Judeamarco

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Hello! So a month ago, I got a Bronica ETRS and loaded some film into it. When shooting with it, everything seems to be working fine except when its nearing the 10th to 13th frame. When I crank it to the next frame, sometimes, it doesn't cock and I rotate it twice or even three times before the shutter is cocked. Sometimes, the crank only does half of a usual turn or even a quarter before cocking the shutter.

Looking at my developed film, it confirmed that it did skip a few frames or shot over a few frames and costed me about 1/4 of the usable frames. The multiple exposure mode isn't activated as well. Is there any way to fix this...? Or is it how I load my film as this is my first medium format camera? I shot multiple rolls with it and It happened to 2 out of the 4 I shot and I swear I loaded them correctly.

Any help?
 
Hi.
Few things can go wrong. ETR was mostly used by wedding photographers so most of them seen a lot of service and they are just used. Could be the lubricants are dried down and caused problems with the gears, could be just wear. First load one back with dummy film, paper only, remove the grip and try to crank just with fingers. See if it is skipping now. If you have two backs see if only with one is the problem. There is a small pin controlling the film transport, that could be sticky too. Problems with multiple mode suggest it is the body fault. The only solution to Bronica problems is to get different module. Nobody services Bronica anymore, unfortunately.
 
Hmmm. Film loading: are you certain you're making sure the wind-on tab is secure and taut as you advance by hand to the start mark? Agree with Timor about trying a dummy roll to make sure you can advance uniformly through 15 frames. If so, it's likely not a a back/insert issue.

If you can replicate the problem with a dummy roll, it's likely a bum insert and/or body issue. This usually comes down to the pins inside the little collars between back and body hanging up due to crud. Usually a bit of rubbing alcohol will free these up. All this based on nursing Bronica SQ cameras back to health--essentially a 6x6 version of your ETRS.
 
How does one clean these little pins that transport the film then? a drip of rubbing alcohol or something? I tried using a dummy roll and it did happen again around the same mark where it starts to skip frames.
 
After researching some more and playing around with the dummy film, I definitely do think it may be the pins. If it is no trouble, can I know how much the pin in the insert is sticking out for your SQ? It might be the reason why the back is not telling the body that the film has advanced.
 

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