# How can I tell if rolls of film are exposed?



## itsonlyrocknroll

I was recently cleaning, and I found a bunch of old rolls of film. Is there a way I can tell if they have been exposed or not? Thanks


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## Big Mike

Are we talking about 35mm film?

The first thing I would check, would be to see if the end of the film is sticking out of the canister.  Most film comes that way, but the camera rolls it completely back into the canister when it's done...so if it's out, it's probably not exposed...if it's in, it's probably exposed.


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## icassell

Good general clue, but when I worked with film,  I used to roll the film back just enough to leave some sticking out -- made it easier to load into my tank.


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## dinodan

If 35mm film has gone through a camera, the leader will almost always have a crease where it was inserted into the take up spool.


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## bhop

icassell said:


> Good general clue, but when I worked with film,  I used to roll the film back just enough to leave some sticking out -- made it easier to load into my tank.



Off topic, but am I missing something here?  You have to take the film out of the canister to load it into the tank, what's it matter if it's sticking out or not?


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## icassell

bhop said:


> Off topic, but am I missing something here?  You have to take the film out of the canister to load it into the tank, what's it matter if it's sticking out or not?



No, actually you don't need to open the canister to do that.  You take the tab end and feed that onto the spool.  You snip the other end once it is all wound. Once I started loading my own canisters from a bulk loader, I would drop the spent canisters in a bin and open them later to clean them up for re-load.


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## bhop

icassell said:


> No, actually you don't need to open the canister to do that.  You take the tab end and feed that onto the spool.  You snip the other end once it is all wound. Once I started loading my own canisters from a bulk loader, I would drop the spent canisters in a bin and open them later to clean them up for re-load.



Ah, I see.


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