Not much to tell here: some time ago, one of the cassettes (own load) failed to work, after 5 or 6 shots. The film was wound too tight in the film chamber, and the take up spool failed to unwound the negative as I pushed/pulled the camera. Classic mistake* , when you load too many frames (not the only possible mistake to this effect, trust me). To make matters worse, it was during holidays, and this was the only remaining cassette I had available.
* The only solution is to open the take up spool, detach the film end from the spool, and drag a few cms the film out of the film chamber, so to shorten the available length of the negative. Reattach the film end onto the take up spool and re-cap it. Hopefully, this will work, otherwise you’ll need to open the film chamber of the cassette and re-spool the film inside. Of course you will need to do this in complete darkness. And of course, you will lose the frames you shot until that moment.
Tried to take the cassette out, in the hotel’s bathroom, it was completely stuck. It came out eventually, but the bridge broke. That was annoying, don’t mind telling you. Oh well, that was it, no more Minox photography for me until I get back home.
During that day, I remembered the way some of my 16mm cameras work: they have 2 spools, not attached (the Edixa 16, for instance). So, they do not need that. Would it be possible for me to use the broken cassette without the bridge connecting the two spools? I went back at the hotel, then and there, and put the broken cassette into the camera, and closed the camera. I took pictures all day long, and when I got back home, I processed it. It came out beautiful, with no issues whatsoever.
Some notes: this is a solution for when you’re in a spot of trouble, you understand. Take care when you insert the cassette and film into the camera chamber, bit tricky to align them all . And you will have to take great care when you take out the cassette, because you may snap a spool cap. Not very easy to take it out, but with care, you’ll succeed; make sure you work both of the spools in turn, when you lift it off.
