Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2007/04/26

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Subject: [Leica] Help!
From: photo.forrest at earthlink.net (Philip Forrest)
Date: Thu Apr 26 16:41:09 2007
References: <042620072316.13551.463132AF000F0AE4000034EF219791332903010CD2079C080C03BF970A9D9F9A0B9D09@mchsi.com>

Gene,
Sorry to hear of your misfortune.  Hopefully the next 2 1/2 months will pass 
quickly.
Last year I gave a Pentax spotmatic with a few lenses to the daughter of a 
neighbor of mine.  The daughter had her former point & shoot camera stolen 
and her mother was looking to get her into a better quality camera as she 
was 
very passionate about making images.  The difficulty was that the girl had 
cerebral palsey and had lost much dexterity in her right arm.
I took a rather generic off-camera flash bracket, reversed the two-piece 
(clam-shell type) plastic handle which set it up for left hand use.  I then 
drilled a hole in the top & threaded a cable release through over to the 
shutter button.  
For focusing the lens, I tried a few things but got the main idea from my 
Bronica "speed-focus" arm.  I had a step down ring which I found slipped 
neatly and tightly over the grip and I JB welded on a rod so she could use 
her right hand but had a larger surface to grip and control.  This worked 
out 
fine for the girl and she's still making photos.
As for your Leica lenses, I'm sure you'd like a less permanent and less 
marring alternative.  I seem to remember that there was a company out there 
which made clamp-on focusing levers for leica lenses which didn't have them 
from the factory.  This is probably the best bet which may allow you to 
focus 
with the cast even but won't require the finer dexterity that manipulating a 
small focus ring or even the small focus levers requires.  
Hopefully, I've been of some help.  I'm sure that some here will come up 
with 
engineering marvels short of auto-focus which will work for you.
Good luck & speedy recovery.
Philip

On Thursday 26 April 2007 19:16, grduprey@mchsi.com wrote:
> well tuesday night in a rain storm i managed to destroy my right shutter
> operating wrist.  I am now trying to figure out how to operate my leicas
> with only my left hand.  yes i am right handed and this is going to be
> hell.  ;-)  i am going to have to figure out how to avoid camera
> withdrawell.  i realize using a tripod with an M is sacrillege, but maybe
> this is an allowable transgression.  i will have the cast on for the next
> 10 weeks.  of course anna and my wife are smiling at their good fortune of
> not having me with the m in my hand all the time now.  any suggestions on
> how to do this without committing all the M transgressions?  got home from
> the hospital this afternoon, and the M8 is calling me - oh the shame of it
> all.
>
> gene
>
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
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In reply to: Message from grduprey at mchsi.com (grduprey@mchsi.com) ([Leica] Help!)