Re: [Leica] Rapidgrip, now rapidwinder

[Dean Chance <mreyebal@pacbell.net>]

on 11/21/00 11:19 PM, Robert Appleby at robert.appleby@tin.it wrote:

> 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.

Can you post information on getting one of these from Tom?