Tutorial: Loading the GW690, GW690II, GW690III, etc

Hey all. One of the things people said to me when I was picking out a GW690 was that they're "hard to load".

Couldn't disagree more! I wrote a tutorial that shows the steps, if anyone is interested.

 

http://www.onlinephototutorials.com/2008/08/01/loading-the-fuji-gw690/

I agree it's not hard to load... but given that, why a tutorial? Prove them wrong? :-)

Yes, the GW690 is easy to load when you have a flat surface to rest it on but it is a different matter with cold hands standing up and nowhere to rest it. The Rolleiflex is much easier.

I had a K1000 for 25 years and always found that fiddly. I recently bought a Nikon F, loading that is a doddle. Why do some manufacturers get it right and others not?

Wait till you load a Robot camera. Lots of fun there.

Catastrophe!!!

Just after making the above post I thought I would load my GW690. The film did not stop but wound right through. I thought that I must have done something wrong and tried another, same thing happened! I put it away and went out for lunch somewhat depressed as it is my favourite camera and my nearest repairer is several thousand miles away. I was thinking about taking it to bits myself but feared ruining it. This evening I thought that I would try loading it again but this time with just a backing paper that I had kept from a previous film. Success! It is now loaded with film and I'm waiting for tomorrow so that I can go out to use it. What a relief!

So, Norman, what did you do differently the first two times versus the two successful times? At any rate, glad

you loaded it ok, and will have some fun shooting!

I always just move the old spool to the right side, put the film in the left, and pull the backing paper over to what is now the take-up spool.

Generally, I can get the paper leader into the slot on the take-up spool with one hand. Then I just wind on until the arrow on the backing

paper lines up. I also add some tension with a finger on the film side once it gets going to make sure I get a tight enough wind onto the

take-up spool; otherwise it may not be wound tightly enough to prevent fogging the film from the edges after you remove it.

I am not sure that I did anything differently but it did sound strange when I wound on. I did try rotating the plastic roller with the grooved ends just before the take up spool that I assume tells the camera that there is a film in it. This made no diffence with the second film and I fiddled with it again before I loaded the backing paper. I could not tell if that was what did the trick but it is working now. I hope that this is not the beginning of the end, it is an old camera.