Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/02/25

[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]

Subject: Re: [Leica] Re: Eric-loading an M6
From: Byron Rakitzis <byron@rakitzis.com>
Date: Thu, 25 Feb 1999 23:20:31 -0800

> There you go, futzing around with it. :-)
>
> Just lay it in there. That big round thing that pressed down on the takeup 
> spool takes care of all that junk. Leica put it there for a very good 
> reason. It works. Trust it.
>
> But I'm not sure what you mean by ubiquitous crimp near the film leader. 
> What do you mean by that? What crimp?

I think she means when you extract the film leader from the cassette, 
there is a crease where the film has been folded as it sat in the
plastic canister. I can't do this without a picture:

		---
	      /     \
	     |	xxx  |
	     |	xxx  |
	      \	 x  /
		---xxxxxxxxx
		   ^
		   |
		   CRIMP FORMS RIGHT HERE

This is a view from on top, and the x's are the film. Because the
way the part of the leader which sticks out is pressed against the
wall of the plastic film canister, you get a crease. So when you
pull the film out all the way to load the camera, it looks this:


		---
	      /     \
	     |	xxx  |
	     |	xxx  |
	      \	 x  /
		---xxxxxxxxx
			    xxxxxxxxxxxxxx


What ends up happening for me is that the crimp gets caught somewhere
to the right of the shutter curtain, but well before the takeup spool.
I usually must open the back of the M6 and help it along in there
using my fingers.