RE: [Leica] Re: Rapidwinder and film mis-advance/loading....

["Dan Honemann" <ddh@home.com>]

For me the trick was in discovering the root of the problem: the slight kink
(warp?) in the first inch or so of the film gets caught on somewhere
(shutter curtain edge?) on the way into the camera; as long as I make sure I
work the bottom edge of the film past that catch, all is well.  I can't rely
on the basket for this, either--it merely pushes the film edge into that
catching point.  Once I've got the film past it, all is well--every time (so
far!).

One nice side benefit to the folds in the leader method, though: when
rewinding, the film will catch at that point, so if you're a fan of leaving
the leader out on exposed film, this method does the trick.

Dan

> Aaaaaaah I'm not that lucky, you bet I've screwed-up loadings and I
> believe any photographer who says he never has might be fibbing a bit. :-)
>
> But here is something I do when I load any of my M6s.  I make a couple
> of little folds at the tip of the leader like this	_________/\_/\_
> then drop them into the take up spool and it's never failed me yet.
>
> If I'm going to be shooting a pile of film,  I fold about ten rolls
> ready to go, then I don't have to fuss with folding during the
> heat of action.
>
> If you haven't tried this have a go and see what happens. Works like a
> dream and too bad Leica don't use it as advice for loading the M6
> info brochure.
>
> ted