Rant: Roll of Portra 400 got jammed halfway at the beach and I lost 18 shots

I was shooting at Ocean Beach last Saturday, wind was kicking up sand everywhere. Mid-roll my Canon AE-1 started making this grinding noise, and when I opened it up the film was all twisted inside. Tried to salvage it by rewinding in a dark changing bag, but the spool was stuck. Has anyone else had a camera eat their film on a windy day? What do you do to keep sand out of the body?

2 comments

2 Comments

joelthomas1mo ago

You had 18 shots lost to a sand jam, that's brutal. I'm curious, when you opened it up in the changing bag, did you feel any sand grit on the film itself before you closed it back in? Wondering if sand got inside the canister or if it was just the camera body that was the problem.

finley7771mo agoMost Upvoted

Wait, did you actually feel grit when you were handling the film in the bag? That would be a total nightmare. I mean, if sand got inside the canister itself before it even went through the camera, then it's not just a camera cleaning issue, it's a whole film storage problem. I've had dust spots on negatives before but never actual sand, I can only imagine how frustrating that would be to lose a whole roll like that.