I've had an XA with A11 flash for a couple of years and never used it.
I wanted a pocketable camera along on a trip so I decided to try it out.
I shared a test roll of film between it and my Sylus Epic that also
hadn't been used in quite awhile. I ended up taking both cameras but
only used the Epic since I was concerned about the XA possibly tearing film.
When I loaded the test roll it went first into the XA since I knew I
couldn't control the Epic's behaviour of completely rolling the film
leader into the casette. On the first try winding the film on the XA I
encountered a fair amount of resistance after a couple rolls of the
thumbwheel. I thought the resistance was simply cocking the shutter but
when the thumbwheel suddenly released and started spinning easily I
realized that I had broken the film sprockets... something I have never
done in 40 years on any camera.
I opened the camera and noticed for the first time ever that the XA only
pulls the film on one side. I then used a pair of scissors to trim up a
new leader. After reloading the camera I wound my test images very
gingerly and had no further problem.
Both the XA and the Epic ended up producing nicely exposed images so I
took both cameras with me on the trip. However, I couldn't bring myself
to use the XA for fear of tearing the film sprockets again.
Anybody had this experience? Is this common or was I being heavy handed
on the thumbwheel?
Thanks for any advice,
Chuck Norcutt
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