M6 not stopping soon enough with film rolls?

[shawn2nd]

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Hey guys, 

Another noob question but is anyone running into the issue with their M6 where it's "allowing too many photos" ? 😅 Especially with Ilford films, I find that lately I'm either cutting into the last picture, or I'm just barely not cutting into it. I've attached pictures of what I mean, this is a roll I just developed tonight, and when I'm cutting in the dark as you can see there's not much more leeway there. 

As mentioned, this seems to be isolated to Ilford films, with Fomapan and Kodak, the M6 seems to stop at a better point, where I'm cutting and have a good centimeter at least from the last picture to the area where I cut. 

Any general tips here? Only thing I can think of is when the frame counter is on the camera is around 35, to just take the final 1-2 pictures on that roll of stuff that is not too important 🤣

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[250swb]

When there is no more film left to wind on, there is no more film left. It appears you got a partial 37 from a roll of 36, and you are complaining? Perhaps cut the last image of the roll closer to the end so you get a full 37. If anything I find Ilford are generous in the number of exposures, and in a Leica M 38 or 39 aren’t unusual if you are careful how you load the film. Remember that what you waste at the start of a roll you don’t get at the end.

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[Borna]

Funny that you mention this, yesterday I souped two HP5+, one of them had exactly this issue, at first I thought I scissored the film too early but that was not the case Other HP5+ films I had not this issue with or Fomapan. Hopefully a rare thing. 

[FrozenInTime]

Never seen this problem, but I always pop the ends off the film canister and cut very close to the plastic spool.

A Swiss army knife is the perfect tool for the task; the bottle opener for the canister and nice fine scissors for the film cut-off.

[Warton]

Ilford is stingy, that's all I can say from this phenomena. When they say 36, you want 37, you got it but barely

what's the problem here? Are you expecting 38 or even 40?

[TomB_tx]

38 minutes ago, FrozenInTime said:

Never seen this problem, but I always pop the ends off the film canister and cut very close to the plastic spool.

A Swiss army knife is the perfect tool for the task; the bottle opener for the canister and nice fine scissors for the film cut-off.

Right - if you cut the film off outside the felt seal you may be very close to the last frame and damage it with film processing clips.

[Huss]

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3 hours ago, Warton said:

Ilford is stingy, that's all I can say from this phenomena. When they say 36, you want 37, you got it but barely

what's the problem here? Are you expecting 38 or even 40?

If I can get 6000 images on one SD card with my M10r, how come I can only get 37 on a roll of film with my M6?

[shawn2nd]

11 hours ago, 250swb said:

When there is no more film left to wind on, there is no more film left. It appears you got a partial 37 from a roll of 36, and you are complaining? Perhaps cut the last image of the roll closer to the end so you get a full 37. If anything I find Ilford are generous in the number of exposures, and in a Leica M 38 or 39 aren’t unusual if you are careful how you load the film. Remember that what you waste at the start of a roll you don’t get at the end.

Yeah, guess it’s practice thing. I’m having trouble getting any closer to cutting the canister in the dark with scissors. Might try the Swiss army thing. 

[250swb]

18 minutes ago, shawn2nd said:

Yeah, guess it’s practice thing. I’m having trouble getting any closer to cutting the canister in the dark with scissors. Might try the Swiss army thing. 

Ah, you're not opening the cassette, that makes sense of the 37th frame. Don't worry too much about the exact number though, as I said with care you can get maybe 38 or even 39 but if you aren't sure if your film is loaded properly it pays to waste an extra frame at the start so you can see the rewind nob rotate. And before long you'll have the opposite problem, you'll have some great shots you are itching to develop and still have five frames left before the end of the roll. 

[newtoleica]

I always open the cassette with an opening tool (unless it’s a reusable one) then cut the film flush to the spool, trimming any sharp edges. 
back in the 80s I did a summer job at a commercial photographers with a film lab. One of my jobs was sitting in the dark at the feed end of the C41 processor, 50 films fitted on a board, cracking them open cutting and crimping and feeding them into the rollers. You needed to get the 4th one on in time to cut the spool off the first one before it got pulled in and spoiled the whole batch. Made me concentrate! 

[Fotoklaus]

As you are able to shoot the 0 or even the 00- frame with an M, just rewind after you reach the 36 on the counter. Then you will have plenty of room to cut your Film. 

[Aryel]

I had this problem initially, you can simply cut much closer to the edge (opening the can as mentioned above will also solve it). I use small scissors made for kids to cut.