Hey guys, I've recently acquired an old Mamiya M645 (my first medium format camera). Upon loading and attempting to take a few test shots with it, I discovered that there seems to be an issue with the film advancement.
The camera will crank up to frame 1 (I believe it advances that far correctly, at least), but when cranking it the second time, the frame counter does not change; it stays on frame 1. Something similar to this continues on throughout the roll of film. I will put a chart or list of some sort at the bottom of the post to explain it better. Now.. when I was taking the test shots, I had cranked up to the first frame, took a shot, then the camera just cranked all the way up to frame 15 and filled the take-up spool; no shutter was cocked (after the initial frame) or anything.
This does not happen when there is no film in the magazine. When there is just a magazine with the take-up spool in the camera, the advancement seems correct as far as I can see. It takes 2 complete revolutions per frame; the first revolution cocks the shutter, and advances the film. The second does nothing as far as I can tell (I have cranked the camera with the back open, holding the little switch on the right hand side in with a bank card, and the second revolution has done nothing at all), but the shutter won't fire without completing the second revolution.
I'm wondering if anyone has any idea as to why this might happen. Is it an issue with the magazine? Is there a spring or lever of some sort that needs to be repaired? Has it happened to anyone?
Thanks for any help in advance.
1st crank > frame 1
2nd crank > frame 1
3rd crank > frame 2
4th crank > frame 2
5th crank > frame 3
6th crank > frame 3
7th crank > frame 4
8th crank > frame 4
9th crank > frame 5
10th crank > frame 5
11th crank > frame 6
12th crank > frame 7
13th crank > frame 8
14th crank > frame 8
15th crank > frame 9
16th crank > frame 10
17th crank > frame 10
18th crank > frame 11
19th crank > frame 12 (half way through the crank, the end of the roll comes off the feed roll and it then advances)