Loading an old Leica

cliveh said:

I have always wondered what the technical reason is for cutting a longer leader on the film to load an older Leica. If you are pushing the cassette and take up spool in together and sliding the film down the slit, why should you need to increase the leader length?

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To answer your question, I can only speak from experience. To make it easier to do. I am sorry but I can't think of any "exotic Leica" reason. I find that I must use the same reason for much Leica equipment and accessories..............Regards!

What I don't understand is that I can see that cutting a long leader makes it possible to engage the sprocket holes at the bottom of the film when loading, but the top of the film still has to engage with an existing sprocket cog. Or does a bottom loading leica only have sprocket gears only at the bottom of the camera? Can someone show me a diagram as to what is happening?

I think the idea is that the upper sprocket is hard to see. If you load a standard leader you have to push the sprocket holes over the sprocket from below. That makes it likely to bend, pinch, and maybe break bits of film. With the elongated leader the film is locked in place by the lower sprockets, so when the film is pulled over the upper sprocket, the lower sprocket keeps the upper sprocket and film lined up.

You also risk damaging the shutter curtain if the film catches on the top of the gate. You want it to move over the gate from the side so it gets aligned properly.

abruzzi said:

I think the idea is that the upper sprocket is hard to see. If you load a standard leader you have to push the sprocket holes over the sprocket from below. That makes it likely to bend, pinch, and maybe break bits of film. With the elongated leader the film is locked in place by the lower sprockets, so when the film is pulled over the upper sprocket, the lower sprocket keeps the upper sprocket and film lined up.

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Exactly. There is more "play" on the lower sprockets, and you can align them more easily. Once you push the film forward with the advance, the top sprockets will line up automatically. The damage caused by little bits of film broken off in the film chamber can be serious. I'm not screwing around with business cards and the like when it's so easy to trim the leader with a pair of nail scissors. I carry a pair in each of my Leica bags.

Andy

The first time I cleaned out the old IIIc I had, about a dozen or so tiny bits of film, the broken sprockets cam out of what was a very 'clean', working camera, which were impossible to see with just a torch and eye.

I have long since come to believe that such bits naturally accumulate with normal, skilled use, as that camera had had a CLA and new curtain done/installed by the seller just a few years before it came to me.

Old FSU FED cameras and other Barnack cameras all seam to share this vulnerability.

IMO..

I’d say this leadertrimming issue will be completely insurmountable to most “new” film shooters. No doubt EZ point/shoot 35s will reach the $$$$ level while LTMs decline n price to the $$ level. Oh, trim your leader wrong with a sharp point and as you Jam it in you grab the curtain and poke a hole in it.