Film advance on Olympus XA getting stuck at seemingly random points in the roll, but is usually fine. Why?

Hello!

I have a new-to-me Olympus XA. Bought from an ebay seller in Japan, apparently CLA'd (I can't confirm the extent) and good cosmetic condition. I ran a roll through it with no issues, but the second roll got stuck on the film advance. I stupidly pushed the advance wheel and forced it, and seem to have broken the sprocket holes on the film -- opened it up in a dark place and tried to fix it, but eventually just rolled up the film and determined I'd not have a full roll there. I checked the film advance mechanism because I was worried it had broken, and can't see any issues with it -- the little teeth that fit into the sprocket holes are all unbroken and move normally when no film is there. I loaded a new roll and found it to initially be finicky, but once I got the roll in, it was fine. I got something like 30 shots out of the roll before the wheel got completely stuck -- it wouldn't move at all. Because the roll was almost done I just rolled it up. My guess is that it has something to do with the pressure plate and the amount of pressure needed to get the film to advance properly.

Is this a common issue, or can anyone give any advice about what may be going on/how to fix it? From the feel of it, it almost feels like the film is advancing at a weird angle and getting stuck. The wheel has some "give", but it won't actually turn. Again, when there is no film in the camera, it's totally fine, and it's only done this at random points in the roll of film -- usually it's fine.

Thanks!

I'm not a repair guy but I have an XA and an XA2. They don't have this problem. It could be that something is slightly out of alignment in the camera or it might be related to the way you are loading the film on the spool.

I would choose your least desirable expired film, and run it through the camera, when you encounter this jam, open up the camera and see what it looks like when it's stuck (take a picture). Then close the camera and see if you can advance. You can use this sacrificial roll several times by not rewinding it all the way into the cassette, see if it jams at a similar frame each time, make note of how it looks when it jams each time.

Also see if the pressure plate looks parallel with the camera back. If it is bent, you might be able to bend it back.

Good advice, thank you! I have a roll of film I can sacrifice already, so I might just try to run the entire thing through right now and see what happens, don't know why I didn't try that. Good advice, thank you!

-persimmon-tree- said:

Good advice, thank you! I have a roll of film I can sacrifice already, so I might just try to run the entire thing through right now and see what happens, don't know why I didn't try that. Good advice, thank you!

Click to expand...

Hi! Can you tell me if this worked for you? I’m having the same issue with this camera

I have 3 XA and an XA2 also. Never had the problem. I had my first one in 1979.

Old thread, but an intermittent jam like this sounds like a film chip in the advance or counter gears. Rewinding runs those backward, so will move the chip out for a while.

I have two XA and both have the same problem: The friction-coupling of the film-spool is lazy and slips under too little tension. The film builds up on the spool which doesn't wind it tight and when the sprocket-wheel can't push any more into the chamber the camera locks up. Now all I need is "only" a competent repairer.

I've had a similar issue with my XA getting jammed partway through a roll a couple times, and from what I could figure out, it was because I was loading in such a way that the leader was sticking through the spool enough to cause a sizable bump when I started winding on — the advance would be fine for a bit, then get very tight, then loose again. There were also noticeable scratches on the negatives where the bulging part was rubbing against the inside of the camera. Once I made a habit of not letting the leader stick through, I haven't had any issues...

No guarantee if that's what everyone else is experiencing, but I thought I'd share.

I always loaded my XA's pretty much the bare minimum length that would reliably catch the film. The tooth on the spool needs to go through a sprocket hole and and least one tooth on the roller going through one. Before you close the camera, rewind until the slack in the 35mm canister is tight. Then close it and make sure the thing is turning as you wind it on. You can get about 39 frames that way.

One of mine tends to have issues when I use the settings lever on the bottom. Some sort of electronic glitch.

My li'l XA dates from April 1982 and has never faulted, not once, anywhere.

I give each roll of film a few taps on the benchtop to ensure it does not stick within the cannister —generally more of a potential problem for film that has been in a deep freeze.

The XA cameras must be wound gently, never forced to the point where it tears the sprocket holes in the film — this is begging for a resultant breakage of the winding pawls. So many tiny components in these cameras are just plastic — competently replaceable with 3D-printing, but all the same, very easily broken through excessive force.

If tension is observed toward and at 36 exposures (for that number of marked exposures) that means stop and don't force any more exposures, irrespective of how the film is loaded.

Cholentpot said:

One of mine tends to have issues when I use the settings lever on the bottom. Some sort of electronic glitch.

Click to expand...

That might be dirty contacts in the switch. The bottom plate of the camera will need to be removed to clean the contacts with lighter fluid.

The XA in question is in our family since 1980. We pretty much know how to handle it correctly and father who is now 82 years old even disassembled and repaired it in eighties when the rangefinder stopped working and got it back into action "with sweaty hands" as he said as it is such a small and delicate mechanism. So if anyone wants to offer advice on the lines of "you just have to handle it correctly" I understand you are trying to be helpful but I'm afraid you are missing the point by quite a margin.