Minolta Autocord Help! Thanks :)

[PatrickCheung]

Hey guys! I just bought myself a minolta autocord and I'm completely amazed by this thing. It's incredibly efficient and runs so smoothly! The speeds sound fine, the shutter works great, and the focusing is smooth, though the one tiny probem is that the film advance seems to be broken.

The crank works, it just doesn't know when to stop! The frame counter also doesn't advance. Reading a manual I found online, it says that if I line the film up to the starting line, I need to turn the crank about 2 and a half turns before I get onto the first frame. The crank rests at the 11 o'clock position... so I'm assuming the 2 and a half cranks is counted from there? leaving the crank at the 5 o'clock position when it's supposedly at the first frame?

I'm also wondering how much I should crank to fully advance each frame! There seems to be a little groove inside that the advance mechanism falls into, provides a little resistance, at the 3 o'clock position... but the resistance only shows up after 1 full rotation (assuming the starting position is 11 o'clock) of the crank. I'm assuming that 1 and a quarter rotations of the crank is what's needed to advance one frame then?

Could any autocord owner help me verify this? I'm excited to shoot my first roll, but I want to get the most out of it!

It's all a little confusing, but I'll try to take a few photos of the crank positions tonight to demonstrate what I'm saying.

[Dan Daniel]

Do you have film actually in the camera? If not, nothing will happen. No counter notion, no winding stopping and going backwards, etc.

The position of the crank should take care if itself. You wind forward until it stops, then wind backwards until it stops. It should be at the 11 o'clock position. Shoot, then wind forward to stop, back, etc...

[PatrickCheung]

Ahh! Thanks for the advice! I thought the advance was broken! I'll give it another shot when I have film in the camera!

[MartinP]

You can test it out with an old roll of backing paper. The transport, rollers and measuring-wheel will turn pretty much as they would when you use backing-paper plus film, ie. a fresh roll of 120.

[PatrickCheung]

Loaded a new roll in, and the winder works great! Thanks guys!

This camera is so amazing...

[mrisney]

Originally Posted by PatrickCheung

Loaded a new roll in, and the winder works great! Thanks guys!

This camera is so amazing...

Add me to the club. I just picked up an Autocord I, one of the last models.
I specifically targeted that model, and without the CDS meter. I have had 2 Rollei's . A 2.8F and a MVX.
Neither one of them got me excited. Any tips on the Autocord ? From what I have read, they can produce very sharp imagery. Something like 125 LPmm I have read.

[pakeha]

yep sharp from f8 up. I find mine ergonomically better without straps, I use a hand bracket instead.