Oskar, with a 'C' or a 'K'

[frame-it]

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[willeica]

17 hours ago, frame-it said:

Can anyone actually read his handwriting?

 

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I showed this to Lars Netopil and he was not familiar with it. As I anticipated, he asked about the source. Can you enlighten us?

10 hours ago, frame-it said:

 

 

Richter's book Oskar Barnack - From the Idea to the Leica - LHSA translation by Rolf Fricke- contains a lot of similar documents and material. This book should be owned by anyone with an interest in the early Leicas and their development by Barnack and his team. I'm not sure why these  are being posted here on the 'C' v 'K' thread, but they usefully point out Barnack's thoughts about the size parameters which he wanted for his camera design as it developed into a model with a built in rangefinder and interchangeable lenses. It is interesting that he advocates zone focus with the 3.5 cm and the use of a separate rangefinder for the 13.5cm, but all of these issues became resolved later with the development of coupled versions of those lenses. This was the early days and the development was largely based around a normal 50mm lens. A lot of the concepts about interchangeability and standard lenses were developed by Barnack and his team.  However, the earliest interchangeable lenses fitted to Leicas, using Meyer, Ross and Dallmeyer lenses, were done in the UK (some were done by London agent Sinclair) in the late 1920s rather than by Leitz in Wetzlar. I might start a thread about this sometime. I did a presentation to the Photographic Collectors Club of Great Britain about this some months ago and I have examples of the Ross and Dallmeyer lenses fitted to Leicas. Barnack and his team must have been aware of the 'British experiments'. As I have said before, Barnack was restless in the way that he developed his designs, but he operated to very strict standards as regards achieving the parameters that he wanted.

William 

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[frame-it]

16 minutes ago, willeica said:

I showed this to Lars Netopil and he was not familiar with it. As I anticipated, he asked about the source. Can you enlighten us?

i added those to show his handwriting

checked with my friend, this is the book:

Barnacks First Leica

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[willeica]

43 minutes ago, frame-it said:

i added those to show his handwriting

checked with my friend, this is the book:

Barnacks First Leica

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I have that book too and I have met Mr Kisselbach in Wetzlar. It is a very fine book. The other book, which I mentioned, probably goes closer to telling the whole story of the engineering of the Leica. There are many examples of Barnack’s writing around and he did use a ‘K’ for his work signature. What is probably more interesting than his signature was his personality and his constant search to improve his creations. Something of his personality comes through in the products which were created by himself and his team at Leitz. They were also very German products in the approach to their engineering and how decisions are made. A lot of that got carried through, even after Barnack’s death, but, while successful for a long period, this nearly led to Leica’s downfall, e.g. the initial reaction to the SLR. 

William