I acquired a Minolta Autopak-8 S6 for $10 and picked up a pack of TRI-X B/W outdoor film. I figured I'd do some lighting test shots with it and have run through the alotted 50' according to the gauge on the side of the camera. How do I know when it hit s the end...There was a slight pace change in the whirring that happend a bit after 50'...is that the I'm done sound?

I really can't help ya too much on the s8 but on my k3 and many other cameras it is an audible change of speed once the last of the film has gone through.

Knight, if it "sounds" done it might be. Just take the cart out of the camera and look. It'll say END if it's done. If not then you still got a few feet to go. Which shouldn't be much if the gauge is reading 50ft now. ( byt the way you won't ruin any of your film you've already taken up by doing this just the film you see in gate area will be exposed/white on the screen when it comes back.)

Also when you take the cart and put it back in if there is extra film left I'm pretty sure the gauge will reset to 0ft again. Just something to keep in mind and I hope that helps you out. :) I've got a Minolta 8 just like yours and I haven't shot with it yet. I really want to soon, it's such a nice camera! How did you like shooting with your camera?

viewfinder/eyepiece is painfully small to use. There's a little red arrow that I don't know what it's for and there's no iris...the sound thing is neat (whirr...clickity clickity)...I kinda like the mystery of not knowing instantly if you have actually gotten anything on film. suspensful. Weight is nice though so it's easier to get steady hand held shots.

I believe the little red arrow is the exposure meter, but I might be wrong.. it's probably got an 'auto iris'