Overgaard Posted April 24, 2016 Share #1 Posted April 24, 2016 Advertisement (gone after registration) I've updated the extensive article on Leica History again. Enjoy! Leica History 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted April 24, 2016 Posted April 24, 2016 Hi Overgaard, Take a look here Leica History (updated) at overgaard.dk. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
jaapv Posted April 24, 2016 Share #2 Posted April 24, 2016 Nice, thanks.One thing: it propagates the myth that Barnack "invented" the 135 camera format. That is untrue: The camera by Jens Poul Anderson of 1905 and above all the "Leica Precursor" from 1905 by Goertz and a few others predate him. The Ur-Leica is from 1914, nine years later. This was one of those " the time is right" inventions. Let's not follow the marketing myth. Barnack's and Leitz' genius was their ability to turn the spirit of the time into a viable concept that became a success. http://corsopolaris.net/supercameras/early/early_135.html 5 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
willeica Posted April 24, 2016 Share #3 Posted April 24, 2016 Nice article Thorsten. I agree with Jaap that Barnack did not invent 35mm, but 35mm would never have been the same without Barnack and Leica. To take an analogy from another field which I love, jazz in the same period from about 1923 to 1930. Louis Armstrong did not invent jazz in that period, it existed before him, but both it and, indeed, American popular music, generally, would never have sounded the same if he had not developed his musical style and concepts. The same applies to Barnack and Leitz. One of the big 'leap forwards' with Leica was the introduction of the true system camera from about 1930 onwards. The outfits which Leica developed at that time were the true fore-runners of what modern photographers have in their camera bags today with interchangeable lenses, filters and close up gear. I have used a few of the items in my modest collection to cover the topic here. http://macfilos.com/photo/2016/1/17/leica-cameras-in-the-1930s-a-decade-of-progress?rq=1930s Jaap is right in saying that what Barnack and Leitz did was to turn 35mm into a viable concept, which we are still benefiting from today. Going back to Thorsten's article, the emphasis is, naturally enough, on Leicas from the last ten years or so. This is understandable as the material for the article was produced in the 'internet age'. What is striking, though, is how true Moore's Law is and how we are are living in an era where developments happen very fast. That did happen in the past, though. The changes in the Leica camera between 1925 and 1932 (a period of only 7 years) came very fast. Leica was a true leader of 'disruptive technology' at that time. The role of Leica today is interesting. It has a lot of tradition behind it, but should it sit on this or become a disruptive technology company again? Personally, I think it should try to be both. William 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomB_tx Posted April 24, 2016 Share #4 Posted April 24, 2016 We should not assume that Barnack copied the 24x36 format from an earlier effort, but see the format as a logical extension of the 18x24 movie frame such that several may have arrived at it independently. Stephan Gandy notes that format was already used in the USA production Simplex camera from 1914. https://www.cameraquest.com/simplex.htm 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
M9reno Posted April 24, 2016 Share #5 Posted April 24, 2016 Thanks Thorsten, but please break up this huge page - it is so long, there are so many images that my (new) iPad has trouble scrolling, and after a while crashed altogether! 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Overgaard Posted April 24, 2016 Author Share #6 Posted April 24, 2016 Thanks Thorsten, but please break up this huge page - it is so long, there are so many images that my (new) iPad has trouble scrolling, and after a while crashed altogether! Thanks M9reno, I will check with an iPad. It could be the Flash videos in it. Will check and see what can be done. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
luigi bertolotti Posted April 24, 2016 Share #7 Posted April 24, 2016 (edited) Advertisement (gone after registration) Great work in progress, Thorsten ... but feel the need to evidence to you an incorrect statement... "1966In April production starts in the Oberlahn plant. Also this year Leica introduces the 800mm Tele Elmarit-R lens at Photokina, the lens that was sold in the US with a complimentary Volkswagen beetle with it!" The 800 wasn't never named Tele Elmarit... displayed at Photokina 1970 (named as "Telechron") and introduced in 1972 (first items ready for Olympics in München) with the definitive name Telyt-S; to be precise, the promo in US included a VW Fox, not a Beetle. <Popular Photography - 1988> Telyt800 with VW.pdf Edited April 24, 2016 by luigi bertolotti 4 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Overgaard Posted April 25, 2016 Author Share #8 Posted April 25, 2016 Great work in progress, Thorsten ... but feel the need to evidence to you an incorrect statement... "1966 In April production starts in the Oberlahn plant. Also this year Leica introduces the 800mm Tele Elmarit-R lens at Photokina, the lens that was sold in the US with a complimentary Volkswagen beetle with it!" The 800 wasn't never named Tele Elmarit... displayed at Photokina 1970 (named as "Telechron") and introduced in 1972 (first items ready for Olympics in München) with the definitive name Telyt-S; to be precise, the promo in US included a VW Fox, not a Beetle. <Popular Photography - 1988> Telyt800 with VW.pdf Thanks. Very helpful! I always wondered about that and just recently got to correct the 560/800 confusion and other facts a bit. This might be the last bit of information I need to get it right. Do you know why the -S in the name? Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomB_tx Posted April 25, 2016 Share #9 Posted April 25, 2016 The timeline for the 800 should be clarified, as it indicates the lens was introduced in 1972, then the comment about the US promo with the free VW. But the VW Fox was introduced in the US in 1987 - 15 years later. If a VW was offered in 1972 it would have been a Beetle - the low end model the as the Fox was in the late 1980s. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Overgaard Posted April 25, 2016 Author Share #10 Posted April 25, 2016 The timeline for the 800 should be clarified, as it indicates the lens was introduced in 1972, then the comment about the US promo with the free VW. But the VW Fox was introduced in the US in 1987 - 15 years later. If a VW was offered in 1972 it would have been a Beetle - the low end model the as the Fox was in the late 1980s. But in the picture it's not a Beetle. (in the PDF) Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
duckrider Posted April 25, 2016 Share #11 Posted April 25, 2016 (edited) ...Do you know why the -S in the name? As far I know "Sonderglas" -special kind of Glass with extra low disperse index (& extra extra... high price) I remember our local Leitz-dealer here in the 8oties displaying two cubes of glass- one oridinary & one of this extra low disperse glass, presented like a diamond. Thomas Edited April 25, 2016 by duckrider 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
duckrider Posted April 25, 2016 Share #12 Posted April 25, 2016 addition from http://www.marcocavina.com/articoli_fotografici/Leitz_Telyt-S_800mm_6,3/00_pag.htm: citation: "The Leitz Telyt-S 800mm f/6,3, produced between 1972 and 1996, wasrevealed as "Telechron versuch" during the 1970 Photokina Koln messeand it's the longest long focus lens produced by Leitz for both M and R system;it's based upon an apochromatic glued triplet with two dispersive outer menisciand a central converging lens realized from a special Leitz glass projected in1966 by Heinz Broemer and Norbert Meinert; this glass, having an nE refractiveindex of 1,54408 and Abbe number vE of 73,0, is a low dispersive glass witha partial anomalous dispersion DVe = +11,8, far away from the conventionalstaight line of the q' - v diagram; this feature allowed Georg Knetsch to projecta simple apochromatic system with a substantially reduced secondary spectrum;in this article I inserted several unprecedented and amazing data, with the wholeoptical specs of the lens, the chemical composition of two of the three lenselements (realized with original Leitz glasses) and some discussions about theoptical correction of this amazing masterpiece, bulky and expensive as Hell." Thomas 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jto555 Posted April 25, 2016 Share #13 Posted April 25, 2016 I've updated the extensive article on Leica History again. Enjoy! Leica History Wow, Thorsten you have changed a bit since that photo... Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomB_tx Posted April 25, 2016 Share #14 Posted April 25, 2016 But in the picture it's not a Beetle. (in the PDF) Yes, but that is from Popular Photography in 1988, when the Fox was available. So this US promo was long after the 1972 introduction. Perhaps a Leica USA couldn't sell the lens they had for 15 years. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
duckrider Posted April 25, 2016 Share #15 Posted April 25, 2016 Wow, Thorsten you have changed a bit since that photo... Naa, that's young Rowan Atkinson, aka Mr. Bean! Thomas Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
luigi bertolotti Posted April 25, 2016 Share #16 Posted April 25, 2016 (edited) Yes, but that is from Popular Photography in 1988, when the Fox was available. So this US promo was long after the 1972 introduction. Perhaps a Leica USA couldn't sell the lens they had for 15 years. It can be like this... btw, the Popular Photography note quotes the promo as a sort of lottery related to a specific s/n (2.500.854) , not excluding that items with a different s/n (bought from US dealers at list price) could be entitled for the free Fox... considering that they were the final items (last built was 2.500.891... my one is 2.500.874 - originally sold in Germany - and probably not all the intermediate s/n were actually used for Telyt-S) it can be speculated that the number of VW Foxes that Leitz had to buy were really few... . Btw... I suppose, as Thomas says, that the suffix -S was to distinguish it (for its special glass, deeply scrutinized by Cavina) from the usual 2 elents long Telyts. Edited April 25, 2016 by luigi bertolotti Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
luigi bertolotti Posted April 25, 2016 Share #17 Posted April 25, 2016 (edited) Wow, Thorsten you have changed a bit since that photo... Kubrick+Atkinson=Overgaard Edited April 25, 2016 by luigi bertolotti Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 25, 2016 Share #18 Posted April 25, 2016 (edited) That's Stan as a young photographer (and chess master). Same focused expression on the last photos during the filming of "Eyes wide shut". A very successful English film artist has nothing to do with this picture. Two excentric men of genius on different levels, that's it. No corespondence. Edited April 25, 2016 by tri Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Geschlecht Posted April 26, 2016 Share #19 Posted April 26, 2016 (edited) Hello Everybody, In the late 1980's or early 1990's there was a note in an issue of Leica Fotographie that said that if a person bought a Leitz 800mm Telyt-S from an authorized Leitz Dealer where it was on sale for $16,000, which was 1/2 of the $32,000 list price: And if they sent a copy of their receipt to Leitz: They would be sent an Audi Fox as a gift. Best Regards, Michael Edited April 26, 2016 by Michael Geschlecht Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Overgaard Posted April 27, 2016 Author Share #20 Posted April 27, 2016 Hello Everybody, In the late 1980's or early 1990's there was a note in an issue of Leica Fotographie that said that if a person bought a Leitz 800mm Telyt-S from an authorized Leitz Dealer where it was on sale for $16,000, which was 1/2 of the $32,000 list price: And if they sent a copy of their receipt to Leitz: They would be sent an Audi Fox as a gift. Best Regards, Michael The Fox was Canadian $4,750 in the 1970's. So it could actually be right. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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