Pentax 67 winding past 10 frames.

Hi guys,

 

I recently got a Pentax 6x7 from ebay. I've been putting my first roll through it and for some reason the winder is continuing past the 10 shots I should get on my 120 film roll. Currently the counter is at about shot 13 - I'm hesitant about opening it up.

 

Any tips? The switch on the side is set to 120 and I'm fairly certain I set the backplate to 120 also.

 

Let me know!

I neither know nor own the 67. Anyhow: If you loaded it kind of properly, your film should be finished now. - If you had a technical chance to close it too early and get your counter going you might have had 3 frames or less left after the regular 10.

 

There is absolutely no (relevant) harm in firing and advancing it another 7 times, before you'll finally open it to process your film. - Do it now!

 

Check out with which frame you remember taking your film starts. - If you get frames 1-10 out everything was fine. If it starts later, you should have aligned a "<-->" on the backing paper with two tiny red dots before closing your camera.

Are you positive that the end of the leader was firmly engaged in the take-up spool and after that, the film was wound on up to and only to the START line before closing the back?

 

If the leader is not engaged and the back is closed, the winder will continue winding, albeit with the tell-tale symptom of virtually no friction, which should be present at all wind-on action up to 10, after which is slackens off.

 

The other possibility is a stripped winding mechanism pawl. This is common with the early 6x7 cameras (later generation, 1989 onward cameras, had improvements put in place to reduce this malaise). The frame counter roller may also be at fault. This is the smooth surfaced roller to the right of the film gate (don't touch it: rolling it back and forth is detrimental).

 

Open the camera in a dark bag, under the blankets, in the closet... anywhere that it is dark, and wrangle the film out. Pull out the film spool clasps at the base of the camera before going into the dark, open the cover and work very carefully at getting the film out starting from the take up spool. Still in the dark, rewind it as best as you can and have it processed. Then critically examine the camera, especially the winding mechanism: put a blank take-up spool in, close the clasps and "freewheel" the winding. NO frame counter movement should take place during this.

I fired some blank shots with the lens cap on and kept winding and firing until I heard the film fully wound onto the right side. The shot counter got stuck at about 15. Should get the scans back from the lab in the next few days, will update with some info on what's gone on.

Got my scans back, luckily the shots were fine and I got 10.5 shots out of the roll lol. Going to return the body as I got quoted £200+ to repair - they think it's the result of impact damage that has made the winder and counter fall out of sync.

Got my scans back, luckily the shots were fine and I got 10.5 shots out of the roll lol. Going to return the body as I got quoted £200+ to repair - they think it's the result of impact damage that has made the winder and counter fall out of sync.

 

:eek: £200 quid is expensive!!

 

Failure of the winding mechanism is very common unfortunately, and it is almost always age and use-related, dating back many decades. It is not a good first association with the camera for first-time users, but this is to be expected with the very old machines that today are more of a collector's item or hobbyist accessory, far, far removed from the brutality of professional service that was their bread and butter way-back-when.

 

It is the right thing to do to seek a refund from the seller.