Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1997/10/16
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Donal, Forget it. It took me years to figure out how to make the current winder and by the time I figured out how to make one for the R8, even leica could have gotten it right.It would be possible to build a small winder for the M, using a high torque motor and a simple clutch mechanism. The biggest problem is that you really would not gain that much. The cloth shutter of the M would not hold up to 4-5 frames/sec speed. It has been tried, if you wire a high output battery to your regular M-power winder you can crank through film at very high rates. you also loose shutters at a equally high rate. I know, I tried it!! The whole idea with a manual winder is that you decide when you want the camera to advance the film, thus eliminating the "whirr" from a electric drive. This is for M's, as for the R8, my feeling is they should not have released it until at least the winder was ready.I saw the winder and motor at Photokina last year. Nice looking but not working! Tom A