THE ELCAN (ERNST LEITZ CANADA) UNDER WATER SYSTEM
Oene of the first German companies to
establish a manufacturing branch overseas was Ernst Leitz, the makers of Leica
cameras. In 1952, they started making
some of their equipment in Midland, Ontario, Canada. They operated as Ernst Leitz, just like in
Germany, but used ELCAN to identify some of their equipment.
Besides the manufacture of cameras
and lenses, ELCAN was also very much involved in the manufacture of military
equipment. One of the most unusual
military developments was an underwater camera system which ELCAN developed for
the US Navy. It primarily consisted of a
complete set of lenses for underwater work, not only for 35mm cameras but also
for medium format, 16mm motion picture and TV cameras. These were rather unique lenses because they
were not part of a camera that was simply put into a water tight housing. Instead the lenses were designed to be
exposed to the water with their front element.
The common way of using under water housings for conventional cameras
usually incorporate standard lenses that are designed to work in air. Even with their standard lenses, Leica goes beyond
standard practices by taking the refractive index of air into consideration
when designing their lenses.
35mm System, front view
35mm system Back view
35mm system, with inside front and back view with Leica M4 camera installed
Motion Picture or Video system
Three Lenses with the common Water contact Front Element
The ELCAN under water system instead
was designed according to the refractive index of water. As a matter of fact, since this system was to
be used primarily in salt water, it was the refractive index of salt water that
was used in the design of these lenses.
However, not all oceans have the same salinity. So ELCAN went one step further and took the
refractive index of the salinity of the various oceans into consideration. This was possible with an interchangeable
front element of their water contact lenses.
This overall design actually considered the water as an integral lens
element of the entire system. To avoid
the need to test these lenses in the various oceans all over the world, ELCAN
built a large water tank that could be flooded with water of the appropriate
salinity.
Water test tank
The correction of these lenses was so
good that, when water is clear enough, there is no way of telling that the
pictures were taken under water. ELCAN
was the first company to suggest such a design.
What is even more amazing is the fact
that the thick water contact front element is reported to be so strong that the lenses can be
used in the greatest ocean depths without any problems at all, including the
deepest part on earth, the 36,200 feet deep Challenger Deep of the Mariana
Trench.
In November 1990, the Hughes Aircraft
Company, California, purchased Ernst Leitz (Canada) Ltd. In December, 1997 Hughes sold their operation
to Raytheon Company, Lexington, Massachusetts.
Today Raytheon ELCAN Optical Technologies is the
largest and most fully integrated North American company with complete
opto-electro-mechanical capabilities.
This is an amazing system. Is it still in production?
ReplyDeleteI doubt it. The system was initially developed for the US Navy and, to my knowledge, it was never sold on the civilian market.
DeleteI have an Elcan 21mm f/4 immersion lens. You use liquid inside the lens of a refractive index inside to match the seawater refractive index. Leica M mount. A very rare lens. Anyone know what it might be worth?
DeleteI am sorry, but I have no idea what your lens might be worth. Just as your lens, any of the components of the ELCAN under water system are extremely rare and it is even more rare to find any of them for sale. Subsequently there is not even a hint of an established market. One source for possible information might be the International Leica Society, LHSA, (ww.lhsa.org. Many of their members are avid Leica collectors and could possibly be of help to you.
DeleteHow can this camera possibly withstand the immense pressure at great ocean depth like the Marianas Trench?
ReplyDeleteJust like Piccard's Trieste and James Cameron's Deep Sea Challenger - making it strong enough. Keep in mind, these are not everyday under water housings, these are devices made to the specifications of the US Navy.
DeleteWho is Piccard and what is Trieste?
DeleteJaques Piccard was an oceanographer who in 1960 reached the bottom of the Challenger Deep in the Marianas Tranch together with Lt. Don Walch in his bathyscaphe Trieste.
DeleteInteresting. So James Cameron was not the first to go down there. If you don't mind, what is a bathyscaphe?
DeleteA bathyscaphe is a special type of submarine where the actual crew cabin is a specially designed sphere. These were first used, suspended from cables and referred to as bathysphere. Bathyscaphe is derivative of that expression referring to the sphere being suspended from a dirigible submersible vessel.
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