If you already have your suspicions, there’s nothing to stop you from unwinding a new reel in the dark right up to the start of the film to check that the film leader is in the correct position (by feeling for it or measuring it).
Incidentally, with many cameras, you’ll notice during the forward transport to the first frame when the adhesive strip has to squeeze through between the front edge of the image window and the pressure plate, and you should always bear in mind how many lever swings should now be ‘left’ as standard so that the adhesive strip moves safely across the image window. Then you’ll notice straight away if one of the ladies was in a ‘bad mood’ in the dark (when sticking it on, of course).
Regards, Wolfgang
Wolfgang,
I agree with you, but I would point out that other companies manage to deliver more consistent quality for a slightly higher price. Let’s not kid ourselves: the quality of companies like Agfa (back when they were still active in the consumer market), Fuji, Ilford and Kodak cannot be directly compared with firms such as Efke and Foma. The price difference has to come from somewhere. And Mirko himself has written elsewhere in this forum about the additional cost that manufacturing in Bad Saarow would entail compared to Croatia.
I myself have now reached the point where I deliberately buy Ilford and Kodak again and consider the extra cost worth it. I take so few roll film shots – with my 60 or so black-and-white films a year – that I don’t want to have to remember how to manually adjust the film position on my two 6x6 cameras.
To be honest, if I calculate a Foma film as yielding eleven negatives, the extra cost compared to T-Max probably amounts to just the twelfth frame. I haven’t actually worked it out, but that’s what my gut tells me.
Martin
