Nicht immer nur Kaviar ... (English Version)

[willeica]

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3 hours ago, nf3996 said:

A book which I've found gives a useful coverage of the introduction and progresssion of 35mm over the years is the late Roger Hicks 'A History of the 35mm Still Camera', published by the Focal Press in 1984 (ISBN 0 240 51233 2). There are currently four secondhand copies available via Abe.

Alan

 

1 hour ago, wlaidlaw said:

I have just had a look at Roger & Frances' book (I bought a spare Tewe viewfinder from him some years ago). It does not give a lot of detail on the pre-Leica RF cameras, like for example my Richards camera which uses 10 cut strips of 35mm film mounted in aluminium holders, all held in an automatic loading magazine. It takes square 23 x 23mm images. These were made from around 1909 but mine is the military version dating from 1915, where the no longer obtainable Zeiss Tessar lenses of the original, were replaced by locally sourced copies. There are only some 17 pages in Roger's book on the history of the rangefinder. However, I am not sure there are many better books in English. There are one or two in German. 

One book maybe worth considering, is one given to me by my daughter's father-in-law, the well known professional photographer, Bob Creamer (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/what-camera-153011480/) which is Todd Gustavson's Camera. Now this book is published by Eastman Kodak, so inevitably there is a Kodak-ish flavour to it but very readable nonetheless. 

Wilson

 

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I met Roger and Frances at the Leica Society AGM in Stratford on Avon in 2014. I was thinking of more than just rangefinders, but I will seek out that 35mm book.  

Leica started something going with 35mm in the mid 1920s and this grew gradually and was not an immediate takeover. I did a talk recently for PCCGB about how the German camera industry thrived in the 1930s because of the use of the central Compur type shutter. At the beginning of the 1930s Leica with its focal plane shutter was something of an outlier. Then Zeiss joined the fray, but the focal plane shutter and 35mm were still down the order of popularity. Even when, in the mid 1930s, Kodak introduced the Retina, they used the Compur type shutter. Leica had dabbled earlier with Compur shutters , but got out soon, giving rise to the high price of the Type B models seen today. Leica stuck doggedly with the focal plane shutter which made interchangeable lenses much easier to use, particularly after standardisation. Even in the 1950s when some manufacturers introduced interchangeable lenses on Compur type shutters the systems were messy compared to Leica's focal plane shutter which was what was adopted when the SLR came along.

What I am talking about is a book in English which covers the whole field and explains how 35mm became a norm. Most texts just say something like 35mm entered stills photography in 1925 with the introduction of the Leica, but then they stop. There was still a long way to go in 1925. 

The shutter types would be one of several parts of this story. I have a copy of that book by Gustavson, who had worked for Kodak. I bought it mainly for its description of the progression of cameras and camera technology in the 19th Century. It wanders around the place a bit on the 20th Century, but does not quite cover what I am talking about. 

William 

 

[zeitz]

18 minutes ago, willeica said:

I will seek out that 35mm book.

I don't think you will learn anything new from this book, William.

 

19 minutes ago, willeica said:

I have a copy of that book by Gustavson, who had worked for Kodak. I bought it mainly for its description of the progression of cameras and camera technology in the 19th Century.

In this regard, your best option might be to visit Rochester, NY, the next time you come to North America.  The George Eastman House has over 17,000 items in its collection.  While the collection is not accessible to the casual visitor, access can be arranged by contacting the Technology Collection curator.  Discussions with the Technology Collection staff may be very interesting.  Documentation of the relationship with Nagel leading to the Retina cameras and the origin of the standard 35mm cartridge must certainly be in the archives.

Technology Collection
Wednesday–Friday, 10 a.m.–12 p.m., 1–4 p.m.
techstudycenter@eastman.org or fill out a research request form. 
(585) 327-4968

[wlaidlaw]

The folk at the George Eastman Centre are very helpful. I contacted them as I have a very large cardboard box of assorted unused flash bulbs, which I bought from a California Photo shop that was closing down. A lot of them are loose so although I have the type number stencilled onto the bulb, I don't have any data for them. Most are small metal cap type to fit the Leica CEYOO, Graflash small socket and Rolleiflash, etc, with a few of the later capless bulbs (when I say a few, I mean a hundred or so, compared with the thousand+ of the other types). I asked Kodak if they had some data charts of flash bulb flash number data. They emailed me pages of data along with some reprints from their Image magazine, giving the history of flash photography, which for interest I attach hereto. They said I was welcome to pass this on to other interested parties. 

Wilson

GEH_1955_04_07.pdf

[zeitz]

22 minutes ago, wlaidlaw said:

George Eastman Centre are very helpful

The George Eastman House / Museum is very professionally run.  9,010 of the 17,000 items are cataloged online.  Some of the online items have photographs.  Todd Gustavson is the curator of the Technology Collection.

[willeica]

2 hours ago, zeitz said:

I don't think you will learn anything new from this book, William.

I put in an order, anyway.  

I have the two books shown below, but they are completely in German and are largely made up from advertising material. The number of different models made in Germany during those years is staggering. We tend to think here it was Leica and some others, but the 'some others' amount to a huge number of makes and models.

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William 

Edited July 18, 2022 by willeica

[wlaidlaw]

I wonder if Telma was the same Telma which became known for the Telma Electric Retarder, to enable heavy trucks to descend Alpine passes safely, without burning out their friction brakes. 

Wilson

[zeitz]

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1 hour ago, willeica said:

The number of different models made in Germany during those years is staggering.

The number of different models made by Zeiss Ikon in Germany during those years is staggering.  And it became their eventual downfall when Zeiss Ikon was really competing with itself with overlapping products.

I know it is hard to find, but you really need to track down a copy of Lawrence Gubas' Zeiss and Photography.  You can't understand the German camera industry without understanding the Zeiss Foundation.  There is one copy of the book on E-bay at a reasonable price right now.

[Matlock]

A fair amount of mention has been made of Nagel on this post. Perhaps the Kodak Instamatic Reflex illustrates Nagel’s (Kodak AG) swansong as it was only made for a couple of years and was, I believe, the last Kodak camera produced by Kodak AG. Back in 1973 I bought one. I had mostly used Rolleiflex 6x6 before that and I was quite impressed in spite of the limitations of the 126 format. However about that time I started to help out in a local camera shop which was an agent for Konica and I traded up to a Konica Autoreflex TC. (Incidentally the owner of the shop lent me a Leica IIIc and the rest is history as I was hooked). A couple of years ago I had the chance to buy a nearly mint Instamatic Reflex but, of course, film is hard to come by and the original Mercury batteries are no longer available. The battery problem was cured by inserting one CR2032 battery and 3 1p coins in one battery slot and 4 1p coins in the other. I have several out of date films so I have something to keep me out of mischief for the next few months.

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[pgk]

48 minutes ago, Matlock said:

..... and I was quite impressed in spite of the limitations of the 126 format.

If my memory serves me correctly, the main problem was the lack of film flatness?

[wlaidlaw]

There are 126 cartridge converters to use 35mm film but of course you really need a darkroom to load the film. I have tried using a changing bag to load the 70mm film cartridges for my Combat Graflex and the KOOBF cassettes for my Leica 250FF reporter and it is close to impossible, even using the AFLOO winder for the KOOBF cassettes. Somehow the 10 metres of 35mm film always gets in tangles. 

Wilson

[Matlock]

40 minutes ago, pgk said:

If my memory serves me correctly, the main problem was the lack of film flatness?

Yes, quite OK for small prints but any enlargement soon shows the shortcomings.

[LocalHero1953]

I’m in Arles at the moment, for the photo festival. There’s a lovely shop here "La Valise Arlesienne” that specialises in old and large format cameras. There’s a beautiful wooden Gaumont 9x12 set, in excellent condition, complete with three wooden double film holders. I have to decide by the end of Wednesday if I’m tempted enough. 

[wlaidlaw]

56 minutes ago, LocalHero1953 said:

I’m in Arles at the moment, for the photo festival. There’s a lovely shop here "La Valise Arlesienne” that specialises in old and large format cameras. There’s a beautiful wooden Gaumont 9x12 set, in excellent condition, complete with three wooden double film holders. I have to decide by the end of Wednesday if I’m tempted enough. 

I have been tempted on a number of occasions at that shop but then I remind myself I don't have a darkroom, which really is an essential for large format. Even medium format is a challenge, as my Rondinax 120 daylight tank does not strip off the backing paper very well. Its peeler blade had corroded slightly. I have cleaned off the corrosion with a cotton bud and hydrochloric acid then neutralised with baking soda but resharpening it with an India slip stone has been less successful. 

Wilson

[LocalHero1953]

43 minutes ago, wlaidlaw said:

I have been tempted on a number of occasions at that shop but then I remind myself I don't have a darkroom, which really is an essential for large format. Even medium format is a challenge, as my Rondinax 120 daylight tank does not strip off the backing paper very well. Its peeler blade had corroded slightly. I have cleaned off the corrosion with a cotton bud and hydrochloric acid then neutralised with baking soda but resharpening it with an India slip stone has been less successful. 

Wilson

I don't have a darkroom either, but have compromised on just developing and then scanning.

It looks like a great shop, and the owner is good to talk to. I could have spent more time there looking over his stock. He had a display in the blind alcove opposite - just for the Rencontres de la Photographie, I guess.

 

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[thomas_schertel]

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[nitroplait]

A friendly online acquaintance in the Netherlands, offered to bring this Contax IIIa back to life (It would only trip the shutter when held upside down and the slow speeds were all firing at the same speed).

He succeeded and I can now use the 50mm 1:1.5 Sonnar with film. I am waiting for an adapter to use the lens on a mirrorless digital camera to arrive, but film is just more fun.

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[wlaidlaw]

Does he repair Contaxes generally? Quite a lot of us Leica Owners/Collectors also have one or more Contaxes and good Contax repairers who don't use Kiev parts or are terminally rude to their customers, are rarer than rocking horse pucky. If he/she will repair anyone's Contax, would you please post his contact details in the Repairers sticky thread in The Collectors and Historica Section of this forum. 

Wilson

[nitroplait]

14 hours ago, wlaidlaw said:

Does he repair Contaxes generally? Quite a lot of us Leica Owners/Collectors also have one or more Contaxes and good Contax repairers who don't use Kiev parts or are terminally rude to their customers, are rarer than rocking horse pucky. If he/she will repair anyone's Contax, would you please post his contact details in the Repairers sticky thread in The Collectors and Historica Section of this forum. 

Wilson

Hey Wilson. He's a hobbyist with a day job, a regular at photo.net who reached out to me due to a post I made. 

He explicitly noted that he doesn't normally work on other peoples cameras.

Edited July 30, 2022 by nitroplait

[wlaidlaw]

2 hours ago, nitroplait said:

Hey Wilson. He's a hobbyist with a day job, a regular at photo.net who reached out to me due to a post I made. 

He explicitly noted that he doesn't normally work on other peoples cameras.

That is what I feared. Someone like Alan Starkie of Cameraworks UK, could I believe, repair Contaxes if he chose, but given the volume of Leica work he has, would probably choose not to. He did do a complete rebuild of my 70mm film Combat Graflex, which is like a giant Contax (Hubert Nerwin was involved with both cameras, Contax on the design side and on the Combat, productionising of John Maurer's original design for Graflex) but that was very much a one off job. The other issue with Contax repairs, similar to the current situation with Leica, is spare parts. Contax because they have not been made for years and Leica because Leica will no longer sell spares to third party repairers, which I think is short sighted and shooting themselves in the foot. I understand that some Kiev parts can be massaged to fit Contaxes and some can't. The skill is in knowing which is which.

I was lucky in that I got a repairer in the USA who had been trained by and worked for Zeiss USA, to service my Contax IIa Colour Dial, just before he retired. However my Contax is a shelf queen, because my elderly, fossilised brain cannot cope with the "wrong way round" focusing, after 65+ years of focusing Leicas. My father came to the same conclusion with this same Contax, as he had been using Leicas since the mid 1930's. So from being bought new in 1954 by him, I doubt if it has had more than 10 rolls of film through it. 

Wilson

 

 

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[pgk]

25 minutes ago, wlaidlaw said:

That is what I feared.

You could try https://www.newtonellis.com who will work on old stuff. They serviced an 1894 TTH lens with a near seized diaphragm for me and it works perfectly now.