[Leica] Rapidgrip, now rapidwinder

[Robert Appleby <robert.appleby@tin.it>]

John, I'm very left eyed. But I find that the RH thumb ends up on my
glasses (worst of both worlds for the Leica, left eyed + specs!) with the
rapidwinder just the same.
I'm not much good at action shots, most of my stuff is more situational, if
not exactly posed, and for me the real advantage of the RW is not having to
look away from the viewfinder. I myself can certainly _not_ shoot more than
one frame a second smoothly with the RW. It hasn't made me faster - I shoot
too much film anyway - but it has enabled me to concentrate more on the
picture.
I agree totally with Mike that once you've got the RG mounted, you won't
want to ever take it off, and I'd say the same about the RW. Together they
make the M6 into the perfect small camera.
The RW also has the great advantage over any motor that you can wind when
you want to - so given the limitations of the M design, you don't have the
release button bouncing your finger up all the time. You can wait to raise
your finger gently before winding on.
IMO, Leica are fools for not paying Tom a large amount of money to produce
his winder (of course, I'm sure Tom also has his reasons to want to
continue making it!). Here in Italy virtually no-one uses the RW because it
isn't marked with the red dot. I'd be surprised if there were more than ten
in the country. If Leica made it, they'd sell thousands.
I'm delighted with the setup, and I'm sure many others are as well. It
transforms the camera and makes it infinitely more usable, at least for the
kind of photography I want to do.
Rob.