For those still using film here is a tip that saved me forever, after my first run in with that very special roll of film, that enabled me to get more shots than normal.

Now for all us old film guys, you recall that if you were very careful when loading and only used the bare minimum of spool leader, then closed the back, you could end up with 37 amd sometimes 38 usable negatives from a roll of 36.

One day I was extra vigilant while loading my film and when the expected end came, I was soooo pleased to see the counter go to 37, then 38 and then... YES 39! WOW - a new personal best. Then 40, then 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48! Was this to be an alltime record roll? Did I have that dreamed of roll, where maybe the machine screwed up and it rolled on an extra foot at the factory or something, before cutting it off? Well it could happen!

So when 50 turned, I thought maybe I'm not so lucky after all, and slowly had that sinking feeling. You know, the kind of feeling you get when in the dentist's chair with his hands in your mouth and you faintly hear him say ooopss, damn, muffled through his mask. The feeling you get when your girl friend rings you up out of the blue and say... "we need to talk".

The same sort of feeling you get, when on take off, as you eagerly look out the window, camera at the ready, you see a faint puff of smoke shoot out the back of the number two engine and hear a muffled thud immediately followed by a slight vibration. One that no one else on the plane seemed to pick up on.

Yes that's right, I sadly had to accept that nothing had gone through the camera. ALL THOSE BLOODY WASTED SHOTS... AAAHHGGRRR, and some were the best I had ever captured. I think the words "oh darn" or something close to that, came out of my mouth. It was a long time ago and my memory has faded somewhat.

From that day on, when ever I loaded a film and did the... close the back and wind on two turns to be sure you have clean film for your first exposure... proceedure, I added an additional step.

Now I would close the back and wind on once only. Then, ever so gently, I'd flip up the rewind lever and carefully, slooooowly and gently, begin to rewind the film until I felt a slight tension. Then, while not allowing that lever to move back at all, I would flip the lever back down flat, keep a thumb gently but firmly pressed on the rewind knob, and release the shutter, then wind on once more, feeling the rewind knob turn under my thumb as I slowly wound on.

Now I felt good, I was absolutely sure the film was going through the camera and would also, periodically, press a left forefinger on the rewind knob during my shooting as I wound on, to reconfirm that the film was still going through the camera. Never again did I have a roll of film not get exposed due to it jumping out of the sprockets when the camera back was closed.

Hope this helps anyone still shooting film, especially for new high school students, whose teachers make them use film to start of, to understand the whole process.