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Totally noob question, but I'm new to MP (and to the film pretty much). Is there a way to know if the film is already advanced, before pressing the shutter? Usually I advance it immediately after taking a shot, but sometimes I forget, and then when I pickup a camera again, I'm not sure if it's advanced or not. If I press the shutter to check, I'll lose a shot, but if I need to take a shot quickly and then I realize it's not advanced, I'll lose a moment. 

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@Helge I warned you it's a noob question. Got my first 35mm film camera few weeks ago and I only shot couple rolls.

@Mute-on I didn't realize it doesn't go all the way, because comparing to my Rolleiflex (which I used to shot a bit in past), as far as I can remember, it doesn't move at all if advanced, or very little, so comparing to that, MP feels like half-advanced.

Anyway, thanks for the help, I know now :)

Edited by hirohhhh
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If you half press the shutter and the light meter comes on (Shutter dial not at off) then the film is advanced, if the light meter doesn't come on the film is not advanced. Providing the batteries are good that is.

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So many ways 😉.

If the battery is not installed ( to mimic M-A as so many girls/guys want to say ! )...

Another trick is unmount the lens, if you see the white dot on the shutter blind, "advanced shutter".

If the blind is all black, shutter not advanced yet.

 

As user, if you forgot, just advance, that's all.

I always advance the film to be prepared for the next.

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If I am trying to see if the lever is advanced or not I usually just start to advance the lever gently and if it feels like it has some gigs in it / is able to continue to advance then I know it’s not advanced. If it reaches a hard stop quickly then it is advanced. 

In the first scenario if I don’t want to actually advance it then I stop and let the lever return to start position.  The couple of mm that the advance lever has traveled to enable me to figure this out don’t seem to do any harm :) 
 

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Someone told me (for medium format) to not advance the film if I was not going to shoot, so only advance when I wanted to shoot, so I was keeping the film tension for better focus and sharp image, at least in medium format and I think in 35mm too, the film will always lose some tension after a while, bowing and then making the focus plane less flat. So even if I am not doing it because my natural movement after shoot a pic is to advance the film, better to end up your shooting without advancing the film. Hope that makes sense

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46 minutes ago, cesc said:

Someone told me (for medium format) to not advance the film if I was not going to shoot, so only advance when I wanted to shoot, so I was keeping the film tension for better focus and sharp image, at least in medium format and I think in 35mm too, the film will always lose some tension after a while, bowing and then making the focus plane less flat. So even if I am not doing it because my natural movement after shoot a pic is to advance the film, better to end up your shooting without advancing the film. Hope that makes sense

I think you could say that is a good theory for very old medium format cameras where perhaps the pressure plate isn't exhibiting it's designed springiness, so everything gets lazy and the film can bow before the next shot. But not for Leica M or Barnack cameras because it doesn't and shouldn't matter it they aren't damaged. However, do your research with other makes, the Nikon F series are best stored with their shutters un-cocked. 

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