[patdurr]

Hey all. My beautiful wife got me a 6x7 for Christmas! I have loaded a roll of HP5 and am off and running.

After pressing the shutter button and advancing to the next frame I can still turn the film advance lever. It doesn’t feel like it’s advancing the film. As a matter of fact I can turn it and turn it, but it never locks up like my other film cameras. Is this normal for the 6x7?

THANKS ~ Pat

[Silent Street]

Pat,
A colleague camping with me has pointed out this post and asked if I could put in an answer, despite being sopping wet from swimming!! (Sorry, it's very, very hot here in Australia as opposed to bitterly cold where you are!!).

Let's start at the beginning so that a trace can be made of any human error before poking the finger at the camera. By the way, do you have the Pentax 6x7, or the Pentax 67? This will be clear on the left hand side of the camera (viewed from the front).

1. You have loaded the tang on the leader of HP5 and ensured it is engaged in the tab in the take-up spool? A couple of wind-ons will ensure the tang holds the film. Note: if HP5 doesn't have a hole in the leader (I do not use that film...), put on a piece of sticky tape on the end of the leader once it has been threaded through the slit in the take-up spool.
2. You have wound-on (cover open) until the START line is visible and then lines up with the 120 mark on the film plane?
3. You have closed the cover and wound on until the camera stops at 1. During this winding process there will be more and more resistance/stiffness felt as the film comes under tension. The shutter will be cocked when frame No. 1 is reached.

If all the above have been followed, and still no resistance is felt (nor a cocked shutter) with frame No. 1 lined up, then a problem with the film winding pawl may be indicated. This is not gospel: people new to using these cameras often make fundamental errors with loading and advancing, and this is what I want to check out before anything else.

Cheers,
Garyh

[patdurr]

Hey Garth,

Thanks for the reply and taking time out of your camping fun, appreciate it.

I will shoot through the rest of this roll tomorrow, try to load a new one and try to rule out any of the user error you have mentioned in your reply.

Thanks Again!
- Pat

[tuco]

No, it's not normal. You can wind and fire the camera without film in it for testing too.

[patdurr]

OK, even without film when winding the frame count wheel past zero and closing the door the film lever continues to advance silently. Meaning the lever cocks forward but does not advance the film before firing the shutter. One I fire the shutter the next advance of the lever is stiffer and actually advances.

This is the Pentax 6x7 non MLU.
Any suggestions?

[Silent Street]

Likely a stripped, slipping or very worn, non-engaging winding pawl, most often caused by aggressive use such as in professional circumstances for which the Pentax 6x7 and later 67 cameras found a lot of use in studio situations. The Pentax 6x7 camera frequently show up with winding mechanism faults, and this can be put down to their age, all of 50 years of service, likely a lot of it brutal.

Make contact with Eric at pentaxs.com to run past the options with him.

[patdurr]

Thanks!

Here is link to a video I tried to record of the issue

Youtu.be

Youtu.be

[Silent Street]

Video proves this is a winding mechanism fault. - - > Service.