M4-P film slight canister rattle

[jbharrill1]

Today I noticed a rattling sound that was coming from the canister side of my m4-p. When I advanced the frame it got quieter and then when I would the rewind crank to add more tension it went away. I shot around 15 frames today and this would happen sporadically and when I would add tension it would more or less stop. Halfway through I realized that it sounded like the canister moving just a tiny bit. I also noticed that the rewind crank had just a tiny tiny amount of play in it that would go away when the film was tensioned or when I would advance and could tell that the crank spun for the full advance and not like it would if there was a bit of slack in the film.

I did some googling and found a few answers. One being "my m6 does this as well,no problems with the images, quit worrying." And the next being that the spring in the rewind crank has gone bad and is not keeping the film properly tensioned.

Has anyone else experienced anything like this and is it something to worry about? I'm going to finish this roll of tri x tomorrow then put a roll of color to shoot a test roll and see if there is any sort of issue. For some reason I've convinced myself that if the canister is moving then the frames will be unevenly spaced.

Thanks guys!

 

[Rob-F]

I got out my M4-P, which has a roll of Tri-X in it. I tried shaking it. I can make it rattle or not rattle by moving the position of the rewind knob to vary the tension. Seems like a non-issue to me.

 

[mooge]

That's just the film cassette rattling around in its chamber - not a big deal since it doesn't have enough space to really go anywhere. It's normal - and it shouldn't affect frame spacing because the film is held pretty firmly between rails and the pressure plate and buy the sprocket.

 

[jbharrill1]

Awesome, thank you guys. The reassurance is much appreciated.

 

[Dogman]

A few years ago, I had a pair of M6's that I bought used. I recall the black one had the mentioned "rattle" as well as a slightly bunged up bottom latch. Neither affected the function. As noted above, the pressure plate and sprocket keep the film in register.