M4 And the Girl from Ipanema

[mfogiel]

Yesterday afternoon, after a nervous day of work, I've decided to hit the street briefly before dinner, to relax taking some photos. What could be better, than trying my new "mint" Leica M4 bought from a fellow RFF member here in the classifieds !
So, I've opted for something special - grabbed the Ultra Wide Heliar 12/5.6 with its oversized orange filter, a light tripod, spirit level, Digisix, loaded a roll of Rollei Retro 100 and took the bus to the "center".
Actually here, almost everything is "the center" as the whole of Monaco is about one square mile...
I got out in Boulevard Des Moulins, a nice street filled with elegant shops, ending in Place des Moulins, from where you can take a lift down and get out almost in front of the beach.
I start looking through the cyclopic viewfinder, and looking for interesting set ups - not an easy task, as you have to fill the first plane with something startling, else the photos will turn out boring.

Here I find a giant Ficus tree with a massive and complicated trunk, there I see a curvy end of a beautiful handrail leading along an elegant passage, there a bonnet of a vintage sports car. Click, click, click... I open and close my tripod several times, and move on swiftly, as the light starts going down. Finally I arrive in front of that pasage half way to the square, which opens with a spectacular set of stairs leading some fifty meters higher, and bordered with nice old buildings. There is an open view at the end, and a very nice looking double hand rail in the middle, similar to this one, but several times longer:

So, I set up the camera, check the light, spirit level, and position myself half a meter from the beginning of the rail. The set up is spectacular, and the perspective quite dramatic, but the scene lacks something special... I lift my head from the viewfinder, and.... encounter a questioning face of a beautiful lady, standing in front of me, and evidently not wanting to disturb my shot, as she needs TO CLIMB THESE STAIRS !

She looks great, with a dark sun tan, an elegant , VERY SHORT dress, and a nice bag which looks like filled out with her beach apparel... I produce a broad smile, and invite her to go ahead...

As soon as she passes the camera, I start shooting: The hair sways to the side showing her neck, CLICK, as she makes the first stairs I notice she has really long and beautiful legs, CLICK, after another step, the wind LIFTS A BIT HER VERY SHORT DRESS !, CLICK, CLICK, she sways her bag slowly from one shoulder to another, CLICK, CLICK, she grabs briefly the hand rail and bends nicely, CLICK... Finally I stop shooting , as the figure quickly becomes too small in the frame, but I feel great, as I know I've grabbed great stuff !

After folding up and directing myself back home, I still have a few shots left, so I shoot some not very convincing frames just to finish the roll and develop it the next day. CLICK, 35th, CLICK, 36th, CLICK, 37th... I start getting nervous...
I did the usual "Leica" check at the beginning of the roll, by watching if the film was advancing with the first couple of shots, but I did not look at the rewind knob later... CLICK 38th !, CLICK 39th !!! Hold it, this can't be , where is the problem??? Is it that I broke the sprockets after the 36th frame without noticing?

I get home very nervous, put the camera into a black bag, and open the base plate. The film is behind the shutter, so I stert rewinding: one turn, second turn, FLIP, the film leader pops out...

It looks like the camera for some inexplicable reason did not advance the film after the first frames! I feel outraged... I keep repeating to myself: what a photo what a photo... I load the film again and start advancing, but as soon as the first frames eat up the slack, the winding lever sort of disengages and does not wind....grrrr I did not notice the problem, because it was my first roll with this M4, and I ascribed a somewhat gritty lever action to the "character" of the camera...

Here I am now, really angry at myself, because that photo opportunity was truly unique.
I thought also about the fellow RFF member, who sold me this camera as mint and fully functional, and I have mixed feelings, because if he knew about the problem, then he does not even deserve a kick in the butt, on the other hand if he did not know, he also does not deserve anything negative, so if I have to weigh human imperfection againt a beautiful M4, I choose the M4, and I am surely going to fix it and pass over the unlucky purchase, BUT WHO WILL GIVE ME BACK MY PHOTOS ?!

I went there again today with the Heliar fixed on an M7, but there was only a shaky couple of over 70 trotting down the stairs.... The Girl From Ipanema was long gone... and now, to get over this episode, I am going to put one of my favourite records "Getz and Gilberto" and listen as the swaying melody caresses my ears, and disappears as well...

P.S. Anybody has a clue as what could have happened? Unless this is some kind of a simple fix problem, I intend to send the camera to Solms tomorrow...

 

[Florian1234]

Ouuw, I am very sorry to hear this. And I feel sympathy since I encountered similar problems with my M4 in the past year of owning it. That seller also said that it would work (not mint at all).

At first I would check the baseplate, because it could be that it is not a M4 one, but for M2 or M3. If it is generic, fine. Mine is not.🙄

Then for the process of loading the film, here is what I do: Put the film cartridge on the edge, grab the tounge of the film, fold the first centimeters back. This then double layered part I put into the take up area. Then I put the rewind crank until the film is tensioned a bit. Close the back door. Advance one or two frames and make sure the rewind crank moves. Then I put back the baseplate and go to 0.
So, it could be that the transporting spool did not grab the sprockets of the film. I had that with one of the first rolls I put into my M4. After that I shot some frames of portrait of my cousin and thought "hey those must be good shots", opened the back and the film leader grinned at me... 🙄😡:bang:

Hmm, no clue what else could be with it. Last fault I had was that some spring avoided shutter hold to be able to be fired. That was fixed quickly by tensioning the spring on the lower inside.

 

[raid]

Such things happen, and you live with the memories of the images that could have benn recorded on film. Don't feel bad about it.

 

[raid]

I agree; I sometimes advance two frames or even three when it is very important to me that the film advances properly in that particular roll of film.

 

[vrgard]

I've made the mistake, sadly more than once, of not properly loading film in my various M cameras. Now, as others have already stated, I simply waste the first frame or so by making sure the rewind knob indicates that the film is advancing. The only other bit of advice I can give is to make sure the film sprockets are engaged on the takeup teeth on the advance side by looking through the open back door before closing everything up. Oh, and I've had bad experiences by over-tightening the film via the rewind knob. Now I still slightly tighten, but only slightly. Again, by wasting the first frame or so one can be sure the film is advancing and this does not require the film to be overtightened in the canister. Hope this helps someone and mfogiel, sorry to hear of your missed shots. I'm sure many of us would have enjoyed the great shots you took.

-Randy

 

[Bill Blackwell]

It sounds to me like you simply misloaded the camera (user error). In the sum 40 years of film M use, this very thing has happened to me no more than perhaps three or four times.

What can I say - it happens. And you might go ten years before it happens again. You curtail this considerably if, when the back is still open, you fire and advance those first few shots to be sure the leader has caught hold of the sprocket.

 

[Nikon Bob]

I have miss loaded an M4 and it turned out that it was my fault by being too delicate on the loading process. The first couple of wind ons require a quick assertive stroke or the camera has a tendency not to take up the film. Her is where I got my solution http://nemeng.com/leica/000b.shtml . As always check to make sure the rewind crank is rotating to confirm the film is being taken up. Sorry to hear you missed that series of shots but it may not have been a faulty camera.

Bob

 

[Mephiloco]

First roll I ever shot on a Leica, a friend's M5, I didn't load the film properly and had 36 exposures on one frame.

The first roll I shot on my m2 I lost half of the roll rewinding. I didn't realize I had to hold the rewind button the whole time, rewound half of the roll and then it stopped and felt like I was bout to tear the sprockets. I pop off the bottom and half of the roll just rolls out.

 

[mfogiel]

No, I have been through that experience of shooting an entire roll without winding the film on my M7. This time I checked as usual, that the rewind knob was turning on the first two blanks. I reloaded the camera a second time, and observed the phenomenon carefully: it winds the first one or two frames, and then the advance lever starts making that gritty type of noise, as if some dents were not engaging something else, feels like a car clutch which is slipping, but I do not know if the slippage is on the film sprockets or inside some internal mechanism - sounds like the latter.

 

[Tracnac]

It's sad but nothing is loose you still remember these fantastics photos in your memory... that's the most important.

Yvan.

 

[oldoc]

Stinks.
Happened to me today on my M6.
Nothing that special, artistically, but the LIGHT!
Superb, and gone now.
Kinda like spilling a shot of 20 year old Scotch!

 

[thomasw_]

Whoa, I can empathize, so lame on a number of levels. I know the images can never be retrieved, but I hope the situation with the M4 is resolved to your satisfaction, Marek.

 

[Yammerman]

First couple of rolls on my M2 I didn't load right and shot nothing but now I never miss. Worth trying another roll surely?

 

[fbf]

The m4 was from me.

 

[Trius]

He didn't bash you at all. You are asking him to be gracious. A good example might have been a private email to discuss, even if he did not do so first.

 

[fbf]

Okay, reread his post. My bad. I apologize to you all, including Marek.
62 hours on call could mess up your mind pretty badly.

Again, I am sorry. I will solve the problem with Marek privately.

 

[35mmdelux]

I know the feeling of opportunity lost.

In photog we say KNOW YOUR GEAR.

 

[Trius]

Good for you, my compliments. 62 hours? That's insane.

 

[Rob-F]

When LIFE sent Eisenstadt to photograph Marilyn Monroe, he was so excited he forgot to put film in the camera. He had to go back and do it over.

Happens to the best of us.

 

[mfogiel]

This morning, I decided to check the problem carefully again. I loaded a new cassette of film and started advancing with the back door open and the base plate off. Everything perfect. I put the base plate on, and again, after a couple of shots which have eaten up the film slack, the film stops advancing and I hear the gritty sound. After closer inspection the sound is caused by the roller dents sliding under the film sprockets, so it looks like the winding mechanism is fine. At this point it has dawned on me, that the problem has to be in something that tightens the film cassette excessively, so I have removed the base plate and put on the base plate from my M7 - AND IT WORKS !
So, this explains a lot of things, and jbf needs not feel like a black sheep, as evidently the camera itself is working perfectly. As to who and how has exchanged the base plates, we are investigating now, because it could have happened at a renowned Leica repair shop during a recent CLA... Go figure...