Home Made Softie

It might look like a half sucked sweet stuck on the top of my IIa but it's actually a home made softie. I tried using my mini soft release from my Zeiss Ikon on the IIa and found it was a great improvement. Unfortunately, they're expensive - £15.00 + postage from the UK dealer or $15 + a lot more postage from Stephen Gandy in the USA. So I decided to make my own.

I had an old cable release and cut the end off it to give me a suitably threaded part to screw into the camera cable release socket but needed something to form the top part. I opted for a plastic button. It was one which had a stud on the back with a hole through it rather than holes through the button body. I cut off the stud at the back and drilled a shallow hole into the back of the button to take the bit I had cut off the cable release, then glued it together. Simple really and it works well. Shame about the colour though.

The IIa (and the other Contax rangefinders) have a focus wheel on the body. The recommended way of using it is with the middle finger so that the index finger can stay on the shutter release. I found that, with my index finger bent such that I could press down on the shutter release, it wasn't very comfortable. Using the softie enables me to lay my index finger across the top of the softie without having to bend it. Much better.

Softies also help in achieving a controlled release of the shutter - you can squeeze rather than jab at it - and many people claim to be able to use slower shutter speeds without camera shake when using one. I tend to agree although I've never proven it, but they are certainly more comfortable.

Update - I dipped the softie in black enamel. Looks much better now. Also, having just sold my IIa (I can't believe I did that) I'm now using this softie on my ZM in preference to the smaller bought one I had on it.

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