Hi Nikoneers. Did you ever think of how far Nikon has gone to offer us equipment which defies obsolesence. Nikon users of 40 years ago must have never imagined the F-mount to incorporate mechanical as well as electronic AF drive systems or contact for lens CPUs to aid metering. I believe this is quite a feat. If ever Nikon is going to come up with something new, these, hopefully, can be user configured,well thought of, and a lot better than what others can offer. The film leader debate keeps coming up in this digest. People who want it and those who don't. I hope all of you will agree will agree with my idea. I would like to take the film leader option for Nikon Pro cameras a level higher. Using the F5 as a model, you will find two rewind switches which have to be depressed to initiate auto rewind. Unfortunately, the only way to keep the leader out is to have it re-programmed by Nikon or by using the manual rewind crank. What if the F5 had a third rewind button in the rear control panel, behind the cover, marked CUS REW. Depressing buttons #1 and #2 fully rewinds film with leader in. But using button #1 and CUS REW button rewinds film with leader out. With this set up, the user will then be able to choose whether to rewind it fully or with leader out on the fly, without setting any custom functions. Furthermore, there can be an option to reverse the settings via a custom function. Rewind buttons #1 & #2 rewinds film with leader out, and rew buttons #1 and CUS REW button to rewind film with leader in. While there are photographers who like leaving the film leaders out, there are those who don't. Usually, I rewind film all the way to prevent myself from using the same roll twice. I often shoot roll after roll at a fast pace, and rely on doing things by feel. Although, occasionally, I would rewind film at mid-roll, to change to a different film type or ISO. This of course requires me to rewind the film manually or to extract it by using my Konica Film Picker 3. I hope this sheds new light on the possibilities of having such an option in Nikon Professional Cameras. Happy shooting. Carlo _________________________________________________________ DO YOU YAHOO!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com
