Contax G2 wound film all the way out of canister

[jeremy__philip]

Hey! Hope this is the right area for this.

Was finishing a roll through my trusty G2 today and opened the back to find the camera ripped all of the film out of the canister and was wrapped all the way around the opposite side when it tried to rewind. I immediately walked over to Nippon Photoclinic in NYC, the guy there was able to carefully take the spent film off of the spool. He ran 2 rolls through it and it shot and rewound both of them perfectly. The guy there said he'd never seen this before and suggested maybe it was just a "bad roll". Nippon Photoclinic did a shutter/focus overhaul a few years ago and I've never had an issue since.

I suppose a bad roll is possible but was curious if someone else has had this issue. Before the other rolls were ran through perfectly I was thinking there was an issue with the winder but maybe it was a freak thing.

Would love any thoughts/advice!

Thanks!

 

[TenEleven]

With an electronic camera a remote diagnosis is always going to be very difficult, especially if Nippon Photo-clinic already could not see anything wrong on a physical inspection. In my mind there's three possible main categories for this problem:

• Film issue as theorized by Nippon Photo-clinic, I've never had or heard of such an issue -- but I guess it's possible
• Mechanical sensor issue - something like a film chip or piece of dust obstructed the film sprocket sensor and the camera was "blind" as to how much film it re/wound (see image attached below)
• Ageing of the components - this is something I have noticed with my film scanners as well (I rarely use electronic cameras but the same goes for them) - as time goes on they get more "temperamental". This seems to persist even after I cleaned, re-lubed and recapped them, although doing that has helped reduce the frequency of such "temper tantrums" -- this is likely due to the components ageing and decaying. I have also noticed that a lot of the ABS used in both cameras and scanners likes to shrink and crack - this can also introduce further tolerances which does not necessarily translate directly into failure but can again make a mechanism more temperamental.

 

[p.giannakis]

It has happened to me whilst trying to squeeze out a final picture from a roll in a SR-T 303. It was the end of the roll and I did realise what happened thought.

I too think you were just unlucky with the roll.

 

[DownUnder]

#2 is a particularly good response. Far better than the one I want to post now.

My question: was your 'ripped' film home-rolled? I had this happen to me a few times with bulk-rolled B&W films loaded into a black plastic cassette of the type manufactured in IIRC Germany as a One Size Fits All bulk loading one, back in the '80s and likely later.

I suggest you try the following. Load your G2 with a brand name (= Ilford or Kodak) cassette. Use up the roll. See what happens at the end.

As #3 has written, in the good old days of the best of our film cameras we had this happen. We tried to squeeze out a few more frames (my magic number was 39 on a 36 exposure roll, once I managed to reach 40 on a home-rolled Plus-X film and boy, I felt like Attila the Hun having conquered Gaul from the romans.

So yeh, we wound on too aggressively and rip!! out came the film from the cassette. This was a regular mishap for film shooters in the '80s and even in the late '90s-early '00s I had this happen to me with my G1 with home-rolled films. To the point that I took to carrying a small black loading bag (aka the headless T-shirt) to hand-unroll the film from the camera if I had to do it on-site so I could reload and go on shooting. Using brand name film in branded cassettes resolved the problem.

If this this little tactic doesn't work, please come back to us, and we will try to conjure up something else for you to try.

Take comfort in knowing we all had such tricks of the trade in our 'analog' days. Usually with mechanical cameras the golden rule back then was if you left the problem alone long enough, it would eventually fix itself. This seemed to work with my Nikkormats, altho I doubt it will give you much comfort with a G2 or for that matter with my G1.

Best...

 

[jeremy__philip]

With an electronic camera a remote diagnosis is always going to be very difficult, especially if Nippon Photo-clinic already could not see anything wrong on a physical inspection. In my mind there's three possible main categories for this problem:

• Film issue as theorized by Nippon Photo-clinic, I've never had or heard of such an issue -- but I guess it's possible
• Mechanical sensor issue - something like a film chip or piece of dust obstructed the film sprocket sensor and the camera was "blind" as to how much film it re/wound (see image attached below)
• Ageing of the components - this is something I have noticed with my film scanners as well (I rarely use electronic cameras but the same goes for them) - as time goes on they get more "temperamental". This seems to persist even after I cleaned, re-lubed and recapped them, although doing that has helped reduce the frequency of such "temper tantrums" -- this is likely due to the components ageing and decaying. I have also noticed that a lot of the ABS used in both cameras and scanners likes to shrink and crack - this can also introduce further tolerances which does not necessarily translate directly into failure but can again make a mechanism more temperamental.

View attachment 4837988

Thank you for the great response. The sensor issue seems likely to me as I haven't had a CLA in some time as Nippon charges a lot for it.

What is the best way to clean this sensor or other contacts safely? I've never done it myself.

Thanks!

 

[jeremy__philip]

#2 is a particularly good response. Far better than the one I want to post now.

My question: was your 'ripped' film home-rolled? I had this happen to me a few times with bulk-rolled B&W films loaded into a black plastic cassette of the type manufactured in IIRC Germany as a One Size Fits All bulk loading one, back in the '80s and likely later.

I suggest you try the following. Load your G2 with a brand name (= Ilford or Kodak) cassette. Use up the roll. See what happens at the end.

As #3 has written, in the good old days of the best of our film cameras we had this happen. We tried to squeeze out a few more frames (my magic number was 39 on a 36 exposure roll, once I managed to reach 40 on a home-rolled Plus-X film and boy, I felt like Attila the Hun having conquered Gaul from the romans.

So yeh, we wound on too aggressively and rip!! out came the film from the cassette. This was a regular mishap for film shooters in the '80s and even in the late '90s-early '00s I had this happen to me with my G1 with home-rolled films. To the point that I took to carrying a small black loading bag (aka the headless T-shirt) to hand-unroll the film from the camera if I had to do it on-site so I could reload and go on shooting. Using brand name film in branded cassettes resolved the problem.

If this this little tactic doesn't work, please come back to us, and we will try to conjure up something else for you to try.

Take comfort in knowing we all had such tricks of the trade in our 'analog' days. Usually with mechanical cameras the golden rule back then was if you left the problem alone long enough, it would eventually fix itself. This seemed to work with my Nikkormats, altho I doubt it will give you much comfort with a G2 or for that matter with my G1.

Best...

The roll was not home rolled however it was a roll (Portra 400) that i rewound and then reinserted in the Contax. I took it out before going through airport security and shot it back up to frame 14 and continued from there. Maybe something happened there? The only other thing worth noting is that I do have the custom function turned on that leaves the film leader out as I'm frequently switching between cameras, maybe I'll turn this off for safety. When the guy at Nippon successfully ran the 2 rolls through without issue I think they were regular Portra or Ultramax rolls.

But yes, going to load up some new batteries, clean that sensor that TenEleven mentioned, and shoot a roll normally.

Thanks for the lovely responses everyone!

 

[DownUnder]

The roll was not home rolled however it was a roll (Portra 400) that i rewound and then reinserted in the Contax. I took it out before going through airport security and shot it back up to frame 14 and continued from there. Maybe something happened there? The only other thing worth noting is that I do have the custom function turned on that leaves the film leader out as I'm frequently switching between cameras, maybe I'll turn this off for safety. When the guy at Nippon successfully ran the 2 rolls through without issue I think they were regular Portra or Ultramax rolls.

But yes, going to load up some new batteries, clean that sensor that TenEleven mentioned, and shoot a roll normally.

Thanks for the lovely responses everyone!

Oh. Hm. Well, it was a thought.

Some film emulsions are thinner. This may have an effect on the autowinder. I've had this same problem with my ca 1959 Rolleiflex 3.5E2 with thin emulsion 120 roll films which now and then fail to activate the counter when run through the autoloader.

Good to know your G2 loaded and rewound properly when it was put to the pro test. Which will save you a small packet in repairs. I've had one Contax G1 done by a repair center in the past and I paid through the nose for it, this was in 2006 so I shudder to think to what degree our pockets would be picked for this same work now.

Best...

 

[TenEleven]

Also slightly off topic, but I believe this sub is for the Zeiss Ikon Contax and not the G

Thank you for the great response. The sensor issue seems likely to me as I haven't had a CLA in some time as Nippon charges a lot for it.

What is the best way to clean this sensor or other contacts safely? I've never done it myself.

Thanks!

I have used a cotton bud lightly wet with water or naptha (lighter fluid) before. It worked well and the cotton bud was visibly dirty thereafter.
In my case it did not affect performance (it worked just as well as before), but I guess the cleaning was needed anyway.

However, please, do not use alcohols such as IPAs and such they have a good chance to mottle or even craze the acrylic window of the sensor or other such transparent pieces on compacts. I learned this the hard way. Do not be me.

 

[splitimageview]

I believe this sub is for the Zeiss Ikon Contax

This forum has several G topics including some that are stickies. The site's forum hierarchy could use some re-org IMHO. 🙂

 

[TenEleven]

This was a message I was beginning to typing up before realizing that...
a)It's not very helpful and...
b)also not correct as you stated.

Somehow the forum then appended my "draft" to my next message.
D'oh.... oh well I will leave it for now as to not make this thread more confusing for future readers

 

[splitimageview]

yes the forum software will remember drafts 🙂