# Wrong film in AE-1



## Brutus (Aug 18, 2010)

After shooting about four rolls of film through my Canon AE-1, I noticed I had the ASA selection on 100, but all four of my rolls were ASA 200. I didn't have it on Automatic, I was using the full manual controls, and I'm wondering if all of my shots are going to be so overexposed as so to make it not worth even getting the film developed, or will the exposure be fixable during developing and post processing?


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## compur (Aug 18, 2010)

If you were shooting color print film, you're fine.  In fact color print film often 
looks better if shot at half the box speed.


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## Brutus (Aug 18, 2010)

Oh, well that's quite the relief, haha. I'm very new to 35mm shooting, so I'm still trying to figure out which speeds work best for me in given situations. Thanks.


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## j-dogg (Aug 18, 2010)

compur said:


> If you were shooting color print film, you're fine.  In fact color print film often
> looks better if shot at half the box speed.



really.....so suppose I shoot FujiColor Pro 160, should I do a couple frames at 80 ASA? Kodak Portra 400vc @ 200? I didn't know that, damn I'll have to get a couple rolls this weekend and try that. :thumbup: I've always shot the rated ISO, this sounds like a neat little trick. It's a shame my Maxxum 4 doesn't have an ISO override (or if it does I haven't figured it out yet)

What about B+W?


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## ann (Aug 19, 2010)

negative film is commonly used at half the box speed with slide film more common to underexpose about 1/3 of a stop


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## compur (Aug 19, 2010)

j-dogg said:


> compur said:
> 
> 
> > If you were shooting color print film, you're fine.  In fact color print film often
> ...




Different films may respond to this trick differently but in general most 
color print films can easily handle a one-stop over-exposure and often
benefit with less grainy shadow areas and better overall image 
characteristics. This is because color print films generally have a very
wide latitude (exposure forgiveness) in the direction of over-exposure but
not much latitude with under exposure. Some say this translates into the 
film manufacturers over-stating their color print film's true ISO rating.

In the case of Kodak's Ektar 100, different over/under exposures affect the
films color saturation as well -- over exposure increases it and vice versa.




> What about B+W?


Traditional B&W film is a whole other thing and so is color reversal (slide) 
film.  The over-exposure trick above applies to color print film only.


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## ann (Aug 19, 2010)

something you can test for youself with black and white. take a roll of film and shoot at half the box speed and the rest at the box speed. compare prints to see which gives you the best detail information in the shadows. shoot the same images so you can review them using the same "yard stick" .

more than half of my students vary their ISO based on the equipment they are using which generally isn't the box speed.


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## Early (Aug 21, 2010)

Brutus said:


> After shooting about four rolls of film through my Canon AE-1, I noticed I had the ASA selection on 100, but all four of my rolls were ASA 200. I didn't have it on Automatic, I was using the full manual controls, and I'm wondering if all of my shots are going to be so overexposed as so to make it not worth even getting the film developed, or will the exposure be fixable during developing and post processing?


There is no automatic film speed setting for that camera.  It hadn't been invented yet.  Anyway, I always gave my color neg film 1/3 stop more exposure.


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## dxqcanada (Aug 21, 2010)

Early said:


> There is no automatic film speed setting for that camera


Correct ... but he set the camera's meter to 100 ISO ... so the meter readings will over-expose by 1 stop.


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## Early (Aug 22, 2010)

dxqcanada said:


> Early said:
> 
> 
> > There is no automatic film speed setting for that camera
> ...



Yep!  My bad!  That's what I get for skip reading.:blushing:


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## gsgary (Aug 22, 2010)

The developing time can be altered, have half developed as normal and have as if you had pulled the film


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## Josh66 (Aug 22, 2010)

gsgary said:


> The developing time can be altered, have half developed as normal and have as if you had pulled the film


Yeah, but you have to do that to the whole roll.  Wouldn't really work for shooting half a roll at one ISO setting and the rest at another.


If it's only 1 stop, I wouldn't even worry about it.


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## gsgary (Aug 22, 2010)

O|||||||O said:


> gsgary said:
> 
> 
> > The developing time can be altered, have half developed as normal and have as if you had pulled the film
> ...



He has 4 rolls try 2 processed as shot and 2 pulled


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## Josh66 (Aug 22, 2010)

Whenever I'm using a film for the first time, I shoot the whole first roll at box speed and treat it as a test.

After seeing that, I may decide to use a different ISO.  If so, I try it.  Test #2.  If I like that, that's the ISO I use for that film from then on.  If I don't like it, time for another test.


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## Brutus (Aug 23, 2010)

The pictures turned out fine...exposure wise. Content wise, I have some stuff to work on, haha


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## Josh66 (Aug 23, 2010)

j-dogg said:


> ....so suppose I shoot FujiColor Pro 160, should I do a couple frames at 80 ASA? Kodak Portra 400vc @ 200? I didn't know that, damn I'll have to get a couple rolls this weekend and try that. :thumbup: I've always shot the rated ISO, this sounds like a neat little trick. It's a shame my Maxxum 4 doesn't have an ISO override (or if it does I haven't figured it out yet)


Not sure about the Maxxum 4, but even if you can't manually set the ISO (you should be able to...), you can do the same thing by just overexposing 1 stop or so.  Or use exposure compensation.


I use a lot of Fuji Pro 160 (usually 'S').  It's not too bad at 160, but sometimes I like it better at 80 or 100.


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## compur (Aug 23, 2010)

j-dogg said:


> It's a shame my Maxxum 4 doesn't have an ISO override (or if it does I haven't figured it out yet)



You can set ISO manually on a Maxxum 4.

See the owners manual here.

It's under "Setting the ISO Manually" on page 84 of the manual.


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