Loading 35mm film

[stvn66]

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I am no stranger to loading 35mm film into my Leica's and always gently advance the rewind knob to make the film taught.

I also fire off 2 shots and look to see if the rewind knob moves.

Frequently it does not move and when I remove the film to reload it I find that it has engaged after all.

Does anyone else experience this frustrating occurrence?

Perhaps I should start ignoring the rewind knob until I reach about the fourth /fifth shot and then check it!

[chris_livsey]

I find the amount of rewind required to tension varies quite a lot, I would suggest you are perhaps a little too gentle and perhaps tentative, even if the rewind action does spring the film off the spool that is easily felt and heard, rewinding into the cassette is possible but I have never had it happen. I wouldn't want to miss my first shots if the the film had never engaged.

[TomB_tx]

1 hour ago, stvn66 said:

Perhaps I should start ignoring the rewind knob until I reach about the fourth /fifth shot and then check it!

I've ignored mine for 50 years, and don't worry about it. I only recall once with an M4 & later where the film didn't engage right, and the feel of winding-on alerted me something was wrong. However, I mis-loaded a Leicaflex SL once and lost all pictures of a day trip because I hadn't used that camera in a long time and didn't notice the difference in feel until frame 45 or so...

[chris_livsey]

2 hours ago, TomB_tx said:

and didn't notice the difference in feel until frame 45 or so...

😂

Usually that when I have no film loaded at all, at 37 it's happiness at squeezing out a bonus frame, then at 39 the doubt creeps in, by the 40s it's beyond doubt and all those 5* exposures gone ( well maybe one was 3*)

[spydrxx]

I, usually, after loading the film cartridge, take up any slack with the rewind knob. I then know the film has engaged the sprockets.

[roydonian]

That's the way I used to do it back in the days when I used film.

[250swb]

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Some film types are also more springy than others and immediately unwrap after tightening on the rewind shaft so you still have to wait until a few frames have been shot for the knob to move.