At 19:26 5/11/03, AG Schnozz wrote:
Reading John's wedding sagas is a healthy reminder of why I really don't
like doing weddings. That one sounded *almost* fun, though.
Not the worst (Reception From Hell still takes that award), but not the
most pleasant. Felt "off balance" and "on edge" the entire time.
However, a couple weekends ago I had a disconcerting experience. . .
Everything went smoothly at the church and got what I *knew* would be some
great photographs there. Then, when rewinding the last roll in the OM-1n
after burning it completely with candids at the reception, it seemed to
wind up too quickly and didn't have the tell-tale tug at the very end when
the leader pulls off the take-up spool. First thought: this is truly
odd. I **always** ensure the rewind crank spins while winding on to the
first frame.
Now I start thinking about what's on it while unloading the rewound
roll. The OM-1n is used primarily in alternation with the Mamiya 645 with
monolights and I normally continue to watch for rewind crank rotation when
winding on to each successive frame too. The OM-2S is the mainstay for
everything that doesn't use monolights and it's in a camera-rotation
bracket. The first few on this OM-1n roll are semi-important from the
church and remember watching the crank rotate while winding on (also a
habit). The rest were candids at the church and the first few at the
reception using a spare handle mounted flash to burn the rest of the
roll. Some relief; there are no critical "must have" shots although the
first few are the most valuable on the roll.
A week later that roll comes back a very "short" one . . . only 6 exposed
frames on it and the 6th one contains the remaining 30 on top of
it. Fortunately my assessment was correct . . . nothing critical was lost,
just some grab shots (a few of which would have been great ones
though). The most important of them were the first four and there is some
relief those survived.
But wait, the film didn't jam while winding (had that happen before;
short-roll it and load another) and there are no torn sprocket holes
either. I tore up sprocket holes once long ago when forcing my first film
jam to wind. There's no mistaking that when it happens, and it leaves
behind little chips of film inside the camera too.
Now for an experiment to ensure I don't have a camera that needs to visit
the shop. Load up the "scratch" roll used for testing and wind it through,
rewind it, load it and wind it through again. No problem; works
perfectly. Even flipped the rewind lever before winding a number of
times. The first few degrees of stroke flip it back and it clearly pulls
the film to the next frame. The only scenario I've been able to come up with:
(a) Sprocket hole on leader slipped out from take-up spool hook while
loading or closing the door.
(b) Film remained engaged in the sprockets but not in the take-up spool and
is being pushed around the spool into the take-up side.
(c) At the 6th frame enough film has been pushed into the take-up side to
push back on the pressure plate enough to disengage the film from the
sprocket teeth and there it remains without jamming, on frame 6, until
rewound and unloaded.
(d) The OM-1n winding is smooth compared to the OM-2S and OM-4 making the
situation less detectable.
This also fits what it felt like while rewinding it; especially not being
able to clearly detect the leader pulling off the take-up spool at the
end. Used it Friday night for several rolls of film and very consciously
watched the rewind crank through every roll. It worked flawlessly which
tends to confirm what I suspected.
Remaining questions:
Has anyone else had this happen (I've never heard of it before)?
Any other plausible scenarios?
-- John
Who feels very lucky nothing critically important was lost.
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