Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/03/13
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I wish that the alloy used was cheap. It is a certified areospace alloy that costs about US$ 15/kg and after that it is run on an automated turning center that costs about $200/hour to operate. I dont know if you know anything about machining, but the Softrelease is done in a single pass through the machining center and the program for running it, boggles the mind! Several people have said the same thing and gone to machinists to try to have the Softies duplicated. In all cases they have been told 'Can't even run them for $10 each". There are plenty of Softreleases available in "cheap" aluminium but they suffer from one major problem. The threads are pressed in to the metal and they often break off in the cable release thread of the camera. Simple design is not necessarily cheap and high quality material never is! Tom A