<p>John, good guess on the V and R. I honestly dont know a lick of German, but I deduced that "R" was the same as Rewind. When in the "R" position, all locks are disabled and the film can be rewound into the cassette.<br /><br /> "V" mode is for normal film taking where the camera will only allow you to advance the film one frame. <br /><br /> The Edinex II functions similarly to the Argus C3 and Certo Dollina which are two other 35mm film cameras that were originally designed in the 1930s. The Argus C3 has a film catch on top of the camera, and the Certo Dollina has one on the front of the camera. In both of those instances, in order to advance the film for the next exposure, you must put pressure on the film catch while simultaneously turning the film advance knob. You only need to apply pressure to the film catch to get the film advance started. Once the knob starts moving, you can release pressure on the film catch and keep advancing the film until it stops, at which time it is ready for the next exposure.<br /><br /> The Edinex II works much in the same way, except instead of a 'film catch', you have that little disc on the left top side of the camera. This only works properly when film is in the camera, but if you want to play with it, you can mimic film by opening the rear door and using your thumb to spin the sprocket shaft that would normally move if film was in the camera. <br /><br /> To see it in action, turn the R/V wheel so it is in the "V" position and open the rear door. Using your right thumb, try to rotate the sprocket shaft counterclockwise. It shouldn't move. This is how the camera would be when you are ready to take your picture. Pretend you make an exposure and now you're ready to advance the film. Using your left thumb, put counterclockwise pressure on the disc on the left side of the camera. While doing this, using your right thumb, you can begin rotating the sprocket shaft counterclockwise. This is the motion that would happen if you were advancing the film. Once you begin moving the sprocket just a little bit, let go of the disc with your left thumb and continue rotating the sprocket shaft with your right thumb until it stops. Once you feel it click into position, the camera thinks you have advanced one frame of film. Pretend to take another picture and apply pressure to the disc again, and rotate the shaft again to go to the next frame. You would keep doing this until you run out of film, at which time, you would rotate the R/V disc to the "R" position, and then using the left knob on top of the camera, rewind the film back into the cassette.<br /> <br />The frame counter is coupled to the sprocket shaft, so once it locks into position for the next exposure, the frame counter should advance +1. This camera has no automatic reset of the frame counter, so when you are done with a roll, you must manually reset the frame counter back to 0.<br /> <br />Hopefully all of this makes sense. If you are confused, just try it, and it should make much more sense once you actually try it. This is a pretty cool camera, and although mine isnt in the best of shape, it should be good enough to shoot a roll in it.</p>