# Image overlap, why?



## robitussin217 (Apr 19, 2010)

I just got back my first roll of film. It was a $2 roll of B&W shot on a Pentax K1000. Everything is alright except that a couple images (or maybe 3 or 4 images) are overlapped. Why does this happen? 

Here are the images

1. 






2.





An additional note: When there is no film loaded into the camera and I press the shutter, the initial "smack" is followed by what sounds like an "echo." It sounds somewhat like a swinging door you see going into bars in old Western movies.


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## Dwig (Apr 19, 2010)

Its hard to tell the exact cause when it is so intermittent. One thing to check is the condition of the sprocket holes.

If the sprocket holes are damaged near the occurrences of the overlap then the problem could be something causing the film to fail to exit the cassette smoothly. This can occur if the cassette is incorrectly positioned in the camera. It can also be caused by rust or dirt causing the rewind shaft to bind.

Another cause, and one that doesn't leave damaged sprockets, is pressing the rewind button mid roll. If the button is accidentally pressed, the transport mechanism is disconnected. If you don't hold it in, when you wind the button will pop out and re-engage the transport. The problem is that part of the winding action is "wasted" re-engaging the transport and the film is only advanced the length of 5-6 sprockets out of the 8 sprockets that exist per frame. Overlap like you show are typical of this type of mistake.


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## Big Mike (Apr 19, 2010)

> An additional note: When there is no film loaded into the camera and I press the shutter, the initial "smack" is followed by what sounds like an "echo." It sounds somewhat like a swinging door you see going into bars in old Western movies.


When you press the shutter release on an SLR camera, first the mirror flips up (probably your 'smack') then the shutter opens.  The shutter is made up of curtains which can easily get a bit noisy, especially if they haven't been lubricated in a long time.


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## c.cloudwalker (Apr 19, 2010)

I can only think of 3 reasons for this to happen.

1/ the gears of the advance mechanism is worn and the film sometimes skips.

2/ something in the film advance lever mechanism is not quite right, it slips, and the film does not advance properly

3/ the film is old, has not been properly stored and it sticks to itself in the cassette therefore not advancing properly. Never heard of this actually happening but who knows...

Reasons 1 and 2 may not leave any marks on the film while reason 3 most probably would damage the film somewhat.

Dwig's theory of hitting the rewind button doesn't sound right to me. Doing this is how we made multiple exposure with film because it would skip advancing the film for one frame and, in that case, the frame would be pretty much line up. They would not overlap as in your sample image.

No matter what it is, I would think it is not a major repair and I would take the camera to a repair shop and see what they say.


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## robitussin217 (Apr 19, 2010)

Thanks everyone for your quick replies. I'll shoot one more roll of film keeping all of that in mind and see what happens. 

Again, most of the images turned out fine. So, if it happens again I'll take it to a repair shop. Thanks again!


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