Taking up the slack???

[Old Uncle Barry]

8O
Lots of postings on these pages re the faults etc.of S8 cartridges.Personally I have been lucky and have said so on these pages even with using 'known' offenders.However do any of you do as I have ALWAYS done and rotated the drive spigot on the cartridge with your finger to take up the rather large amount of slack therein created by transportation/storage etc.??
On many occasions whilst doing this I have heard the emulsion 'unstick' from itself.All it takes is a maximum of one to one and a half turns which equates to around three inches of film.I have done this from the days of the sound cartridges that really did slack up within the cartridge.
Its only a small thing to do I know but it seems to have worked wonders for me.In fact,the handbook of the Elmo 230XL I used to own actually stated that you did this proceedure,admittedly only for sound carts,but its something I have carried on with.
Just a thought.

[S8 Booster]

Well, I did always check it with the sound cartridges but I never regulated it unless it was too tight. My camera uses a loop detector that controls the capstan and the claw advancement motor speed independantly and thus keeps the loop slack constant. The manual gives instruction for this procedure.

Anyway, I really never thought of checking that for the silent cartridges but I will from now.

Nice advice.

[S8 Booster]

Did I learn something again?

Yesterday I did some test filming with the PRO8MM 50D neg film BUT THE D.. THING STUCK, I thought. Several tests let the film run about 1 sec and the cam stopped with "END" superimposed lowing on my face from the viewfinder.

Could it be the reportedly thicker neg film that made the cam jam? or
Could it be low battery or..?
Could it be a bad cart? from PRO8??
Or..?..?...

No, for one reason or another, the cart had been in and out of the cam several times for different film tests, there was a huge slack in it that had to be tightened up.

Your post here struck my mind Barry, I took up the slack and my cam murred like an Arriflex again.

Unfortunately, never to late to learn something new.

R

[S8 Booster]

Repeated the same procedure once more.

Used an old 1998 sound cartridge and the problem that the camera stopped severeal times reappeared. The cart had partially been shot earlier.

Anway. Taking up the slack fixed it once more.



R