finally i did it! after nearly two months of owning a leica m i managed to misload and jamm it. pretty cool. it took me about 40 films to achieve that. finally i can write and complain about that unusable film loading mechanism that turns some people away from the m system.

-- stefan randlkofer (geesbert@yahoo.com), January 01, 2002

Answers

Congrats stefan,

That means your a "made man". Me, I'm still a greenhorn. Unfortunately, fate has not yet blessed me with the experience of jamming my Leicas yet.

;-)

-- John Chan (ouroboros_2001@yahoo.com), January 01, 2002.

That's pretty funny! It'll happen to the best of us. I guess the best advice to follow, without listening to anyone, is that which is printed right on the inside bottom of the camera.

By the way, I complained a while ago about my M6 (classic) not winding properly and thus "stacking up" most of the exposed frames on top of one another in roughly the first half of the length of film. This happened on two non-successive rolls with two rolls in between that seemed to have run perfectly. All rolls of late have been shot with the new Leica Motor M. Today I developed another roll, and again the frames are all perfectly spaced -- all 35 of them.

Now I'm beginning to recall that a couple of times I tensioned the film with the rewind crank a little bit after loading it. My new theory: If I keep some looseness in the film when loading and ignore the urge to take up the slack, my film will always travel through my M as expected. OR, I'm just trying to avoid sending in my M for a CLA. Which is it?

-- Tony Rowlett (rowlett@mail.com), January 01, 2002.

I have always tensioned the rewind crank, that's how I can tell if the film is winding correctly; otherwise if the crank doesn't turn you can't be certain.

-- Jay (infinitydt@aol.com), January 01, 2002.

Stefan:

Maybe you were just temporarily blinded by those ultraviolet rays splashing all over your girlfriend on the tanning bed.

Dennis

-- Dennis Couvillion (couvilaw@aol.com), January 01, 2002.

All went well for many rolls. Then one day after what I considered some memorable shots I found the flim had not advanced at all despite the counter counting down to 36 . This was discovered only after trying to rewind the film and that somehow did not feel as normal !

I think after a period of normality, we get complacent and do not do proper checks or load badly in the first place. As with most things we take things for granted until given a wake up call !

-- Yip (koklok@krdl.org.sg), January 01, 2002.

While I haven't actually managed to jam an M (yet!), I occasionally have a problem with my "Classic," basically amounting to the film running too low in its track, so that the sprocket-holes on one side run right against the image. This can wreak havoc when I want to print with the black line of the frame-edge surrounding the image. Maybe this is because I load my own film and don't cut the leader to "factory specs." But my other M, a TTL, doesn't do this, so maybe its the camera. I can cure it reliably by taking some extra time and winding on a tad, making sure the sprockets engage before closing the base, but time isn't what I always have. Anyone else out there with this problem?

-- John Layton (john.layton@valley.net), January 01, 2002.

I always push the film into its correct position, so that it sits between the guide rails, before closing the camera. Other than that, I simply follow the instructions - in particular, I DON'T attempt to wind on the film before closing the camera. Seems to work OK.

-- Ray Moth (ray_moth@yahoo.com), January 01, 2002.

I have an M6 and an M6TTL. The older M6 occasionally misloads (jams). The newer TTL has not misloaded even once in 3 years. Seems like they quietly fixed a design problem.

-- Mani Sitaraman (bindumani@pacific.net.sg), January 01, 2002.

"I always push the film into its correct position, so that it sits between the guide rails, before closing the camera."

--So do I. I use a fingernail to shove the film into place. One advantage of the otherwise slower-to-use M2/M3 system, is that the removable takeup spool serves to guide the film right up there where it belongs. Otherwise, no real problem. Like Ray, I resist the instinct to wind the film slightly with the back open, to watch the sprocket teeth engage--simply because Leica says not to. I still do this with my M2 or M3, though. Also, on the M6, the rewind crank won't maintain back tension on the film, the way the earlier Leicas (and many other brands) will. I miss the reassuring feeling that "everything is OK" when the rewind knob turns every time the film is advanced.

-- Bob Fleischman (RFXMAIL@prodigy.net), January 01, 2002.

"I have an M6 and an M6TTL. The older M6 occasionally misloads (jams). The newer TTL has not misloaded even once in 3 years. Seems like they quietly fixed a design problem."

Someone (John Collier?) has mentioned in past "Loading" threads that one of the M6 film rails was manufacturered squared off, while nonmeterd bodies had always had a chamfer - and that the square edge caught film and made the M6 slightly more difficult to load.

I tested this last week in a shop with 2 different fresh-from-the-box M6 TTLs and my semi-patented loading technique (derived from Andrew Nemeth's advice on his web site) worked fine - 5 loads with each body without a misload, and without pushing the film into place or bending the tip over or anything.

I'll post my step-by-step if anyone's interested...

-- Andy Piper (apidens@denver.infi.net), January 01, 2002.

Please do, Andy!

Thanks...

-- Steve Hoffman (shoffman2@socal.rr.con), January 02, 2002.

Steve (and others)

I posted my technique as a separate thread so we won't drown Stefan with your critiques. 8^)

HERE

-- Andy Piper (apidens@denver.infi.net), January 02, 2002.

I don't think I even want to read about a Technique ... I have not yet misloaded any M4 or later camera with the rapid load system and don't want to risk learning how to do it "right"...

grins

-- Godfrey (ramarren@bayarea.net), January 02, 2002.

Here's a link using _yalm_ (yet another loading method) that seems pretty fool-proof: http://www.butzi.net/reviews/pleated.htm

-- Robert L Jones (mail@visionsurgery.net), January 03, 2002.