An aside, before I even begin. Have you checked the price of bulk film loaders lately? Upwards of $100. Man, that's a lot of rolls to load to even recoup that cost.
Anyway, I've had a Watson for years because unlike the venerable Lloyd, it actually counts frames, not relying on crank turns for an alleged count.
Along the way, I've found two flaws. One is the tendency for the cartridge to rotate in the hole, and the other, more serious one, is for the counting part's lower axle to slip out of its hole and thus not count. This is the part with sprocket knobs and connected to the open door function. The dreaded start cranking, no clicking of frames. The lower axle pin slips out of its hole. It should have been longer, or a thin wire locating device from below.
The first was easily rectified with some foam.
I wanted to correct the disjointed pin problem by drilling upward and installing some kind of wire, but there is no way to accurately locate the axle pin.
Instead, I shimmed the part from above. Although four layers of 35mm film fit in the gap, it was too tight. Three was just fine. (Ultrafine Extreme 100/Kentmere? in case you want to know! I suspect Tmax would be thicker.) As I did glue each layer, the final outcome was thicker than w/o glue.
As I bought mine used and it did not come with instructions, I learned the hard way that one needs to add frames to the counter to get the right exposure count. I came up with add six. Now, with Mr. Butkus and the intertubes, I see Watson says to add four. OK, four to six, YMMV.
Here's a Onedrive link with three photos showing what I did. I would have been happy to embed them but I don't see how, all options ask for a URL.
Anyway, I've had a Watson for years because unlike the venerable Lloyd, it actually counts frames, not relying on crank turns for an alleged count.
Along the way, I've found two flaws. One is the tendency for the cartridge to rotate in the hole, and the other, more serious one, is for the counting part's lower axle to slip out of its hole and thus not count. This is the part with sprocket knobs and connected to the open door function. The dreaded start cranking, no clicking of frames. The lower axle pin slips out of its hole. It should have been longer, or a thin wire locating device from below.
The first was easily rectified with some foam.
I wanted to correct the disjointed pin problem by drilling upward and installing some kind of wire, but there is no way to accurately locate the axle pin.
Instead, I shimmed the part from above. Although four layers of 35mm film fit in the gap, it was too tight. Three was just fine. (Ultrafine Extreme 100/Kentmere? in case you want to know! I suspect Tmax would be thicker.) As I did glue each layer, the final outcome was thicker than w/o glue.
As I bought mine used and it did not come with instructions, I learned the hard way that one needs to add frames to the counter to get the right exposure count. I came up with add six. Now, with Mr. Butkus and the intertubes, I see Watson says to add four. OK, four to six, YMMV.
Here's a Onedrive link with three photos showing what I did. I would have been happy to embed them but I don't see how, all options ask for a URL.
