Thursday, December 21, 2017

DON’T JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER





 


In the early 1970s I used to work in a camera shop, Jay's Cameras,  here in Minneapolis.  At that time we were the largest Leica dealer in town.  In addition to local customers we also sold a fair amount of Leica gear to visitors of the Twin Cities, mainly because the store was right in the middle of the downtown shopping district.

I remember the following quite well.  It was early morning; hardly any customers were in the store, when a young guy walked in asking if we sold Leica equipment.  He wanted to see a Leicaflex SL2.  He explained he was interested in updating his equipment.  Since it wasn’t busy at all I decided to spend extra time with him.  He looked familiar for one reason, but I couldn’t quite figure out who he was when one of my colleagues came up to me if I knew who he was.  I told him that I couldn’t quite place him. 

“That’s Keith Jarrett.”

Then I knew.  I had just recently obtained a recording of his famous “Köln Concert.”  He was in town for a couple of concerts over the weekend.  It quickly became obvious that Keith was quite knowledgeable about photography and Leica in particular, and he definitely knew what he was looking for.

I don’t quite remember what particular lenses he was interested in, but I am quite sure we discussed wide angle, normal and telephoto lenses.  When he had made a decision, and when I began to put his order together, my boss asked me if I could talk to him for a minute.

 Keith Jarrett.jpg
Keith Jarret c. 1980

Keith was definitely not your standard Leica customer.  At the time his hair was quite long and he also was wearing a beard.  His dress consisted of Jeans, a T-shirt and a military style jacket.  Needless to say, this hadn’t escaped my boss.

“Is he buying all that stuff?”

“Yes, he is.”

“Make sure he is paying cash!”

Of course there was no need to worry.  Keith paid with a credit card, but I would have gladly opened a charge account for him.

Unfortunately I have never had the opportunity to meet him again.  It would have been interesting to know how the new Leicaflex outfit worked for him.  Especially some of the results would have been interesting to see.

I have followed his career over the years and I often think back to this particular time of a Saturday morning at Jay’s Cameras.  I still use this little story at times to show that you can’t judge a book by its cover or that not all Leica customers look the same.


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Wednesday, December 20, 2017

LEICA M VIEWFINDER FRAME - LIGHTER







Every once in a while I come across something new, where I feel to slap my head saying, “Why haven’t I thought of that?”

Such was the case this morning when I received an email from Don Goldberg of DAG fame.  Every Leica shooter short of the Leica M 240 and all the M cameras thereafter possibly has been in a situation where the lighting conditions were so low that the frame lines in the viewfinder where hard to see.  We just had to live with that, until now anyway.

Don has designed a small, compact illumination device that attaches to the accessory shoe of the camera.  A hinged flap in front allows it to be put in front of the illuminator window of the camera, where a battery powered light will greatly brighten the frame lines.

  
Photos taken through the camera viewfinder with a cell phone
  
Don Wrote: I had this idea for over 30 years but making it would have cost too much money. Now that the Chinese are making inexpensive electronics its economically feasible to make, however, machining  the parts do take a while. The only way to really making this profitable is to have a plastic molding company make up the molds to produce molded parts so all I'd do is to screw everything together. Cost to have this done would be around $12,000.00.  Two photos attached are views inside the Frame-Lighter. The result of the Frame-Lighter is just like what you see in the Leica M240 and cameras made after that (including the M10) which all have LED illuminated framelines.  The Frame-Lighter is of course best to use in dim lighting, however its also good in normal lighting as well. The button on top triggers the LED light to go on. I have it set for about a minute, there's a small hole in the back that leads to an adjustment screw for changing the time delay for the light to stay on, counter clockwise gives you less time & clockwise gives you more time. Runs on 1  3volt  DR-1/3N battery which is very common.






The cost for the unit is $150

 For more information and inquiries go to www.dagcamera.com

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                                  www.classicconnection.com                                     

 www.leicastoremiami.com  

      www.eddycam.com        

      



Buy vintage Leica cameras from 
America's premier Leica specialist 
www.tamarkin.com

                          
           http://www.tamarkinauctions.com/               http://www.tamarkin.com/leicagallery/upcoming-show

    

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