i'm also a fan of cheap. to save time, i keep a short (1 foot?) release permanently attached to each lens. i attach a tab of velcro tape to the end of the release, which lets me keep the thing from whipping around and unscrewing itself when i walk with the camera over my shoulder. the velcro sticks to another tab of velcro tape on the lens cap. they never seem to get lost, and i never waste time looking for them or screwing them on.
Brian I disagree with you. The cheap releases have problems. One of mine came apart when travelling. Another I had would not work on press lenses because the plastic would stretch so much. I now have one slightly-more-expensive model that works much better.
I really like the simple cloth ones with a screwlock. Calumet sells a Kalt 20" one for about $8. I think they are perfect. I have tried some others that were ok, but often heavier than the Kalt. The Adorama branded metal sheath is ok, but the Kalt is much smoother to use.
The most dissapointing ones I have used were the Gepe ones. The tip does not screw fully into any camera I have and they have popped out and snapped off my camera. When they snap they often leave a piece of the tip stuck in the shutter. That aint a fun experience in the field. They are also rough in feel when actually connected to a camera. All in all, very disappointing for a Gepe branded product. I tired two different sizes, pvc and plastic covered-neither was worth a darn-I would say avoid these.
I prefer the cloth ones, too. I keep from losing them by attaching one to each shutter with Loc-Tite - a thread glue available at auto parts stores. Use the kind that's removable, not the permanent kind. I've had one that's been attached to a shutter this way for 20-years.
john
I have mine made for me in a small workshop run by a couple of elves and located in a cave high up in the mountains in Liechtenstein. They are gold plated and quite nice, having especially long throws needed to fire old Ilex Universals. I understand they used to build components for Curta calculators but since the market dropped out they've concentrated on building cable releases, grinding new 19" Dagor lenses, making exact reproductions of No.5 Compound shutters, and building 12x20 film holders for F&S banquet cameras. It is a small shop(just the old man and his son) but they do fine work at reasonable prices. Their U.S.distributor is Vince, who sells the stuff out of the trunk of his 1946 Hudson Hornet four door sedan at the San Jose swap meet and also services his southern California customers from the parking lot at Los Alamitos racetrack whenever the nags are running. Vince dosen't take personal checks though, so bring cash (he also has the last remaining inventory of official Kahotek Comet commemorative tee shirts in existence.)
Since I know the head Elf personally(a long story regarding a franchised dog walking service, a shipment of illicit Lubitels and a seventeen hundred year old slice of raisin pie excavated from an archeological dig in Syria which mysteriously re-surfaced at an auction for rare antiquities in Singapore early last year) he lets me order directly from the "cave" and even after paying the duty the price is still less than those cheapie cable releases they sell at discount stores.
Several years ago in Dublin, I happened to run into the Elf who had been attending a symposium on the future of Leprechauns in the EU. We had lunch and later, over a few pints of Beamish, I asked the old Elf the very same question you're asking, about which is better, plastic or fabric cable releases? The old gnome looked at me over the tops of his magnifying specs and said: "Its whatever one makes you feel more confident."
Cheers!
"I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority"---EB White
Calumet cloth ones made in Japan by Minette are very flexible and supple and have a ring lock that's easy to use for time exposures, but the screw end is kind of long, so it doesn't work well with recessed lensboards or situations where you've got a large shutter with the release socket oriented in a way that the cable gets in the way of the front standard.
The Linhof cables are more rigid, but have a small nib, so they'll fit in tighter spaces, which can be handy. The Gepe cable release extension is also handy for tight spaces.
I have one heavy German cable release with a long throw and a spring strain relief at the nib end that's really nice, but also not ideal for small spaces.
They all get used one way or the other.
I have gone the cheap route in the past, buying a dozen cable releases made by PZO in Warsaw once for a dollar or two. It took me about ten years to go through them all. Maybe I have one somewhere that I still use occasionally.
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