Nikon F3 MD-4 MF-6B film leader out

[funkydog]

I've read that the MF-6B back used with the MD-4 sets the rewind to leave the leader out.
From what I've seen, a back in good condition can cost more than the camera. Can a poor man's leader out rewind be jury rigged by using the regular F3 back and shorting the two exposed contacts on the back of the MD-4?
Pictures of the MF-6B don't indicate any electrical contacts on the film side of the back. How does the back work? Are there any electronics in the stalk that hangs off the back or are the contact points just completing a circuit on the back of the MD-4?

Link to pictures on Google.

 

[Frontman]

There is a tab on the bottom of the MF-6B which engages contacts on the MD4 motor drive, there is a pressure switch which is released once the end of the film passes it. If you remove the motor drive, the camera will not sit flat on it's bottom plate. I use the MF-6B on my F3, and the earlier version on my F2, both work quite well.

 

[presspass]

A no-cost but slower option is to rewind by hand. That works with the MD-4 attached.

 

[Mark C]

I had that on the one F3 I've owned, an extremely used ex-newspaper body. For me, I mostly wanted to shoot without the motor, and the tab on the back was a bit of a nuisance.

I assume the appeal of leader out was for loading into processors with a sleeve entry and no darkroom? Or is there something else. I do that manually sometimes for switching rolls between cameras or other reasons. If I do finish a roll leader out, I tear of the taper to eliminate any chance of accidentally reloading and double exposing the film.

 

[dbarnes]

It's been a long time, but I recall being able to manually stop the MD-2 and MD-4 motorized rewinds in time to leave the leaders exposed. I have to admit that I always coveted a back that would do it for me, but it didn't seem necessary. FWIW. YMMV.

Leaving the leaders out speeds up the darkroom preliminaries.