I do not see any mention of loading film tight.....
I do not see any mention of loading film tight.....
A common problem with all camera's that load 120 film and transport it horizontally, (as opposed to cameras that have film inserts in removable back), is the dilemma of closing the door on a loose takeup spool. Fuji rangefinders address this in most of their 6X9 manuals, and I have found it to be a common characteristic of 120 transporting horizontally.
Frame spacing is a rather direct result of winding the camera on, with specific measurement of the frame by the mechanism. If the film is on the takeup spool loose, once one starts to wind on, the frame spacing changes as the film is not controlled per the spacing mechanism, but rather by the spacing mechanism and any give or take during the advance of the roll. Holding both rolls tight with a finger on the source spool and a thumb on the advance lever helps overcome loose loading. It's too bad there is no rewind lever on Medium format, so that one could apply some resistance to the source roll when advancing the film with the lever.
Tight loading may correct two problems. Midroll jams and spacing.
I lost about 3 rolls of 120 film to midroll jams before determining the problem on my first 6X9 Fujica Texas Leica.
It's also a common problem with old folders, but the slop on old folder sort of makes the expectation of frame spacing and unflat film more acceptable. That's simply not true.
If you leave your last shot on a folder uncocked and not advanced when you put it away, and then proceed to open the camera (without snapping it open), cock the camera and shoot, you will advance the flatness out of the film plane, and shake off any dust that might have settled on the film frame that was in place during camera storage.
Based on lens quality, I expect to get as good image quality from a folder as from a MF SLR or Rangefinder. And that is also based on a tight load at closing the door.
