M6 rewind crank behavior when film properly loaded question?

[shawn2nd]

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Hi Guys,

Another noob question here I'm hoping you can help me understand a bit better - is it normal that the rewind crank doesn't start moving on film advance until about shot 4/5 on the camera's frame counter? Normally when I remember to "check" the rewind crank's movement to see if I've loaded correctly, I'm already like 1/2 way thru the roll and when I advance it moves as expected. 

However in my last two rolls, I've committed some acts of stupidity / noob-ness. In one roll upon loading it, I had the idea to actively check if the rewind crank would move on the first two cranks to get to 0, and it didn't. So in my logical conclusion, I took off the base plate to see if the film was catching correctly, and low and behold it was, so I exposed probably the first 2-3 frames of this roll unnecessarily to light 😞 - I put the base plate back on and continued shooting as normally, no issues. 

Today I loaded a roll of Delta 400 and did the first 2 cranks to frame 0, noticed it wasn't moving again, so I got kinda curious and then advanced and fired off at random things to see if/when the rewind crank would catch, and sure enough by about 4/5 it had signs of life, and by 5/6 it was in full movement with each advancement. So this time I lost like the first 4-5 frames in my curiosity test.

The irony of it all is like I mentioned, I typically forget to "check" the movement entirely until like 1/2 way thru a roll lol, and to date, I've never had the film not catch in the M6. I'm guessing loading system is good enough to just start trusting and stop worrying about it haha. Any other thoughts or feedback here is much appreciated as I'm still learning the ropes. Do you guys find in general that sometimes there are loading mistakes with the M6, or is it pretty bulletproof? 

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[logan2z]

The crank isn't immediately turning because there is slack in the film inside the canister. The crank won't turn until that slack is taken up.. 

After loading the film and reinstalling the bottom plate of the camera, advance the film one frame and then slowly turn the rewind crank in the direction of the arrow.  When you feel a bit of resistance the slack in the film has been taken up.  Then fire off and advance a couple of more frames during which you should see the rewind crank turn.  Then you should be ready to start shooting photos.    

Edited September 12, 2023 by logan2z

[Chuck Albertson]

After I load the film and put the baseplate back on, I typically use the rewind crank to take up the slack before advancing the film to the first frame. If the rewind crank doesn't move, it's time to look and make sure I loaded the film properly.

[shawn2nd]

Amazing tips guys, thanks much!

[Huss]

27 minutes ago, Chuck Albertson said:

After I load the film and put the baseplate back on, I typically use the rewind crank to take up the slack before advancing the film to the first frame. If the rewind crank doesn't move, it's time to look and make sure I loaded the film properly.

You should advance once, then take up slack.  If you take up the slack before you have advanced once, the film has not yet been captured by the film take up spool.  So you could easily be pulling it out.

If you want to take up the slack before advancing, just do that with the cassette spindle before you load it into the camera.