Why might an Olympus OM-10 seem not to advance film for a couple of frames?
Asked 2/16/2022
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I’m using an Olympus OM-10. Partway through a roll, around frame 15 or 16, it seemed like the film did not advance for two shots. After that, it appeared to work normally again. The rewind knob was not rotating during those shots, but later it rotated again as expected. Could those frames still be okay, and what would cause this to happen for only two shots?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
4y ago
2 Answers
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If the rewind was rotating after you loaded the roll, and rotated again after the frames you're concerned, it's most likely that all that happened was that the rewind got moved and produced slack inside the cassette, causing the crank to stay still while the tension on the film caught up.
You won't be able to tell for sure if there was an actual problem until you process the film; if a mechanical failure caused the film not to advance for those two frames, you'll have a multiple exposure on whatever frame was in the gate at the beginning of that problem. This is relatively uncommon, however, especially in cameras like the OM10 with mechanical film transport -- if those transport systems fail, they usually stay failed.
Originally by user89902. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user89902
4y ago
0
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If the rewind knob was rotating after loading the film and then again after the two frames in question, the most likely explanation is temporary slack in the film inside the cassette. If the rewind crank got moved, the film can lose tension, so the knob may stay still until that slack is taken up again.
That means the camera may still have been functioning normally overall, and those frames are not automatically lost. The only way to know for sure is when the film is processed.
If there really was a transport failure and the film did not advance, the result would usually be a multiple exposure: both shots would be recorded on the same frame already in the gate. On cameras with a mechanical film transport like the OM-10, a true transport failure is relatively uncommon, and if it happens, it often does not fix itself immediately.
So: it could be okay, and brief slack in the film is the most likely reason.
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