Aaton Minima Sprocket Door Stuck! Please help!!

[James Wachtel]

Hello Film Lovers,

I have an Aaton Minima that I will be using for an upcoming shoot. Long story short, I bought the camera less than 2 months before Covid hit, and did not have a chance to use it up until now. It's been in the case/hasn't been touched for 18months. So, when I finally got a shoot scheduled, I ordered the film and had it spooled up by the lab. Everything seemed to be going well with the load. I loaded the spool into the feed side of the mag, wound up the take up spool, closed the mag, and pulled the loop to the beginning of the hinge. Basically, I followed the Abel cine tutorial. Once I got to threading the film is when I had a hard time. Opening the door for the sprocket feed (the top part) was extremely difficult. I had to press really hard and my hand almost slipped a few times which came close to knocking the camera off the table.. The other door the for the feed opened easily with just a push of my finger. From what I saw in the video the sprocket door should have opened just as easily. So, why is it so hard? I was thinking maybe there is a little screw that can undo the tension? As far as I remember when I got the camera, I gave it a once over, but did not mess with inside the camera door. Is it possible that the camera sitting for over a year caused this piece to be stuck? I'm really baffled by this, since the Abelcine loading video shows the door being opened with a simple push of the finger. I was able to open and close the door against the film, but I had to push really hard to do so. I got the loop size according to the loop marking inside, and ran the camera for close 5-6 seconds with the door open. It appeared to be running okay, but this situation will make loading each time very difficult. Since the shoot is coming up very soon, any help would be greatly appreciated!! Thank you,

Jim Milton

[Dom Jaeger]

I'm sorry I'm not familiar with the A-Minima, but I've worked on a lot of other cameras - certainly opening and closing the sprocket doors should be a simple exercise.

On other cameras, sprocket guides like this often have a release button that allows you to open them. From reading the manual, the A-Minima sprocket doors just open out, so I would assume there is a light spring ball or similar mechanism to locate it against the sprocket, that is normally easily over-ridden. The guides need to stay in position to prevent the film from jumping sprocket teeth, so there must be something locating them and providing a slight resistance to opening. It's possible that mechanism is out of adjustment, corroded or broken, but whether it's something you can easily repair yourself or whether it needs a technician I can't say.

My inclination would be to find a technician who knows these cameras and ask them, and potentially send the camera to them.

I would also add that when buying second hand film cameras, it really pays to have them at least checked over by a technician before using them on a shoot, especially if the shoot is in any way important to you. Don't assume they will work fine.