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Warning: A retired repairman at the Grand Rapids camera show said skip the fancy meter and just feel the spool tension
Struck up a chat with a retired repairman at the Grand Rapids camera show 3 months ago while I was poking at a stuck film advance on a beat up SLR. He said the tension meter is overkill for most jobs and to just feel the spool while you wind, then test with a scrap roll. I figured it was old timer talk, but I tried it on my next 4 repairs and every one came out smooth on the first try. My meter has been sitting in the drawer since then, which still feels a little wrong to admit. Curious if any of you trust your hands over the gauge on shutter and film work, or am I just getting lucky?
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the_julia9d ago
The "scrap roll" part is what makes this work, honestly. You can feel the spool all day but the scrap roll is what tells you if you're actually right. I'd take that habit one step further and keep a few junk rolls with different film types around, since how the tension feels can change a bit with what you're loading.
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