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Re: [OM] Slower Zoom Lenses and Weddings

Subject: Re: [OM] Slower Zoom Lenses and Weddings
From: "John A. Lind" <jlind@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 12 May 2003 01:25:07 -0400
At 19:26 5/11/03, AG Schnozz wrote:
Reading John's wedding sagas is a healthy reminder of why I really don't like doing weddings. That one sounded *almost* fun, though.

Not the worst (Reception From Hell still takes that award), but not the most pleasant. Felt "off balance" and "on edge" the entire time.

However, a couple weekends ago I had a disconcerting experience. . .

Everything went smoothly at the church and got what I *knew* would be some great photographs there. Then, when rewinding the last roll in the OM-1n after burning it completely with candids at the reception, it seemed to wind up too quickly and didn't have the tell-tale tug at the very end when the leader pulls off the take-up spool. First thought: this is truly odd. I **always** ensure the rewind crank spins while winding on to the first frame.

Now I start thinking about what's on it while unloading the rewound roll. The OM-1n is used primarily in alternation with the Mamiya 645 with monolights and I normally continue to watch for rewind crank rotation when winding on to each successive frame too. The OM-2S is the mainstay for everything that doesn't use monolights and it's in a camera-rotation bracket. The first few on this OM-1n roll are semi-important from the church and remember watching the crank rotate while winding on (also a habit). The rest were candids at the church and the first few at the reception using a spare handle mounted flash to burn the rest of the roll. Some relief; there are no critical "must have" shots although the first few are the most valuable on the roll.

A week later that roll comes back a very "short" one . . . only 6 exposed frames on it and the 6th one contains the remaining 30 on top of it. Fortunately my assessment was correct . . . nothing critical was lost, just some grab shots (a few of which would have been great ones though). The most important of them were the first four and there is some relief those survived.

But wait, the film didn't jam while winding (had that happen before; short-roll it and load another) and there are no torn sprocket holes either. I tore up sprocket holes once long ago when forcing my first film jam to wind. There's no mistaking that when it happens, and it leaves behind little chips of film inside the camera too.

Now for an experiment to ensure I don't have a camera that needs to visit the shop. Load up the "scratch" roll used for testing and wind it through, rewind it, load it and wind it through again. No problem; works perfectly. Even flipped the rewind lever before winding a number of times. The first few degrees of stroke flip it back and it clearly pulls the film to the next frame. The only scenario I've been able to come up with: (a) Sprocket hole on leader slipped out from take-up spool hook while loading or closing the door. (b) Film remained engaged in the sprockets but not in the take-up spool and is being pushed around the spool into the take-up side. (c) At the 6th frame enough film has been pushed into the take-up side to push back on the pressure plate enough to disengage the film from the sprocket teeth and there it remains without jamming, on frame 6, until rewound and unloaded. (d) The OM-1n winding is smooth compared to the OM-2S and OM-4 making the situation less detectable.

This also fits what it felt like while rewinding it; especially not being able to clearly detect the leader pulling off the take-up spool at the end. Used it Friday night for several rolls of film and very consciously watched the rewind crank through every roll. It worked flawlessly which tends to confirm what I suspected.

Remaining questions:
Has anyone else had this happen (I've never heard of it before)?
Any other plausible scenarios?

-- John
Who feels very lucky nothing critically important was lost.


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