BEFORE LEICA
“WARNING:
It is granted that hand
cameras are indispensable for such as street views, or on the beach, or on
shipboard, but they are decidedly out of place for use as picture
producers. Therefore let us oppose all
attempts to popularize the use of hand cameras at our photographic outings, the
high standard of pictorial excellence to which landscape photography has
attained being in great danger of reduction by the use and abuse of hand
cameras.”
R. P. Drage, British Journal
of Photography, vol. 37, 1890; p. 565.
I think we should all be glad
that Oskar Barnack did not read this.
Typical "Field Camera" ca. 1890
TRUE STORY
“Can I help you please?”
“Yes, could you please put
this roll of film into my camera?”
The customer hands over the
most expensive 35mm camera at that time.
A moment later everything is done.
“Excuse me, Sir, I don't mean
to tell you how to take care of your camera, but I couldn't help notice that
your lenses are rather dirty. All the
extra performance that you spent so much money for certainly gets lost that
way.
“Oh no, that's alright. Someone who knows told me the best way to
keep a lens clean is to lick it...”
another TRUE STORY
We pass along the following
article from the March, 1981 issue of LEICA POSTAL PORTFOLIO NEWS:
I should relate, albeit
briefly, a little incident that happened in the shop a few days ago. A customer (new to us) handed us a colour
negative film for processing with the comment that he thought few of the
pictures would 'come out', but even the bad ones required printing. Accordingly we marked the order “print
regardless' and tactfully inquired if we might help with any problems
concerning his picture taking.
He told us that he had been
taking pictures off the TV screen but that he did not think his flash was
sufficiently powerful. We explained that
the more external light that fell on the front of the TV screen, the less the
actual television picture would be visible – but we distinctly got the
impression that he did not quite believe us.
Somehow he appeared to doubt our expertise.
“Anyhow,” he said, “even if I
had not used the flash, they still wouldn't be any good. I couldn't change the focus setting on my
camera as fast as the TV camera crew did with theirs. I simply couldn't keep up with them.”
We did not press the point...
Did You Know That...
...The US Air Force, for their
top 35mm camera, used the Leicaflex for many years?
...and that a special
production run of Leica M4s, dubbed the KE-7A, was made for the US Army?
The KE-7A was accompanied by
a special instruction book which even included a special section on how to destroy
the camera in case of capture by the enemy.
It was an intriguing process. The
first suggestion was simply to try to break it with a hammer, shovel, or other
blunt instrument. Apparently they
realized how well built the cameras were, because the instructions continued,
saying that if none of the first methods succeeded, to use explosives like
dynamite.
Leica KE 7A
The camera was originally supplied with an f/2 version of the Leitz Elmar called Elcan
The guy against "hand cameras" reminds me of the person in the US patent office in the late 1800s, who wanted to eliminate issuing patents because everything that could possibly be invented had been invented by that time.
ReplyDeleteLicking lenses to clean them, what a concept.
ReplyDeleteIS the thing with the KE 7A and the dynamirte a joke?
ReplyDeleteNo joke, I saw an actual instruction book when the camera was first introduced, when a few extra models did hit the civilian market.
ReplyDelete