Xpan II frame counter issues - Help

[JCGamble]

Recently purchased an XPan II as I have an Xpan and wanted the longer exposure options with the II. I loaded the film today and it only gave 19 exposures. The next roll it only gave 17 exposures. The next roll it gave 15. Has anyone ever run into a similar problem. I reset the camera with new batteries to no avail. Any help is appreciated. Thank you in advance.

 

[Huss]

I have the 1 and the II and they both give the same # of exposures. Whether I get 20 or 21 depends on the film. Portra 400 gives me 21 in both, Fuji C200 20 in both.

Have you tried flipping the lever from pano to normal and see the frame count change?
Do you have multiple exposure set by mistake? Or frame bracketing?

 

[JCGamble]

Thanks for the reply. I went back through settings and did not have either selected. I'm shooting Pan F. Loaded and reloaded a test roll several times and got frame counters of 15, 17, 18, 19, 20 and 20. It's just inconsistent. The film advance motor that engages when you close the camera back seems to almost run out of steam as it gets those final numbers to tick off going upward.

Any ideas?

 

[JCGamble]

Just did another test and got it to read 21 frames. Go figure.

 

[Huss]

I have an old roll of Kodachrome 40 which I use to test film loading of my 'new' cameras that I aquire. I have noticed that after a few rewinds, the film itself becomes harder to load and rewind. Especially load. There feels like there is far more friction, and part of this is it being curled as it is wound round the take up spool. That adds to the torque required to load the film, which may be why you are getting inconsistent results.
Try it with a fresh roll (after you have shot this one) and it should load fine.
They also should slow the load as it gets near to the end. That is to protect the mechanism.

 

[JCGamble]

Thanks Huss. Much appreciated.

 

[ChrisLivsey]

I have an old roll of Kodachrome 40 which I use to test film loading of my 'new' cameras that I aquire. I have noticed that after a few rewinds, the film itself becomes harder to load and rewind. Especially load. There feels like there is far more friction, and part of this is it being curled as it is wound round the take up spool. That adds to the torque required to load the film, which may be why you are getting inconsistent results.
Try it with a fresh roll (after you have shot this one) and it should load fine.
They also should slow the load as it gets near to the end. That is to protect the mechanism.

But the OP states that different rolls were loaded for the first three results reported, then loading the same roll gave similarly inconsistent results. My question would be how does the camera "know" it has come to the end of the roll and similarly as you state it slows towards the end, again how is that detected. I would suspect it some form of torque detection, as with your multiple loaded reel.
The same issue was discussed here with no conclusion: http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=89685

However on an Xpan Flickr group the problem is described exactly the same way, perhaps the same user, who sent the camera for service and reported all was well on return:

https://www.flickr.com/groups/56835726@N00/discuss/72157627140072641/