[Leica] M Motor versus Rapid Winder

["Bryan Willman" <bryanwi@seanet.com>]

I happen to have both an M Motor and a Rapid Winder.
Having two M6s, I can make various comparisons.

The M Motor/Winder about doubles the size of
the camera.  It is quite noisy its speed.  I find it makes
the camera very hard to handle.  Its worst problem,
however, is that it really fouls up the feel of the 
M's shutter release.   It creates a lot of back pressure,
so you cannot just squeeze and hold, if you do that
it will push back at you, so it takes force. 
If you apply a kind of 1/2 force, it will fire away
at 3fps.  Compared to the motors in a G2,
or any high-end Eos camera, it's pretty weak.
If I ever actually sell anything gathering dust
in my closet, this will likely make the list.

The rapidwinder is much smaller, it doesn't
warp the handling of the camera.  Whether
the M6 handles better with or without
the rapidwinder on the bottom will be 
a function of focal length in use and taste.
The rapidwinder does NOTHING to the feel
of the shutter release.  Using the rapidwinder
does mean there's a little lever hanging down,
which you have to fold up before you can
put the camera down or in a bag (this
is quick)

Having actually used the rapidwinder,
I find that as I get more used to it, I like
it more.  Some practice is required to 
pull away on it and not rock the camera.

bmw