Just bought a used T-90 to replace my T-70. Have run several rolls of 8 frame film for familarization. On two of the rolls the film was pull completely out of the cannister prior to rewinding leaving the cannister empty and the film wound on the spool inside the camera. Is this a mechanical problem? The film counter read 10 or 11 frames prior to auto rewind. Can you help?

-- Charlie Taylor (ctayl@bellsouth.net), October 17, 1998

Answers

Well, before going bonkers Charles, try a commercially loaded 12 to36 exposure cartridge. Remember this camera has DX reading and looks for the number of exposures and sets its counter and rewind accordingly. the rewind motor is powerful too, cant you hear it. My guess is you buffaloed the camera. Simple to check. Buy a 24 commercial load, instead of your home loaded 8 (why the devil 8 exposure) self loads. I suspect your camera is superfine. You may need to overide the DX function next time you have a non DX coded cartridge. Look at a manual. Your friend, GS.

-- Gerry Siegel (veritas@aloha.com), October 17, 1998.

Gerry: Thanks for your response. I'm a real estate appraiser and use 8 exposures for photos of property when the lender doesn't want digital photos. Normally 3 to 6 photos are required per property. Using a 24 exposure roll would be a waste. Film is DX coded and obtained from local photo lab. Will shoot several rolls of 24 exposure in the next few days. I plan on ordering a manual through Canon USA Monday. Will let you know how things go. Again, thanks for helping.

-- Charlie Taylor (ctayl@bellsouth.net), October 17, 1998.

Charlie:

The DX code tells the camera how many exposures are in the roll, as well as the film speed. My T90 manual doesn't say anything about sensing the number of exposures, just the film speed. Obviously, the T90 is somehow getting the wrong info on the number of exposures in the canister.

On the right side of the viewfinder is an illuminated vertical column. The T90 will show a series of bars (for 12, 24 and 36 exposure rolls) above an "F" at the bottom (if you use a film without DX coding, only the "F" appears). As you use the roll, the bars start disappearing from the top on down until, at frames 11 and 10, only one bar appears above the "F". When the film advances to the point where there are only nine frames left to go, the "F" becomes a "9" in the display; after you take the next picture the "9" becomes an "8", etc. When you take a picture when the display reads "1", the shutter should fire, followed immediately by the sound of the rewind motor taking the film back into the canister.

Prior to loading your next roll of film, check the DX sensing contacts on the inside of the camera (normally covered by the canister) to see if they have any oxidation or other dirt which could prevent them from operating properly. Also check the film canisters themselves to see if the silvered areas are dirty (highly unlikely). If everything's OK (and assuming you tried Charlie's test on a 24-exposure roll and the camera worked properly), load your film. If, after it loads to frame 1, the viewfinder information reads other than "8", your camera is still "confused". Nothing to do here but shoot your eight exposures, then open the palm wing and press the "manual rewind" button; the camera will rewind the film back into the canister.

One other thing: I'm assuming you buy your 8-exposure rolls in "bricks" (10 packages of 8-exposure rolls) to save money. If you've been buying these exclusively from one manufacturer (e.g., Fuji), try another manufacturer (e.g., Kodak or Agfa) and see if the problem goes away. Film canisters don't get miscoded very often, but stranger things have happened. Good luck.

John

-- John (jmllal@spacestar.net), October 20, 1998.

The T 90 does read the number of frames from the DX code. What I don't know is whether it can read numbers other than 12, 24 and 36. I should certainly hope so, because sometimes you find rolls with 27 (i.e. 24 + 3 bonus) frames. I never tried these though. If there's no DX code present, the camera will allow for a maximum of 36 frames, or rewind as soon as there's some mechanical resistance. Perhaps the film wasn't attached properly. It did oviously rewind, but too late. Another reason might be that the internal battery is dead and the AA cells were replaced in mid-roll, leaving the camera confused about the frame count. Check whether it reads the film length properly.

-- Frank Wuest (captain.baloo@studbox.uni-stuttgart.de), October 20, 1998.

I'll vouch for the T90's allergy to non-standard film lengths. That third motor for film advance is no shrinking violet, either, and ripped one of my strips out by the roots. Trouble was, I didn't notice the film remained on the take-up (right-hand) spool and I continued to use the camera. With no room for 72 exposures on the take-up, it eventually jammed and toasted one of the drive bridge transistors. Disassembly, research, repair, and reassembly were a rabbit hole trip I cannot recommend to the faint-of-heart, but camera and my wits are much better these days.

Use generic-length rolls, Charlie. You can have the T90 modified to leave the leader hanging out at rewind (it's a ridiculously easy, five-minute solder job) and re-insert unfinished rolls later, unless, of course, clients want the prints that fast. You could always pass the cost of the film on to them but I can sympathise about waste.

-- Robert Segal (robertsegal@juno.com), March 09, 2001.