i have considered and decided against the rapidwinder, because you can not take grab shots with it from the hip.

so on to the rapidwinder, questions..................

1) how quiet is it? i would like to hear from owners who use it on the street for instance in close proximity of people. 2) how heavy does it feel? 3) in general has it made your leica easier to hold or not? 4) batteries readily available? 5) can the handle be detached from the rest of the motordrive? 6) finally, if you have it do you use it a lot? or do you find yourself detaching it when not needed?

thank you

-- john molloy (ballyscanlon@hotmail.com), April 01, 2002

Answers

because you can not take grab shots with it from the hip

Why's that? You might not win a duell with your opponent operating a machine gun - but you can sure keep on firing at waist level...! Bests.

-- Lutz Konermann (lutz@konermann.net), April 01, 2002.

John, a friend of mine just got one of these from a dealer in HK ($440 brand new BTW!! Anyway, it seems to balance the camera beautifully, supply a nice grip and do the job that it was made to do. Would people hear it and be disturbed? Probably not on the street. On a train or in a confined, basically silent atmosphere, absolutely, but on the street I don't think you'd notice it. Too much other stuff going on. In conclusion, after playing with it a bit, I ordered one......

-Best, Duncan

-- Duncan (pilot@aviationmission.com), April 01, 2002.

i think there may be a little confusion here, maybe in the question. i think the poster has decided against the abrahamsson rapidwinder because it is no good (in his view) for hip shootin'. he is now considering the MOTOR M, and wants a view on how noisy it is. i.e. the second reference in the question should be to "motor m," not rapidowinder. to answer your question about the motor m, in slow mode, it is perfectly quiet for street use.

-- roger michel (michel@tcn.org), April 01, 2002.

roger.

yes you are right, i am lookign at the motor M now (my mistake). i would be intereested to hear from anyone who could win me over to the rapidwinder. my concern was for shooting from the hip, or that 2 hands needed to be on the camera for operation.

-- john molloy (ballyscanlon@hotmail.com), April 01, 2002.

You can see an extensive review of the Motor M and Abramsson rapidwinder at http://nemeng.com/leica. I got one and it fits well with my M6TTL.

-- edgaddi (edgaddi@msn.com), April 01, 2002.

John, If shooting from the hip is a major part of your photography then go out right now and buy a Konica Hexar RF. It has AE, AEL and a continous drive motor. It will cost you only 2.5 time more than the M motor only. I have an Hexar and both my M6's have the Rapidwinder and Rapidgrip. If my Rapidwinders were to disappear and Tom A can't replace them I would buy another Hexar and put my M6's in the closet.

-- ray tai (razerx@netvigator.com), April 01, 2002.

John,

I have two Motor-M units, which I use with my M6 TTLs. They work well and I like using them. They match the M body really well, don't add too much height and the weight is bearable. They make the cameras much easier to hold.

I find the grip comfortable. You cannot detach the grip, which is where the Lithium batteries are located. The batteries are easy to find, at least where I live in Indonesia, and they have a very long shelf-life.

Some people find the bobbing up of the shutter button after each shot, due to the mechanical linkage between the M6 and the motor, to be distracting. I think you just need to get used to it. It does at least have the virtue of helping to prevent unintentional multiple shots, which was a problem with the electronically coupled winder on my R8.

The Motor-M itself is reasonably quiet at its lower speed setting (1.5 fr/sec) and you always have the option of winding manually if you switch off the motor. This causes a slight 'clickety-click' sound as you advance the film manually but, in my case at least, it's not obtrusive.

What did surprise me is how much louder the shutter release is if the shutter is fired after film has been advanced by the motor, as opposed to after manual advance. This is most noticeable if you turn off the motor for the next shot, fire the shutter, then manually wind on and shoot again. The first shot will be significantly louder than the second.

This noise doesn't come from the camera, it comes from the motor. AFAIK, it's due to a spring in the motor that is held under tension until the shutter is next fired. Firing the shutter releases this tension and a loud 'click!' is heard.

One other point that may not be obvious to everybody: the motor replaces the camera's baseplate, so you can't dismount the thing mid- film (unless you rewind the film first).

-- Ray Moth (ray_moth@yahoo.com), April 01, 2002.