Jitter and Smearing with CP-16A

[Don Cunningham]

A friend in town purchased new batteries for their CP-16A and let me use the camera to test out. I shot three rolls (color neg, b&w reversal, then some expired VNF I had on hand).

The first roll came out OK, but had some jitter/smearing where the camera was turned off and back on. The second roll had the jitter/smearing throughout scenes. The third roll was all out jitter/smearing except for a few frames here and there (I didn't even bother having that roll digitized and just took scans off of my Epson flatbed to check it). Thoughts on the cause of this? Did something change after first using it to just have this constantly now?

 

Here is a video of the camera running with a dummy load: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/vne1g2s8l5mzjnn06auhh/20240721_145709-1.mp4?rlkey=nldtgvxt7lrb2jwapexfi6czh&st=6l33uacc&dl=0

 

Here is footage from the first two test rolls:

And some frames from the last test:

 

Edited September 13 by Don Cunningham
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[Giray Izcan]

Looks like the timing of the camera is off.

[Simon Wyss]

Looks like pressure plate not correctly engaged and or loop(s) lost.

[Eric Eader]

Around the time "Tricky Dick" was having 'Watergate' problems, I had to drive to the D. C. photo company that maintained the Network News film cameras to have one of ours looked at for a problem similar to yours.

Now your camera may not have this particular problem, but there is a spring (a steel wire about 1 1/2 inches long with loop in the middle), that maintains pressure on the pressure plate and over time (and use), weakens.

If a loop is set wrong the camera rattles when the power is applied; enough so that your first reaction usually would be to shut it down and rethread.  But if memory serves, the weak spring does not cause noise but the film dances like a child keeping a secret from its parent.

As a Tech Tip, I was taught that no matter what was happening around me and how much of the action I was missing to ALWAYS roll the inching knob a few turns and if no rattle to apply a short burst of power to confirm proper loop, then close the door and roll off some more to clear the light leaked head.

If you didn't hear a rattle (as opposed to quiet ticking), while filming chances are good something other than improper loop is the cause.  

Replacing that spring is a simple task, but I don't know if it is still available or how much it costs.

[Don Cunningham]

Thank you for the responses. 

[Aapo Lettinen]

yes looks like a lost loop or more generic pressure plate issue

[Brian Drysdale]

You had to ensure that you had a large enough loops on the CP16.