Reddit reviews Matin Film Leader Retriever FILM PICKER for 35mm Cassettes Safe Films Extractor

For a purpose built tool: https://www.amazon.com/Leader-Retriever-PICKER-Cassettes-Extractor/dp/B00DN1080U

If there is no film leader protruding from the cartridge it's possible it has already been exposed as stated by edwa6040. Other possibility is that someone accidentally rewound it back into the cartridge (it happens more often than you'd think) and in that case you would want to use a film picker to retrieve the film leader from the cartridge.

This will give you a film leader to work with and be able to load you film camera and begin shooting film. If you have an auto load camera, follow the instructions on the inside of the camera as they often have a sticker inside where the film leader is placed.

Hey there,

Same thing happened to me. I tried to use craft and hobby glue to attached a small piece of plastic. Unfortunately, that didn't work. The repair costs about $200 from the estimate I was given for a new double-tooth spool. I decided it wasn't worth it.

I simply use a small piece of masking tape or small (not too sticky) sticker to attach the film leader to the spool itself. Works great. Except when it rewinds the film, the tape or sticker ends up in the canister. Not a HUGE deal if you develop your own film but if you send it to a lab, you HAVE to let them know this. Some might even turn you away.

Buy a film leader retriever like this one. Pull the leader out, remove the sticker yourself and then your film is lab ready!

If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to message me directly!

You can still hack it, it'll just suck a little bit more.

Prewind cameras basically roll the entire film onto the takeup spool when you load the film, then reel each exposure back into the cassette as you take them. The advantage of this is that the camera always knows exactly how many exposures you have remaining, and that if you accidentally open up the back you won't lose any photos you've already taken.

The downside is that prewind cameras shoot images "backwards" compared to other cameras (in a "perfect" 36exp roll, you'd get your first capture on frame 36 instead of frame 1), which makes switching rolls a between cameras a bit annoying.

For your camera-- what you can do is manually trigger the rewind using a pencil or just fire blank shots yourself until the roll ends, and use a leader retriever to fish out the leader once the cassette's wrapped up.

Pop your film back into the camera when you want to switch back. The camera will again prewind and reset to the beginning of the roll. You need to fire black frames again to the number of shots you took before, +1 or +2 for safety, and then continue as normal.

Yeah. Usually you can hear it when the film leader ("tail") disconnects from the take-up spool. So as you're rewinding, after a few cranks you listen for that "snap" of the film leader coming off of the spool, then you stop rewinding. You can also rewind all the way and then use a film leader retriever, which works great if you watch a tutorial video first.

If you shoot the same roll of film through the same camera twice, you can get good frame alignment by marking the film when you first load it. So for example, when you wind the film leader into the take-up spool, you use a permanent marker (like a Sharpie) and draw a line on the film that aligns with a mark on the inside of the camera (such as a metal edge or something). Then when you rewind the film to shoot it again, you just load it the same and line up the mark on the film with the same spot on the camera. Otherwise, your alignment will be off, which results in black bands through some images, which rarely looks as cool as it does in this photo.

Of course, you can always just use the double-exposure lever (if your camera has one) or try to use the rewind button trick, as mentioned above.

Lead retrievers are a thing I always carry on me.

I use a "film leader retriever", sometimes called a "film pick". It works very quickly and consistently once you get the hang of it.