Leica Motor M - Anyone else use one?

[Retro-Grouch]

Anybody else use the Motor M? I recently acquired one, and, to my surprise, love it! It's quiet, operates smoothly, integrates beautifully with the camera's aesthetics, and makes bracketing exposures painless. I'm hopelessly left-eyed, so winding with the advance lever means removing the camera from my eye; with the motor, bracketing +1, normal, and -1 can be done without shifting the camera and having to re-frame each time.
I always felt that a motor was antithetical to the whole Leica shooting style and all-manual aesthetic, but sometimes practicality takes precedence. I'd like to know what others' experience has been with this rather maligned piece of kit.

 

[lxmike]

what M body are you using it on

 

[Bill Blackwell]

If it's the latest motor with the grip, it's the best and smoothest motor Leica produced. I owned one years ago and I found the grip to be too large for my hands - so I could never get into it. I loved the M-Leicavit though!

Ironically, although Leica M-P and M-A cameras are made with the winder mechanism, Leica no longer produces either a motor or winder.

 

[Deleted member 65559]

Good for you R-G! I'm also left-eyed. I used the loud pulsating early M4-2 version....even so it was great. These days i use the Leicavit..... but the newer quiet M motor has a charm of its own.

 

[presspass]

Thought about it but already have Leicavits and Rapidwinders, both of which are great for left-eyed shooter. Then again, my experience with the earlier Leica battery operated winders may have put me off.

 

[farlymac]

I've got one. Haven't used it enough to form an opinion other than the grip part is quite useful. I do have an issue though whereas I can't get the battery out of it. Didn't know lithium cells could swell like that.


PF

 

[Rob-F]

I tried one in the store some years ago. I was a bit surprised, maybe unnerved is too strong a word, by the way the shutter release pushed my finger back up after the exposure! I didn't buy it, but sometimes I think about getting one. Yes there is a smooth feeling to using it!

 

[Retro-Grouch]

Ixmike, I'm using it on the M6. I see you have an M2, which is a no-go. The motor M will work on the M4-2, M4P, both M6 models, M-A, and M-P.

 

[Gregm61]

Not wanting any mechanical camera left wound after the last shot I avoid motor drives and imagine that’s why many others do too.

 

[maddoc]

Why wouldn't you? The springs of the Leica focal plane shutter are under tension wound or not.

Not wanting any mechanical camera left wound after the last shot I avoid motor drives and imagine that’s why many others do too.

 

[raydm6]

Yes, pretty cool shooting with a 35 attached. Feels like a mini-brick. And like Rob-F stated above, you do get that unnerving push-back on the shutter release. But, you get used to it.

There's the Winder M and Motor M.

Interesting review of the Leica Winder M vs. Motor M.


Leica M6 | Winder-M | Finney Pinhole Body Cap f/128 @30mm by rdc154, on Flickr

 

[David Hughes]

A long, long time ago there were firms around who would make you a replacement spring if you sent them the broken one. The best of them all made some of the bits I used and I was speaking to them one day and was told that if a spring was properly designed and made it would do the job it was designed almost forever.

And that reminded me that some Barnacks are coming up to 100 years old and still in use and has anyone heard of the springs in them being replaced?

Regards, David

 

[Vince Lupo]

Back in the 1990s I had one adapted to my M2. I really loved it and used it constantly.

This was the M6 motor drive - much better than its predecessor!


m1 by Vince Lupo, on Flickr

 

[Frankd]

I very occasionally use the Winder M on my M4-2. It certainly adds bulk and weight, but performs well in some applications where things are moving fast. It gives you a quick 2nd and 3rd shot without taking your eye from the viewfinder.

 

[Rob-F]

Not wanting any mechanical camera left wound after the last shot I avoid motor drives and imagine that’s why many others do too.

You have to remove the winder to take the film out anyway, so the shutter can be released then. There's no reason not to leave the shutter wound, though. A Leica shutter is 60% tensioned when wound, and 40% when released. But the important thing is that leaving a spring tensioned does not fatigue the metal. Fatigue happens when metal is being flexed, as when winding the shutter or releasing it. There's no fatigue caused by remaining in the tensioned state.

 

[das]

It would have been nice if Leica had added electrical contacts between the body and the drive to electronically prompt the winder (like nearly every SLR ever), rather than use some 1950s mechanical feedback trigger. There was no reason this could not have been done with at least the M7 and then with every film camera afterwards. I like both the Winder and the Motor in theory, but I found that with both, they would occasionally prevent the shutter from closing on an M7. You would have to take the camera off AE to a shutter speed and then the shutter would close. That was pretty annoying.

 

[Retro-Grouch]

A lot of posts about the older Winder M, as opposed to the Motor M. The Winder M looks like a really awkward beast, and has a reputation for behaving badly. The Motor M is more recent, and very compact. A nice feature is the grip, which gives great balance with a larger lens. Since I've always used an accessory M grip, the motor part that sits below the body adds virtually no additional bulk, and you can turn off the motor and just have a nice grip with great ergonomics.
The Winder M doesn't look like anything I would want to use, just because of the compromise in handling. But I would guess if one is used to the bulky motor drives of older SLRs, it's less of an issue.

 

[Vince Lupo]

I guess everyone’s experience may be different, but I never had any issue with the winder M. I found it particularly helpful when shooting vertically and never really felt it to have been a bulky addition to the M2 body. I also never had any issues with reliability - there are various versions of the winder M, and it’s likely that the earlier 14214 winder was more problematic than the newer 14403 version (I do know that the 14214 winder would kick you in the face every time you took a picture). The 14403 version was much smoother, but that was strictly my experience as someone who owned that setup pictured above for about 20 years.

 

[Sarcophilus Harrisii]

You have to remove the winder to take the film out anyway, so the shutter can be released then. There's no reason not to leave the shutter wound, though. A Leica shutter is 60% tensioned when wound, and 40% when released. But the important thing is that leaving a spring tensioned does not fatigue the metal. Fatigue happens when metal is being flexed, as when winding the shutter or releasing it. There's no fatigue caused by remaining in the tensioned state.

I'm not sure I follow you, sorry. I would have thought that, once cocked, curtain springs could be said to be 100% tensioned (in the sense that they've been wound up to the maximum extent the mechanism activating them is capable of, when the curtains are fully drawn), not 60%. On the other hand, are you referring to a percentage of the maximum extent the springs are capable of being tensioned, without suffering permanent damage, perhaps? Maybe I'm just being a bit dim...

 

[Rob-F]

It's the latter: 60% of the tension that would be the maximum safe limit for the spring.