Well, the experience with the MX has been interesting so far, to say the least!
After Jennifer warned me about her loading issues, I was very careful with the loading process myself. It initially took three attempts to get the film to wind smoothly through the first few frames, and I thought everything was going fine. I am familiar with the "magic needles", as my primary camera is an ME Super.
So, I took the MX into the field last night, to try to capture some Harvest Moon photos. We arrived prior to moonrise, so I figured I'd do some test shooting beforehand. All went well through the first 10 frames, then the "fun" started. Winding became uneven, and did not appear to be advancing an entire frame through the stroke. End of the evenings experiment!
Today, I sacrificed an expired roll of Kodak Gold, and followed the winding process through the entire roll with the back open. First I tried it pushing the leader through the needles on the RIGHT side of the take up reel, as I do with my ME Super. Ten frames in, the leader left go of the spool completely. Then, I tried again, pushing the leader through the LEFT side of the take up reel. This "seems" to have fixed the problem. Apparently, this camera ONLY wants to be loaded from the left side of the spool!
I'm going to give it one more attempt, with a roll of HP5+, and hope for the best! If it fails on my next trip afield, I'm afraid I'll have to forward the camera on to the next shooter, as I can't afford to lose any more film.
Griz