My Film Is Being Torn By Sprockets!

[Dreaminginanalogue]

Hey everyone,

I recently felt a bit neglectful of my K1000 since I have been shooting and experimenting with my digital set up.
I threw a bunch of rolls of film into my bag and headed off to the mountains for day of hiking with it. After about 4 photo's I went to advance the film but it made this horrid grinding sound, and the winding spool didn't spin. I had heard about K1000's winding gears breaking, so I was truly scared of that being the cause, as I am a student and can't front the kind of money it would take to get it repaired.
When I got home, I opened the back and sacrificed my 4 shots to see what was causing it.
The film advancing sprockets had torn the film and wasn't advancing the film at all. I was shooting with Fujifilm Superia X-tra 400 since it's cheap and I can buy in bulk from my work.
I've never had this issue for the first year of shooting with it, but I was shooting with expired Illford film from a previous job.

Is this a common thing for Superia X-tra 400? Do all cheaper films tend to tear at the sprockets?
Is this a common K1000 issue? If so, what practices do I have to adopt to avoid this in the future?

Thanks so much for your help!

 

[480sparky]

I doubt it's the film. There's probably something in the camera's rewind mechanism that is stopping the spool in the film can from turning and allowing the film to feed out.

 

[Designer]

Be sure you have pressed the spool release before rewinding.

 

[480sparky]

Be sure you have pressed the spool release before rewinding.

It's occurring during shooting, not rewinding.

 

[timor]

Hi.
I am confused. With your description of a problem. Sparky and Designer think problem was with rewinding the film. But you say it was when advancing. (" After about 4 photo's I went to advance the film "). Advancing is for moving forward, to the next frame, to take next picture. And then, why would you rewinding film after only 4 shots ? Another question is didn't you advance the film for every photo you took ? To brake the gears quite a bit of power has to be applied, when did you hear the grinding noise ? When engaging the advance lever ?
To torn the film some power has to be used to, no matter the film movement direction. And usually it is photographer fault. On the bright side ripping the perforation of film feels like grinding the gears and if after all the camera is broken don't even think about repairing it. There are no new parts or people willing to do the work. just get another K1000 for some small money. (Or some other K-mount body so you can use your lens.)

 

[480sparky]

Hi.
I am confused. With your description of a problem. Sparky and Designer think problem was with rewinding the film. ..........

I never said the issue was with rewinding. I said it appears the rewinding mechanism was preventing the film from advancing off the spool.

........... And then, why would you rewinding film after only 4 shots ? ............

I don't think the OP rewound the film. I think he just opened the back of the camera to see what was going on.

 

[Designer]

Frankly, your description of events leaves much to be explained.

Since you say the winding spool didn't "spin", I assume you were looking at the frame counter. So the frame counter went to "4" and stopped? And why couldn't you rewind the first four frames and leader back into the film canister?

You should be able to pull the film out of a canister using only two fingers. If you can't pull film out, open the film canister to see what is preventing the film from smoothly unwinding.

 

[timor]

Hi.
I am confused. With your description of a problem. Sparky and Designer think problem was with rewinding the film. ..........

I never said the issue was with rewinding. I said it appears the rewinding mechanism was preventing the film from advancing off the spool.

........... And then, why would you rewinding film after only 4 shots ? ............

I don't think the OP rewound the film. I think he just opened the back of the camera to see what was going on.

Sorry Sparky, I misunderstood you than, you are saying something about rewind mechanism...
Anyway, until OP will not clarify few things like this : After about 4 photo's I went to advance the film but it made this horrid grinding sound, and the winding spool didn't spin. What about advancing between this about 4 shots ? None ? And how you can see winding spool spin ? In K1000 you can't.
I think there is a bit of misconception on the part of OP of how the film camera operates.

 

[jcdeboever]

Did you have your finger against the rewind know while advancing? I have huge hands and I have to be careful. I would just load another roll and see if it's ok. You may have also started it wrong and it got jammed up on that roll. I have a test roll that I use to check cameras out and never rewind it back all the way. It's a good thing to have if you encounter a different camera and want to check that aspect out or practice loading film.

 

[timor]

I have huge hands and I have to be careful.

You need that :

See ? No rewind button !
Real camera for real big men.

 

[vintagesnaps]

I've had this happen and had to think what caused it... I think I just didn't quite get the film to catch properly when loading (probably in a hurry) so it was a bit crooked. So after some film advanced onto the spool, being at an odd angle it was winding at an odd angle and starting tearing the sprocket holes because the film wasn't advancing straight and smooth. So at some point it just stopped advancing and the film ripped.

Next time stop when you realize it's tearing, rewind the film back into the cartridge so if there's anything worth getting developed, you can. If this camera is manual load, be aware of when you feel the film release so you can stop rewinding and keep the tail out. it keeps doing it then maybe something's wrong with the camera that the film isn't advancing properly.

 

[timor]

That is what probably happened. And then was panic.
Good advice Sharon.

 

[dxqcanada]

Yes, as Sharon mentioned ... if the film leader slipped out of the pickup spool then the film will start to bunch up, eventually the forward winding sprocket will be pushing the film that does not want to be pushed (as it is not being wound up on the spool) ... thus busting the film ... which fits the description that the rewind knob is not turning when the film is advanced ... as the film is no longer advancing.

 

[Dreaminginanalogue]

Hey everyone!

Thanks so much for all the responses.

There was a bit of confusion throughout the responses about whether this was happening during advancing the film or when it happened when rewinding. As Sparky understood, it was only happening when I was advancing the film. Rewinding the film back into the canister did not give me any trouble.

jcdeboever thanks so much for the tip on having a test roll. I did write-off a roll of film to test everything out and see what was going on. I have been tinkering with the test roll in the open back of the camera and made extra sure that the film was loaded straight and properly (thanks for reminding me that I needed to pay attention to that, vintagesnaps).

So far it is running smoothly and absolutely no tearing after a couple of times of fully exposing the roll and rewinding it back into the cartridge.

I think the issue was that I was trying to advance the film too fast and possibly ripped the film. OR as my other hand might have been against the rewind wheel not allowing the film to advance as jcdeboever mentioned. Either way, I have to stop trying to run and gun without thinking about my film being loaded straight or my smashing the film advance leaver as fast as I can.

Thanks everyone! You all rock!