Nikon SP S3 S4 Rapidwinder Prototypes

[CameraQuest]

see http://www.ajaxnetphoto.blogspot.com/

this is Jonathan Eastland's blog mostly about Leica related stuff, including the RD-1 and new Panasanic L-1.

good reading and very interesting

however take a close look at the 2nd pic in the May 17th article. Not mentioned in the mass of RF equipt are two of Tom Abrahamsson's Nikon SP's fitted with prototype versions of his NRF Rapidwinder. Tom is not yet made up his mind whether he will produce it commercially. If you have interest, inquire at www.rapidwinder.com IF he does offer it, you will have to supply a sacrificial S2, S3, S4 or SP camera back for the conversion.

Stephen

[Ed Schwartzreic]

Here is one of Tom's S3's with a prototype rapidwinder, on his person. The modification involved bolting a machined winder housing to the baseplace.

Ed

[NIKON KIU]

What do you say Tom?
Limited edition RFF Nikovit:cool:

Kiu

[nikonhswebmaster]

I own one rapid winder camera, a Canon VI-T. I have never figured a way to use it, unless you are not going to focus, so it is pretty much limited to wide angle lenses. Canon saw it that way and only provided 50 and 35 fields.

Tom's winders make much more sense since you can still use the regular winder when yøu need to focus and shoot and wind.

I would be curious which is actually faster, a single long stroke S2 or a RapidWinder. I know the winder is much more smooth once you are framed. And Tom's winder is a very simple and strong design. Let's hope he makes one for the S.

[rbsinto]

I've got my own Nikon Guru here in Toronto (Raymond Fung of Winball Camera Repair) who looks after my motorized F, motorized F2, motorized FA, a whole mountain of AI and AIS Nikkors, and now my vintage S3. I've already spoken to him about turning one of my F-36's into an S-36. He's indicated that he can do it, and, I'll likely get him to do it in the next little while. I'd much rather have a battery-driven motor on my S3 than a spring-loaded trigger-winder.

[nikonhswebmaster]

The motor is trivial to convert, the problem is finding an S3 with a motor plate, they seldom have them. And to make things worse the bottom plates supplied with S3s and most SPs cannot be converted since they do not have the little mount for the rocker arm. A solution is to cut down an F motor plate, with the rocker intact.

Also you must sacrifice a bottom, which must be flattened and drilled. Nikon used regular bottoms, but did not form the tripod hole, and formed the screw holes.

As for the other parts required like adjusting screws they are easy to find.

Remember the F36 can be a bit much for early cloth shutters, 12volts not 9.

[NIKON KIU]

Remember the F36 can be a bit much for early cloth shutters, 12volts not 9.

I have seen many Porsche 911 owners spending $15,000 to "supercharge" their engines...engine usually gives up after a few months and has to be rebuilt. Just another aspect you should consider.
But you have your repair guru, so you will be okay. May want to save a little extra in case the camera jammed.

Kiu

[rbsinto]

Fred,
I've got two motorized F's, so using one F36 and the motor plate from the camera body is no problem.
And before allowing this project to commence, I'll have a meeting with Mr.Fung to ensure that there a no surprises or impossibly rare missing pieces required to finish the job.
My vintage S3 has a cloth shutter, but if I go all the way and have this done, I'll probably have Mr. Fung take an F shutter and drop it into the S3.

[Tom A]

I own one rapid winder camera, a Canon VI-T. I have never figured a way to use it, unless you are not going to focus, so it is pretty much limited to wide angle lenses. Canon saw it that way and only provided 50 and 35 fields.

Tom's winders make much more sense since you can still use the regular winder when yøu need to focus and shoot and wind.

I would be curious which is actually faster, a single long stroke S2 or a RapidWinder. I know the winder is much more smooth once you are framed. And Tom's winder is a very simple and strong design. Let's hope he makes one for the S.


My two S-type Rapidwinders were made for the NHS meeting in Vienna. I was thinking of something interesting to "wear" and the 35f1.2 in S mount did well as an exclusive, but I thought I needed something else. I made the two prototypes from scratch - machining the alloy used (high strength aerospace alloy -which does not like to be shaped by anything less than a$600 000+ CNC machine) took a couple of days for the first one. The second one took longer as i incorporated corrections to mistakes made on the #1!
I doubt it will ever be a production item. Market is too small and the fact that I have to drill holes through the base-plate of the cherished Nikon RF's tend to give the owners nightmares. To set up a program for CNC'ing yje base and interior coverplate as well as the redesign of lever and lever lock as well as an internally spring loaded drive system does not come cheap. I would also have to construct things like drill jigs and make a whole batch of specialized tools for final manufacturing and assembly.
The two prototypes are already gone, I have given them away, one to a collector and one to a friend. I am working on a 3rd version with some different ideas for the drive.
As for which is faster, a top-mount winder lever or a baseplate winder. You can probably wind the top as fast as the baseplate winder for the first couple of frames, but after that the baseplate winder works better.
The Rapidwinders that I make for the Leica M's (M6/M7 and my personal favourite, the M2) were initially designed to replace my Leicavit MP's as they slowly disintegrated. I am a left eye shooter and for decades non base advanced cameras meant that my thumb either knocked my glasses off or poked me in the eye. I also find that in the heat of shooting, having to drop the camera to avoid aforementioned accidents breaks the concentration.
I have now been making these winders for 20 years! Initially I only wanted to make a small batch to supply myself, but somewhere it got out of hand! 4000+ winders later, I am still making them. Well, it allows me to deduct film and travel as well as communicating with some of the nicest photographers around the world.

[nikonhswebmaster]

As a left eye shooter (assuming you have good eyesight in both) do you close your right eye? I shoot right, but keep both eyes open.

[Tom A]

As a left eye shooter (assuming you have good eyesight in both) do you close your right eye? I shoot right, but keep both eyes open.

It depends on the camera. A S2 with its 1:1 finder and the R3 from VC allows me to have both eyes open. If I am using a camera with a lesser magnification, I tend to close the right eye as the "lifesize" view of the right eye would overpower the left eye which is trying to cope with the smaller finder magnification. S3's and Sp's can be used "two-eyed" but I find that I prefer a auxillary finder for the 35 on the S3 and a VC minifinder 28/35 on the SP.
I suspect that one gets use to a certain way of shooting and try to adapt to the camera. This might be the reason why Rf users in general are quite stubborn in their choice and hate to change "viewpoints". Pun intended.

[VinceC]

Left-eyed shooters can shoot verticles with both eyes open.