Re: [Leica] Soft Release

["Tom Schofield" <tdschofield@email.msn.com>]

Another alternative is the circular bubble level/soft releases that run
about $5.

Tom S.

> In Tom's defense, his look nicer.
>
> Anyone who wants to complain about $10 can find the old school soft
releases in
> most photo outlets.  Ritz was closing these out at $0.25/each.  They are
"concave
> down," and not made of aluminum (pot metal? Zamac? brass?) because they
are much
> too heavy.
>
> Frankly, given my low quantum of free time, when I lose my current one,
I'll fork
> over for an TA soft release rather than search to the ends of the earth
for
> something cheaper.  Time is worth more than that, and given the average
age on
> this group, it is better spent finding your soul and having fun with your
camera
> than saving a buck (or even nine).
>
> "Michael E. Bérubé" wrote:
>
> > OK...I wasn't gonna post again today, but I've got to say that $10 for
an
> > accessory as great as the softie is for a camera system that usually
costs
> > at least $2k is a frequin' bargain.
> >
> > (no affiliation with TA, just love the softies...which are now on my
> > minolta SLRs as I don't have an M any more.)
> > Michael
> >
> > At 06:28 PM 3/13/01 -0500, you wrote:
> > >  I wish that the alloy used was cheap. It is a certified areospace
alloy
> > > that
> > >costs about US$ 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
>