You're loading your Leica M wrong...

[Richard G]

I have had trouble at times with my M5 not loading properly which I still don’t understand. Haven’t used it for a while. Might find my trouble has gone if I get it out again. Hope so. Confession: did look up a video on that thanks to this thread.

 

[Richard G]

As Godfrey says, the good thing with 35mm is that if the film is moving there’s little else to consider. With the Rolleiflex Automat if you don’t remember to pass the film under the roller while you’re telling your companion what great cameras these are you’ll find you’ve just rolled the whole film onto the take up spool instead of stopping automatically at frame 1. Similarly with a Hasselblad if you forget to wind ten times once the film is loaded in the magazine you’ll get nothing on the first few frames and the shots that do work out will be wider spaced and you won’t get your 12. Only did that once. (Never did the Automat snafu.)

 

[maddoc]

From my experience, loading a Leica works well and is easy to do as long as mechanics are within specs. As soon as the rewind clutch/take-up spool looses friction, loading gets a hit and miss.

 

[Hari]

The Sinar Zoom 120 roll film holder
ranks high in the difficult to load department.
It's that 180 degree turn that's hard
to feed the paper through.

 

[brbo]

You're loading your Leica M wrong...

No, I'm not.

 

[Larry Cloetta]

Right now, people who load Grafmatic backs are laughing at us.

https://lommen9.home.xs4all.nl/grafmatic/index.html

https://youtu.be/xgH5oJ7n7Ec

(I have several of these, including one new-in-box, but have yet to load one)

A Grafmatic back is an amazing bit of engineering. It’s closer to a magic trick than a piece of photography equipment. I have one somewhere which I loaded once with exposed film, but there are so many different ways to get loading regular film holders wrong that I wasn’t about to trust myself to routinely load a Grafmatic back perfectly, never mind using it in the field. Hats off to the pros.
But, yes, people who manage those backs routinely no longer think very much of us after seeing this thread. If they ever did.

There are a lot of things in life that are hard to do, but loading any 35mm camera correctly, isn’t one of them. Unless you are in a combat zone. (Thank you for your service, Phil.)

 

[zuiko85]

Only camera that gave me trouble loading was an Exakta VX1000 picked up at a garage sale for $10. Would load and advance normally until frame 6 or 7 and then tear the film...every time. Stumped me for a year as with the back open there was no problem. Turned out to be a very slight crease in the back that, ever so slightly, made the pressure plate sit not quite straight on the rails. After I popped it back with my thumbs and reinstalled the pressure plate it worked perfectly.

 

[Hari]

I've got four 35mm cameras I use:
Nikon F
Nikon F2
Leica II
Leica M2

I've figured out how to load the metal cassettes that are available
for all 4 cameras with a Watson style daylight film loader and the
Leitz metal template. The template has both a leader cut and a
pointed cut for inserting into the metal cassette.

It's a two step operation. First, in the dark make the pointed cut by
pulling the film from loader. Put the film back in the loader but
leave 2 inches out.
Second, with lights on place the pointed cut in the slot in the cassette.
Turn off lights, open loader and place cassette in the well.
Close loader. Turn on lights, note that counter is working.
Wind on.
My style of loader will not close the cassette, so lights out
cut film, close cassette, etc.
There are two types of leitz cassettes, the one with black top
button is only for screw mount Leicas. The one with the silver
top button fits both screw mount and M3 or M2. On my Leica
M2 I had to file a bit to make the cassettes fit.
If you ever scratched a whole roll with the plastic kind, like me,
learn to use the metal or stay with preloaded.
BTW, the Nikon cassettes are different for the F and F2, not interchangeable.

 

[Steve Bellayr]

After watching that video I realized what I was doing wrong when reloading my Leica and I walked about the city or concert or demonstration...I did not take along a clean table to rest my camera on.

 

[WJJ3]

When I was in Iraq, I don't know how many times when loading my M2 or M4, the process would be interrupted and I'd have to run to a different position with my squad. Once I left my bottom plate off the M4, stood up and the roll dropped right out onto the ground. Remembered where I put it a couple feet away, loaded, and went on with my day on patrol.

Phil Forrest

Sounds hectic!

 

[Coldkennels]

There are two types of leitz cassettes, the one with black top
button is only for screw mount Leicas. The one with the silver
top button fits both screw mount and M3 or M2. On my Leica
M2 I had to file a bit to make the cassettes fit.

Minor correction. The top button is not the most helpful way of determining which cassette fits which type of Leica as the inner section of the cassette - which the button is attached to - can be swapped between the two cassettes. You have to be a very special kind of idiot to get them mixed up as they don't fit together well, but it's entirely possible to put an IXMOO inner (that's the M size) into a FILCA cassette, which then means it wouldn't fit into an M.

The only real way to make sure which is which is the length of the cassette; the IXMOO is about 44.1mm long, while the FILCA is about 46.45mm.

 

[Rob-F]

I do check that the film is aligned on its rails while the back door is open. I know I don't have to, but I just like to. It's a comfortable ritual. If I were to use the bottom plate to align the film, I'd still have to take the bottom back off and open the back door to admire the properly positioned film. If I didn't, I'd feel deprived of an important part of enjoying my Leicas. Rituals are important in today's complex changing world. As the Tiffany's salesman said, in Breakfast At Tiffany's, "It gives you a feeling of continuity, almost of solidarity, with the past."

 

[Malcolm M]

I pre-digital days, I spent a short, but not short enough, period of time working in a camera shop. From that experience I can tell you that if the emulsion side of the film is facing the lens, you're probably ahead of the game.

 

[jsrockit]

On some of my cameras, just transporting the film properly isn't sufficient. For instance, on a Minox B, if you don't set up the frame counter to the right point and use the proper number of lead and trailing frames...

I would think that if you haven't set up the frame counter etc, it would be encompassed within not transported properly.

 

[Hari]

Coldkennels: Thanks for the advice!
Since I didn't need my FILCAs, I sold
them. It good to check if I should
buy any more IXMOOs!

 

[Godfrey]

I would think that if you haven't set up the frame counter etc, it would be encompassed within not transported properly.

I guess it just depends on how large and generic you want to make the term "transported properly" become. I mean, dropping the film cassette on the ground before you close the back and wind on, forgetting to pick it up and put it into the camera, could also be construed as the camera "not transporting the film properly" in a large sense. 😀

All I'm saying is that some of my cameras do take some technique to be loaded properly and produce the results I expect.

G

 

[oldwino]

No matter how you load your Leica, one thing is certain - you will run out of film at the most inopportune moments, where there is nowhere to place your camera or baseplate, and amazing things are happening all around you...

 

[Pál_K]

I do check that the film is aligned on its rails while the back door is open. I know I don't have to, but I just like to. It's a comfortable ritual. If I were to use the bottom plate to align the film, I'd still have to take the bottom back off and open the back door to admire the properly positioned film. If I didn't, I'd feel deprived of an important part of enjoying my Leicas. Rituals are important in today's complex changing world. As the Tiffany's salesman said, in Breakfast At Tiffany's, "It gives you a feeling of continuity, almost of solidarity, with the past."

I like that. It probably explains a few rituals I have, such as the tug on the rewind after I’ve advanced a frame, “to ensure the film is tight”.

 

[DavidC]

For loading film, nothing beats the Canon QL system. Why was it discontinued?

 

[robert blu]

It is simple to load a M camera but I admit sometimes I did something wrong with my M7 and it didn't work as supposed! Only a few times luckly!