RAF Photo Reconnaissance

[johnbailey]

Did anyone catch Channel 4 news last night?

There was a report on the retirement of the RAF's Canberra's after 60 years of service. These planes have been operating as photo reconnaissance aircraft. I mention this because there was a shot of Central London - Canary Wharf taken from the plane.

I still can't quite believe the quality of the photograph considering the planes altitude and position.

The link is currently :

http://www.channel4.com/news/special...ge.jsp?id=2636

The link seems a bit intermittent but there is also a link on the home page (towards the bottom right) at the moment:

http://www.channel4.com/news/index.html

Not strictly Leica - but well worth a look and perhaps they used a Leitz lens?

John.

[Edward S. Isaacs]

Large format is the answer.

Ed.

[elansprint72]

Thanks for that link, I missed the news.
Judging by the number of aerial camera systems which have been on the market in the last couple of years it looks like digital resolution has won that battle already!

Cheers,
Pete.

[gberger]

The Canberra was an excellent high-altitude bird for its day. The USAF bought a squadron of them, extended the wing length and used them for photo recce until the U2 became operational. (RB57D)

Later, small external jet engines were added to increase the altitude, and the RB57 became a "Weather" recce bird, used for high altitude "sniffing" missions to detect nuclear explosions as well as for unusual weather recce.

Long since retired to the Tucson boneyard.

George (The Old Fud)

[lambroving]

http://gelegenheiten.photodose.de/po...hp?iID=9185780

[dhsimmonds]

The Canberra was a great aircraft for it's day, incrediby reliable and all who flew her commented on her nice manners and sleak profile.....all in all a lovely lady! The Canadian built Leitz lens is almost a certainty I would say for this lady's photography.

[johnnyj]

I remember the Canberra also. She had some missions that will never see the light of day. I was on Shemya when I met her. It would be fun to see if there is anyone out there who also knows what that was about. I bought my first Leica while on Shemya. The shots taken were all for the command. There are a lot of unsung heros in this world, and the pilots for those missions were some of them. That brought back some memories!

Thanks for the post John!

[pilot]

Can't get Channel 4 here unfortunately. Many years ago when I lived in the UK I used to work with a Canberra pilot. He was in the reserve and had to go off every year for some flying. I could never get him to talk about it though.

Bryan

[lll]

William,

the lens you posted is from a 16mm movie "Zielkamera", not for high resolution reconnaisance.

Maurer, New York, built one of the smallest rec. cameras, the KE 28B. 6x6cm on 70mm film with mechanical pneumatic vacuum pressure plate and, most important, a Leitz Canada 6in/f2.8 lens. Superb lens and one of the very rare lenses built by Leitz / Leica for a format bigger than 35mm. Actually I don´t know any other, not counting the projection lenses for epidiascopes and medium format Prados.

The camera was used by US Forces since the war in Korea and especially in helicopters during the Vietnam war. Kodak developed its "Wrong colour" IR Ektachrome High Speed Film for this camera too in order to have a tool to divide camouflage from natural green.

If You want to have a look on one of the last working examples, complete with filters, grips and original transportation box join us at our Forum meeting at Gotha / Thuringia from 18th to 20th of August :-) Ronald will show you the way...

Greetings Friedhelm

[user8952]

the pictures in Dresden were probably made with Leitz lenses.....

I'm sorry, but my fascination for WMDs is limited, no matter who uses them....

[wda]

The venerable Canberra started life as a private venture project without any Government funding. Eventually it was realized what a marvellous aircraft it was with so much potential.

There cannot be many warplanes with such a long continuous service life as that of the Canberra.

David

[ed_oneal]

Originally Posted by wda

There cannot be many warplanes with such a long continuous service life as that of the Canberra.

David

How about the Douglas DC-3. There are some of them still flying.

Ed

[wda]

Originally Posted by ed_oneal

How about the Douglas DC-3. There are some of them still flying.

Ed

Is the DC-3 still flying as a 'war plane'?

David

[gberger]

The Canberra begin as a medium bomber. It morphed into a highly reliable reconaissance aircraft in its time.

The USAF B-52 came into being in 1952 (B-52A) and went out of production in around 1963 (B-52H), and they are still with us, with our Grandsons and Granddaughters making up the Combat Crews on these birds.

The B-52 - - known among its pilots as the "BUFF," is still flying, and willl be in the USAF inventory for quite a few more years. It has been modified, remodifided, remodified, and remodified since then. It's still an "interesting aircraft" to fly.

Refueling the B-52 in flight, along with today's fighters and bombers, the KC-135 entered service in 1955 to replace the prop-driven KC-97s. They refueled my B-47, many times, enroute to interesting parts of the world, or on Unit Simulated Combat Missions, where we flew profiles of the equivalent of how far and how where we would have to fly if launched after a Soviet Union Attack on the US.

The Canberra may now be in the "boneyard," along with my ancient B47, but a few oldies are still arund.

George (Who flew the T6, P51, F80, B25, B29, B50, B47, B52, T33 - - and a big mahogany desk in the Pentagon (yuck).

[dkpeterborough]

Talking about photo reconnaissance ... I have Pacific Optical 18inch f4 lens which I hope to adapt to medium format Pentax 67 body ... the lens was used for Desert Storm reconnaissance missions ... but I believe that film reconnaissance is now almost obsolete now .. it has all gone digital . The lens is very heavy (18" f4 is 457mm f4)... will be a case of mounting the camera onto the lens rather than vice versa.

Dunk