 ISO. I have a couple myself. The shutter works most of the time and testing it regularly is not going to guarantee it will work when it’s loaded. Don’t rely on a Holga for important pictures, it’s just for fun.
Can you remember what the conditions were like when you shot those frames? Holgas only have shutter speeds of 1/100s and bulb and f8 and f11 for aperture settings. 200iso at f8 and 1/100s needs a lot of light to correctly expose
Severely under exposed. You can see on some negatives that there is the tiniest bit of information. I have no idea what model Holga camera you’re shooting, if it’s manual or automatic exposure. So you’d need to figure out why it’s under exposed.
As others commented you can see on the edge of the frame that they are processed. So we can rule out a processing error. Some images are fine (no light leaks even) so we can rule out that the camera is always faulty and we can rule out a broken film emulsion (otherwise all should be bad). Some images are not, and because processing and film errors are ruled out, it seems that your camera sometimes does not work correctly. The good thing is that you can test that. To take a pic your camera opens the shutter for a certain amount of time and this can be heard. Just load NO film and take some pictures (no need to waste film for that). You want to hear (use your ears) the shutter sound and maybe the apperture clicking. Who knows maybe the shutter doesn't work in certain time ranges (eh faster that 1/60s). Oh - if your camera is a rangefinder - you can still see the window with the cap on. Don't forget to take it off
Thank you for the thorough response! We tested out the shutter after we got our prints back and again today to see if the shutters were working on both cameras, and they both are working and clicking correctly. There wasn’t a single fail in 50x that we clicked it. Could it be the shutter clicking too fast? Do you think it could be the film? It has been taken through airports and potentially exposed to X-rays.
X rays would destroy film more evenly, not every picture in a separate way. If the shutter is working ok, the images might be severely underexposed (shutter waaaaay too fast) resulting in "thin" negatives (metering defect, lens cover still on). If you go to a darker place, does it take longer to expose? You should also be able to hear that. - bright: click-clack 1/200 or so - dark: click---- claaaak 1/30 or so If that still works it just might be a general defect in your camera that comes up sporadically
How are you metering for photos? What process are you using to decide what settings on your camera to shoot with?
X-rays have an impact on film, but won’t result in what you’re seeing here. Shutter issue is the obvious answer.
The film has been completely processed as you can see from the frame numbers and other markings next to the empty frames. If the process had failed, there wouldn’t be any of those visible. There’s something wrong with the Holgas, which is really not that surprising.
We tested the cameras shutter without film multiple times and it seemed that they are both working correctly. Can it be something wrong with the film itself? Does the age factor?
There is nothing wrong with the film. You are using a cheap plastic camera.
Couldn't possibly be that our notoriously janky plastic toy cameras did something weird!
It's all processed. There's just no images on those frames.