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 an article from 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.
I know Leicas are quite
tough, but dynamite?
Leica KE 7A
The camera was originally
supplied with an f/2 version of the Leitz Elmar called Elcan
________________________________________________________________________________________
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