I've just had a strange experience with some bottom-shelf Chinese 120 BW film, Shanghai Pan 100 or 200 (don't remember). I loaded it into my Yashica D about a year and a half ago. I think it may have been the very first roll I loaded into it, as I've basically never used the D. Vaguely I remember at some point before the seventh frame the winding knob got incredibly stiff to the point that it hurt to turn even gripping it through my shirt.
I promptly forgot all about it and shot mainly 35mm since then.
Pulled it out today, clipped on my new Kodalux L meter (I especially like the incident light metering) and went out to shoot. After frame seven, I pressed the release button and found once again that it was incredibly difficult to turn, and began to remember something about it being that way before.
I finished the roll, having a bunch of fun doing incident metering for the first time in forever, but struggling with the winder. I found it especially hard to turn the knob the last few turns to wrap the film up in the backing paper.
When I got inside I opened the camera and found a mess. The film had torn loose from the backing paper, stayed wrapped the first spool, and was rubbing against the backing paper and creasing up into the gap between the gate and the takeup spool, apparently pinched.
So first of all, don't fall to the temptation of using this bargain film. If I remember right my Medalist may not have liked it either.
Second, do you think this could have damaged the frame-spacing mechanism of the Yashica? There's no visible damage to the gripping wheel or anything else on the inside, but I know first hand how temperamental 120 film transport mechanisms can be.
I promptly forgot all about it and shot mainly 35mm since then.
Pulled it out today, clipped on my new Kodalux L meter (I especially like the incident light metering) and went out to shoot. After frame seven, I pressed the release button and found once again that it was incredibly difficult to turn, and began to remember something about it being that way before.
I finished the roll, having a bunch of fun doing incident metering for the first time in forever, but struggling with the winder. I found it especially hard to turn the knob the last few turns to wrap the film up in the backing paper.
When I got inside I opened the camera and found a mess. The film had torn loose from the backing paper, stayed wrapped the first spool, and was rubbing against the backing paper and creasing up into the gap between the gate and the takeup spool, apparently pinched.
So first of all, don't fall to the temptation of using this bargain film. If I remember right my Medalist may not have liked it either.
Second, do you think this could have damaged the frame-spacing mechanism of the Yashica? There's no visible damage to the gripping wheel or anything else on the inside, but I know first hand how temperamental 120 film transport mechanisms can be.