Negatives in the wrong order?
Most film cameras load and shoot film in order from frame 1 to frame 24 or 36. That means each frame was exposed and the film was wound until the end, then rewound back into the canister. The film canister was light sealed and was removed for processing.
However, there were some cameras in the 1990s that would electronically unwind the entire roll of film when it was loaded into the camera, and after each photo was taken a little bit of the film was wound back into the canister. This was a smart design because if the camera was accidentally opened, the exposed part of the film would be protected in the film canister and only the unused portion of the film would be ruined by the light. But it would cause the negatives to be in the wrong order.
One example of this kind of camera is the Fuji Discovery 3000 Zoom Date, introduced in 1991. The most obvious feature of this camera is the binocular-style design, but one of the most interesting is this unroll and rewind feature.
If you’ve ever processed a roll of film in your photo collection where the pictures seem in reverse chronological order (first event on frame 36, last event on frame 1) then that roll was shot on a camera like this. With negatives like this we suggest scanning the film in reverse order so that the scanned photos turn out in the same chronological order that they were originally shot.
Comment below if you’ve ever noticed a roll of reverse-order film like this!
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