[Leica] Re: Hello / no messages from LUG/R8 Winder

["Greg Bicket" <GBicket@email.msn.com>]

Jiri, good morning.

Glad your LUG is functioning again.

I purchased my winder about two months after I bought my R8 in February.  It
has functioned quite well as an electric thumb, but it is too slow for
professional use.  It has functioned without fail.  I understand that the
contacts between the early winders and the body were troublesome for some
users, but the problems I have had were static related problems with the
body itself.  Interestingly, these contacts seem to have been changed when I
sent the camera back from service.

The winder has reliably drawn film through the camera and rewound it, and I
have found it useful.  For very fast action, sports, etc., my impression is
that you would be best to wait for the motor drive.  In the States, we are
being told that this will be available during the first months of 1999, but
as you know, this is a continuing saga.  Good operation is approximately 2
frames per second, and if you are shooting gymnasts or divers or football,
this is often not fast enough.  Even my old Nikon F3 could go more than 5
frames per second, but this was with fresh batteries and the mirror locked
up.

I paid about U$450 for the winder, and while it was expensive, I have been
satisfied with its performance.  My rationale was, as an amateur, ultra fast
speed was not critical for me, although it would have been nice to have.  In
addition, the motor drive is likely to be quite expensive, and big.  While
the R8 body is fine for me, it gets to be a big [but still acceptable]
package with the winder on.  I was concerned about the whole thing being
excessive with the motor drive attached.  Finally, I am an impatient person,
and decided that if I wanted the motor drive later, I would use the winder
until it becomes later and then either sell or trade the winder!

Battery life has been exceptional with the lithium batteries.  However, one
must always carry spares, as when lithium is finished, there is no power
output whatsoever, and so your meter/shutter will not function.  A little
slowing has taken place in cold weather.  I have no experience yet with
extremely cold temperatures.

One unexpected distraction is that one must remove part of the body
[containing batteries] when attaching the winder.  The winder is not loud,
as winders and motor drives go, [some M users think it sounds like a train
crash!] but if one needs to trip the shutter as quietly as possible with no
winder noise, the winder removes, taking with it the batteries which have
driven not only its motor, but the camera's meter/shutter electronics.  And
different size batteries drive the winder or the body alone without the
winder.  The result is that sometimes when I am doing nature photography, I
have had to carry the body part with its batteries if quiet is required.

I hope this is useful.

Enjoy the light!

Greg Bicket

- -----Original Message-----
From: jrehorek@deltax.cz <jrehorek@deltax.cz>
To: Greg Bicket <GBicket@email.msn.com>
Date: Thursday, November 05, 1998 1:12 AM
Subject: Re: Hello / no messages from LUG


>Hello,
>actually, yout message came at the same time as last two LUG digests came.
>:-)
>I am now looking forward to the end of week to go to darkroom at last and
>make some BW photos. (Have tons of developed BW films from summer/early
>autumn
>not yet printed)
>BTW have you tried or used the R8 winder ? Have any impressions ?
>
>Have a nice day.
>               jr
>
>