The M8 needs a film advance lever - but not for film

[Rico]

Adhering to "form follows function", I can't support a faux lever. However, the real one of the RD-1 is more than acceptable - it's brilliant! Beyond battery conservation, it eliminates the electric motor entirely. Perhaps it's just nostalgia, but wedging my thumb behind the advance lever has felt natural since my old FM2n, and now the M4.

 

[johnastovall]

Gee, My first Leica didn't have a film advance lever and I never missed it. I'm glad it doesn't have a faux-lever. But maybe it needs a faux rapid advance base plate? 🙂

 

[Ken Ford]

Adhering to "form follows function", I can't support a faux lever. However, the real one of the RD-1 is more than acceptable - it's brilliant! Beyond battery conservation, it eliminates the electric motor entirely. Perhaps it's just nostalgia, but wedging my thumb behind the advance lever has felt natural since my old FM2n, and now the M4.

What he said!

 

[Robert]

It's a pity Leica didn't fit a grip similar to the Contax G2. These cameras can be held very securely

 

[Harry Lime]

The M8 needs a film advance lever -- but not for film.

To be more exact, it needs a DUMMY film advance lever.

Why?

Think about it a moment. We carry the M around in our right hand and use our thumb / lever advance to help grip the camera.

Woe be to the fast grabbing M8 owner who watches their camera slip from their hands to the concrete / rocks below.

Seriously, the M8 needs a dummy film advance lever to 1) replicate the M feel we are used to and 2) to help grip the camera.

Whether or not a M7 / MP advance lever can be installed on the M8, I don't know. IF not, it would be a smart Leica move to to design one which can be fitted to the M8.

Stephen

Hahahah.... I handled an M8 about two weeks ago, when a rep visited my dealer.

After taking the first shot my thumb automatically jumped into action to operate the advance lever, but of course there was nothing there. I looked at up at the Leica rep, with a slightly bewildered expression. He gave me an amused smile and said: "It happens to almost everyone".

But you're on to something. The camera could use something to help you hold onto it. The slippery covering doesn't help.

 

[Joe Mondello]

Well I don't have an M8 (but have handled it at a photo show), but DO own an RD-1 and yes, I definitely grip the camera in the manner described by the OP!

 

[sf]

dummy lever

dummy lever

a dummy lever could be used to fire the shutter at one of a few speeds. The sensor can act as a sort of shutter, spotting the need for a shutter that measures out a very granular spectrum of timings. The lever would function well as a winder for the shutter.

But really...there's no sense in that.

 

[rick oleson]

Maybe if the lever powered a little generator that recharged the battery just a tiny bit (say, enough for one shot) with each stroke......

 

[dreamsandart]

Having an R-D1 I like its advance lever and analog style functions, it does feel more film-like familiar and works well along side a film loaded M-series body. But I don't see the reason for a film advance unless it did something, a good thumb grip on the back would be more useful, and if a motor advance can be fit into the M-size body, why not?

What Leica could have done 'better' to make the camera more familiar/friendly was to add analog functions [ as an example ] like the R-D1's Leica style 'rewind knob' jog dial, easy to read information dial and traditional 'fingers-on' ISO changing, which do make it 'handle' very well. But like the mechanical shutter and its manual 'wind' lever, menus and software are just easier to manufacture and less expensive to develop than hardware functions.

Its the picture is what counts in the end, but for most M-users its the ride along the way that sets the M-series/rangefinder experience apart.

 

[comp_wiz101]

I've wandered around with knob-winder cameras and I never dropped them....

 

[rsl]

I'm still waiting to get my M8, so maybe I shouldn't comment on the lack of a wind lever, but here goes anyway: Years ago I shot a lot of film with the IIIf, M2, and M4. I never missed the wind lever on the IIIf since it didn't have one. I gripped it in the usual way and used a wrist strap for security. With the M2 and M4 I still used a wrist strap, and though I did wedge my thumb behind the wind lever, I didn't depend on the lever for security.

One valid function for a wind lever is to give the shooter control over the noise involved in cocking the shutter. In Vietnam in the mid sixties, and for about a year after I got back to the States, I did a lot of shooting with a Canon 7, which was a great Leica knock-off with a Leica-thread screw-mount lens. The Canon 7 had a titanium shutter. I've listened to the MP3 of the M8 shutter signature you can download from dpreview.com. The shutter sound itself seems almost identical to what I remember as the Canon 7 shutter sound, but since you can listen to the MP3 at any volume level you choose, the MP3 doesn't tell me anything about the volume of the shutter noise. What it does tell me is that the shutter rewind sound that follows the release seems a good deal louder and is much longer than the sound of the shutter itself. For "street" shooting in quiet, less then friendly interiors it really would be nice to be able to cock the shutter slowly and quietly.

 

[HAnkg]

You loose the classic shape, but I think the ergonomics would be much better. Stick an ISO dial where the current shutter release is and move the shutter release to the grip. Lugs for a handstrap or M5 style side attachment would be nice. Grip like the linhof or Tom A's grip. Plus more room to stuff electronics maybe the camera could be slimmer.

 

[fgianni]

Maybe if the lever powered a little generator that recharged the battery just a tiny bit (say, enough for one shot) with each stroke......

Now that sounds a great idea, and pausible as well!

 

[HAnkg]

Maybe if the lever powered a little generator that recharged the battery just a tiny bit (say, enough for one shot) with each stroke......

There are radios whose batteries are recharged by a winder. If the mechanism is small enough that would be pretty incredible. I recall the one PJ who made into the church in Bethlehem with a bunch of Palestinian fighters who holed up there during the last intifada (before the Israelis surrounded the church and cut power to it). She had to ration her shots as she couldn't recharge the battery of her DSLR. Perfect for the backcountry and in emergencies like that. Kind of fitting feature for what was the king of small format cameras in the mechanical era to have the only digital not totally dependent on batteries.

 

[Ororaro]

Fake advance lever? That would be the most ridiculous thing in the world.

 

[jaapv]

Think about it a moment. We carry the M around in our right hand and use our thumb / lever advance to help grip the camera.

I never did that during all the decades I used M's. However I have made it a habit of grabbing the camera through the camera strap, giving it a twist around my wrist. In my experience, when it drops, it is off a table or window-ledge.🙁

 

[Ben Z]

I have to scratch my head when people find needing to put filters on every lens for the camera to give proper color is perfectly acceptible, but bemoan not having a fake wind lever to rest their thumb.

 

[jaapv]

I have to scratch my head when people find needing to put filters on every lens for the camera to give proper color is perfectly acceptible, but bemoan not having a fake wind lever to rest their thumb.

I'm scratching with you, Ben. A retro look/feel is fine, I rather like that, but non-functionality for sentimental reasons? A bit too kitschy for me. The times, they are a-changin'.

 

[Xmas]

Naaa it needs a hinge out back

Noel

 

[Sparrow]

Naaa it needs a hinge out back

Noel

And a funky analogue clock-thing, like the rd1