Bessa R Rewind Glitch

[tedwhite]

Yesterday I was at the end of a roll with the Bessa R and didn't realize it. I tried to advance to the next frame and the film advance lever stuck halfway through its rotation and would not return. This, we owners know, is standard fare.

So I pushed in the little button at the bottom of the camera (a bit more difficult to do with the side grip, but do-able), made sure it was in, and began to rewind the film.
Oops. The rewind lever spun freely, way too easy.

Hmm, what to do? For openers I got out my change bag, stuck the camera inside, opened the back and sure enough, that last attempt to wind on had pulled the film out of its cassette. As this was Fuji color neg film I couldn't just stick it into one of my developing tanks and get on with it, as I would have done with black and white film.

And there was no way that I could open up the Fuji cassette without screwing it up, so my solution was to get a reloadable cassette, attach the film end to the spool with tape, close up the cassette, stick it in the camera, close the back, and rewind the film.

PITA. Has anyone else had a similar experience with their Bessa?

(My final solution is to use strictly black and white film in the Bessa R. That way if it happens again it's not so much of a problem. If I want to use color film, I'll load it into my 1965 Pentax Spotmatic SP, at least until I can amass enough bucks for a Zeiss Ikon or a Leica).

Ted

 

[tedwhite]

Right. I thought of that, too, so when I sent it off to a lab in Washington State I enclosed a note telling them what was actually inside this all-black film cassette.

TW

 

[Fedzilla_Bob]

Hey - I've done the same with a Kiev, an Argus, an Electro 35 and a FED. Almost did it again this morning.

The Bessa's aren't alone in this respect. When I had my Bessa R (still kicking myself) I almost broke the tail end of the roll, once. I manged to figure out that all I needed to do was double expose the last frame. While holding the rewind button I advanced the wind(Thanks! to pdvhaar) to completion and sacrificed the last frame with a click of the shutter. Then I pressed the rewind again and was able to rewind the film.

When it happened my first thought was that it was the dread stuck shutter that some of the Bessa R's suffered.

(edited to make a little more sense)

 

[rxmd]

Hi,

I've had that happen on me with a Canon AE-1 while in Uzbekistan for a couple of months. It was after winter had set in, and the film must have been pretty brittle. I took the camera into my dark bathroom, opened the back, took the film out and spooled it into an empty film canister. I then gave it to an ordinary minilab for processing, they did it just fine. Just in case you don't have reloadable bulk cassettes lying around.

Philipp

 

[pvdhaar]

.... I manged to figure out that all I needed to do was double expose the last frame. While holding the rewind button I advanced the rewind to completion and sacrificed the last frame with a click of the shutter. Then I pressed the rewind again and was able to rewind the film....

I assume you meant that you advanced the wind to completion.. If so, it apears to me to be a wise procedure, not changing film with a shutter that's halfway between cycles. I'll keep it in mind!

 

[rxmd]

While holding the rewind button I advanced the rewind to completion and sacrificed the last frame

If you cover the lens, you don't have to sacrifice anything.

 

[nikola]

If you cover the lens, you don't have to sacrifice anything.

hehehehe 🙂 quite ingenious... 🙂))