Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/03/29
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]"Irving" <Papyg@aol.com> wrote: > [new compact M Motor] > Has anyone tried it? Is it quiet? How is the handling? > Does anyone who has used Tom's RapidWinder compared it to > the new Leica winder? Although Paul Chefurka covered almost everything I wanted to say, I would like to add a small note about the shutter button 'backlash' however... I have found that the best way to control this is to unscrew the softie and just use the shutter button 'naked'. Without the softie your finger can rest on the circular finger-guard surrounding the threaded shutter button, allowing you to easily control the amount of pressure you need to apply to the shutter to trip it for one frame or 2 or continuous. Because you can easily rock your finger up and down on the shutter, you can smoothy 'ride' the shutter-button's recoil without jerking the camera between shots. A bit odd, yes, especially for the EOS / F4/F5 crowd - but I have been doing this for 4 rolls now and it works great. Not so easy to control with a softie in place however, because your finger has nothing other than the broad button to rest on. So although a softie makes the shutter easier to trip, it also makes it more difficult to 'ride the waves' between shots when the motor kicks back the shutter button. Other impressions: o Even on the 'quiet' setting, I found the motor a little too noisy for stealth shooting. Thank goodness you can switch it off! Nevertheless, I managed to cut down on the noise problem by making a reinforced leather cover for my camera + motor which has holes cut into it for the lens + VR & RF windows + shutter button & s/speed dial. This cover now stays on the camera all then time and acts like what cinematographers call a "blimp", helping to lower the sound level a fair amount (as well as incidentally protect the camera body from bumps and greasy fingers etc). o Rewind would have been nice - a 4th switch on the motor speed dial for v2? o I wish the motor gears would completely disengage when you switch the motor off and instead are winding via the camera's advance lever. As it stands, you get a clickety-clack sound on every hand wind. o IMO, the superceded, bloated Winder Ms are now for collectors only! Regds, Andrew Nemeth <http://4020.net> -> photos, 360° panoramic vrs, sounds <http://nemeng.com> -> vr java applets, leica faq, tech info