I've been loading my film wrong for two years and only noticed because of a light leak

So I got this old Canon AE-1 from a yard sale in Cincinnati, and for the longest time I thought I was a pro at loading it. I'd just drop the film in, pull the leader across, and close the back. I never had any major issues, just the odd frame that felt a bit off. Then, last fall, I shot a whole roll of my friend's wedding on Portra 400. When I got the scans back, there was this weird, thin orange line along the top edge of every single picture. The lab guy said it was a light leak, probably from the film not sitting flat in the canister. He asked how I loaded it, and I told him my usual way. He just shook his head and said, 'You're not catching the sprocket teeth, are you?' I wasn't. I'd been just laying the film over the take-up spool this whole time, not hooking it properly. All those slightly blurry shots I blamed on my shaky hands were probably from the film slipping. Has anyone else had a basic loading mistake that messed up a whole batch of photos?

2 comments

2 Comments

anderson.spencer1mo ago

Man, that line about the "odd frame that felt a bit off" really hits home. I always blamed my cheap lens for soft focus on some shots. I thought loading was just about getting the film from one side to the other, so I never worried about the sprockets either. Your post made me go check my own camera, and sure enough, I wasn't hooking it right. It's crazy how a tiny mistake can mess with your head for so long, making you doubt your gear or your skills. What other simple things are we all probably getting wrong?

spencer_wood1mo ago

My old Pentax K1000 had a light meter needle I never really trusted. Turns out I was reading it wrong for years, always overexposing my shots by a stop.