Important lesson learned this week when loading Leica screw-mount cameras:
It is essential to ensure that the film take-up spool is rotating when winding on the film after taking a shot. Seriously, this isn't recommended this is ESSENTIAL.It is possible to load the camera without having to trim the film "leader" but the trick is to put a thin piece of paper (with print on it, so you can see it easily) into the gate before loading the film. This allows you to see the film and sprockets when loading (with the lens off and shutter curtain open). Often, the film will not slide all the way past the shutter gate and engage the winder mechanism above. However, the shutter will cock and fire indefinitely and the frame counter will go around, giving those unfamiliar the impression that all is well.
If, when looking through the open shutter at the film you are loading, you see that the film has not engaged, it's a relatively easy job to just ease the edge of the film under the shutter gate with your finger until you can see the sprockets no more.
Do not let the shutter curtain close, though. Once the sprockets have disappeared and you can just see film, it should be safe to replace the baseplate, re-set the frame counter to two spaces before "0", wind on a couple of times until you hit "0" (checking, of course, that the take-up spool is rotating as you wind) and, voila......
Therefore, anyone interested in these lovely little cameras and who doesn't want to spend hours cursing Oskar Barnack to a special place in hell when you're sure you've just shot 60 photos on a roll of 36, had it processed and there's nothing at all on the film, please heed this advice.
The Leica user manual recommends trimming the film leader so that it's much narrower than it starts out. This may actually work for some, I can't deny - but it didn't for me. Therefore, I will be carrying around a piece of thin card and, in future, loading very deliberately and very slowly.
