[Leica] Goofed with film advance on M3

[Peter Niessen <niessen@ifh.de>]

Dear all,

I encountered a problem with the film advance. Of course, it happened
when it mattered most, i.e. on my sort of first official assignment. I
was to document our Choirs (www.amadeus-chor.de) trip to northern
Germany and take a group picture of them all. This was hell! Getting
to look 24 people smile friendly and look at you at the same time. So
I bossed them around for 10 minutes and shot almost a roll, I thought.
After development it turned out I goofed while inserting the film into
my M3 and it did not advance the film. However, I used the rest of the
roll later in the day and then it got the grip and advanced the film
properly. Did someone experience this? How does one now handle the
embarrasing situation to explain to 24 people they posed for nothing?

I hear there exist some loading systems which allow the !@#$%^*$$ M3
film spool to be replaced with a M4/M6 sort of loading, which would
make life a lot easier. Are they hard to find? 

A sort of frustrated Peter.