Hi All,
I may be straying off the subject a bit. Amidst the holiday spirit, allow me...
With a few practice tries on an old roll of film, preparing the film leader for a Leica III is amazingly easy:
1. With the film cannister to my Left, I draw out about 5 inches of film.
2. Measure 4 inches from the tip of the film leader [shiny side up], and make a mark at the 4 inch point. <----
3. Cut the film leader free hand, with a good quality small scissors, as it shows in the diagram when the bottom plate is removed.
4. Attach the film to the take up spool, and ease it in... making sure there are no kinks, and it slides up all the way, with the film cannister and take up spool, properly seated.
5. Advance the film one frame with the winding knob, and take up any slack with the rewind knob.
6. Set shutter on 1/25 [or 'B' if you must]... fire shutter and check that all is well with the film, with the lens having been removed.
7. Replace lens, choose a higher shutter speed, and set frame counter to just before the zero mark.
8. Your III is now properly loaded.
9. Advance film/cock shutter twice to get clean, unexposed film in position. It's a good idea to check slack tightnes again, via the rewind knob.
10. Shoot and have a good time ;~) Every now and then when you wind on, glance at the rewind knob to see if it is turning.
NOTE: Tho' the above steps may appear tedious, with practice, the whole procedure is 2-3 minutes. Further, eB@y seller lakesuwa sells low cost copies of the Leica Ablon template for film trimming.
Happy holidays to all,
Mike