[ZTrev10]

Hi guys,
I just started shooting on film and love it. Also built my own darkroom in my bathroom. I was walking around shooting today when I tried to advance the film and felt it slip a little, then for the next shot, it slipped a bit more, (the film winding lever would turn less and less) then a bit more until the winding lever stopped turning and I heard the sound of what I assume is the film slipping from the sprockets to advance the film.

I just opened the camera in a changing bag and felt around, and tried to press down on the film and get it to catch but it wouldn't. I'm hoping that perhaps the film was damaged from a previous advance and that's why it wouldn't catch.

Any thoughts? At this point I'm thinking that I might have to cut the film, develop what I have, check the film and see what the results are. Hopefully it's not the camera and I may have somehow loaded my film incorrectly? Thanks for your feedback! Loving my foray into film so far!

Trevor

[stevebrot]

Welcome to the Pentax Forums!

What you described sounds a lot like what happens when the sprockets are not fully engaged before closing the back of the camera. It is very important that the sprockets, both top and bottom be fully engaged with the film flat across the film gate as shown in the loading instructions on page 10 of the user manual. It is the sprockets, not the take-up spool that pulls the film out of the canister and everyone who shoots 35mm film has had this happen at least once.

The manual is available for free download from Pentax Manuals (pdf). The password to open is "Pentax".

BTW...be sure to thoroughly look for and remove any film shards that might be floating around the film chamber. Those can cause future problems if they get into the works.


Steve

[ZTrev10]

Thanks! I'll be more conscious of that when loading my camera!

[ZTrev10]

Hmm. I just had this problem again and the sprockets were 100% engaged. I did some googling and it seems like it could be cause by slack in the canister? I load my own from from 100' rolls if that helps?

[stevebrot]

Hmm. I just had this problem again and the sprockets were 100% engaged. I did some googling and it seems like it could be cause by slack in the canister? I load my own from from 100' rolls if that helps?

Sorry you are still having problems. Are you overfilling the canisters? They really don't hold much more that 36 exposures. Likewise, the takeup spool only holds about 36 exposures on that side as well.

Excess slack on the canister side can cause problems. That is why one engages the sprockets and takes up the slack before closing the back. Once the back is closed, additional winds to get the film counter to "1" should result in the rewind knob turning anti-clockwise.


Steve