Loose rolling on old Fuji rangefinders

[RattyMouse]

Hi All. As you know if you have read my posts, I'm struggling with a way to go forward with a larger negative size. I love my GA645 but want something larger. One cheaper way to do this is to pick up one of the older Fuji rangefinders. I had one of those loooong ago and know what they can produce, which is amazing quality. However, I had one problem with my old GSW690 which really made me down on that camera. Whenever I changed film brands, the new roll of film would NEVER roll tight. At all. If I had a roll of Kodak film in the camera and finished it and then rolled some Fuji, when that roll was finished, it would be very loose, with plenty of light leaking. No matter what I did, that always happened. I ended up tossing a roll of film everytime I changed brands. What a waste.

I am guessing that this is not terribly common, otherwise these Fuji rangefinders would not be so popular. However, I'm wondering how often this occurs. I had the GSW690 I camera. Would something like this happen with a GSW690 III? Or any of the III model rangefinders?

So far this has NEVER happened with my GA645 which makes me really happy. I'd really hate to regress in this area.

Thanks!

 

[papagene]

I have two Fuji rangefinders (GW670II & GSW690III) and have not encountered this problem at all.

 

[Newt_on_Swings]

This only happens to me when I shoot through a roll really quickly. Like pretty much wind and shoot the 8 frames continuously. Sometimes I have to remind myself to slow down and that I only have 8 shots. Of the 60-70 rolls I shot on my summer trip only one was loose. I shot a mixture of Kodak bw and color neg and fuji bw and color neg. the majority Kodak.

 

[RattyMouse]

I have two Fuji rangefinders (GW670II & GSW690III) and have not encountered this problem at all.

Do you alternate a lot between film brands?

 

[papagene]

Not a lot, but from time to time I switch from Ilford to Kodak and back... still don't remember any problems though.

 

[adelorenzo]

I've had no problems so far with my GSW690III. The manual says to use your finger to create tension on the paper when you wind it on, which I have been doing. I just noticed that it also tells you to hold tension with the lever until you close the door, haven't been doing that at all.

 

[papagene]

I've had no problems so far with my GSW690III. The manual says to use your finger to create tension on the paper when you wind it on, which I have been doing. I just noticed that it also tells you to hold tension with the lever until you close the door, haven't been doing that at all.

I routinely do both so that may be the reason I have had no problems with loose film after winding.

 

[Dan Daniel]

I've been using a GW690 for the last year or so. Fuji, Kodak, Ilford films. I've had a couple of loosely wound rolls that showed light leaks. These were from sloppy loading and unloading in the field, nothing else. Keeping tension on the roll when starting, keeping the wind lever tensioned until the back is closed, and each brand has worked fine for me.

Not sure why the switch from one brand to another would be the action that caused loose rolling for you. It's not like there is a film thickness sensor or such in these models.