Aaton A Minima Threading/Loading Issue

[Justin West]

Hey all,

I’m having an issue with the A Minima where the film doesn’t roll tight onto the take up spool in the magazine. This eventually will push film out of the mag and into the sprocket/gate area. I’ve also noticed sometimes it will spool around the feed sprocket. Is the film supposed to be loose on the take up spool? I made sure many times the film was correctly threaded and loaded. Even when the problem is happening it’s still locked onto the sprockets and still in the gate area. But it just bundles up and may eventually rip. I’ve managed to get it to thread tight on the take up spool twice but I did nothing differently so I’m unsure what’s happening. Any thoughts would be helpful thank you!

[Simon Wyss]

You’re most probably using those plastic spools, aren’t you? They are not made for kinematograph cameras but for microfilm applications. With spools according to ISO 1019 you won’t have jams anymore.

[Justin West]

Hey Simon, yes I’m using the plastic 200ft Kodak spools. When I purchased the camera I was given around 20ish of these plastic Kodak 200ft spools. I didn’t even know there was others available. What should I be looking for? I was trying to do a search for 1019 iso spools but I’m still a little confused on what I’m looking for they are a different size or material? When watching videos online from Abelcine on loading they look like they are using the same plastic 200ft Kodak spools…

[Simon Wyss]

Well, I actually meant the hundred-footers. The Kodak 200-ft. spools for the A-Minima should fit. Do check every spool on a rewind before use in the camera. ISO 1019 prescribes max. width of 19,5 mm in a rotation diagram.

[Justin West]

Ok great that is something I wasn’t checking. The plastic spools are flexible so maybe I kind of pushed them too wide and that explains why it worked once or twice before the width probably aligned. Thanks for the info will do some more tests.