what 90mm lens did HCB use

[williamj]

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3 hours ago, 105012 said:

There are no pictures in the book with ISBN 9781597113922, however there is quite a bit of discussion of his lens choices, for example:

The 1.5 here is the Nikkor. It is important to note that this was from one moment in his career, later HCB preferred the Summicron Collapsible (v1) and used many others...

Thank you very much for sending that snippet. It means if we want to copy HCB, a Barnack camera with an Elmar f3.5 and a VIDOM is all we need

The quote is really interesting, firstly because that's the first reference to a 135mm that I've seen, any reference to a short telephoto has been to a 90mm.

Secondly, HCB seems to echo Max Berek with regards to the Elmar f/3.5 see the Berek interview on the Barnack Berek blog -> https://gmpphoto.blogspot.com/2019/10/an-interview-with-max-berek.html

As far as I know the 50mm f/1.5 from Nikon was also bought by David Douglas Duncan and there is a getty images photo of Robert Doisneau with a Leica IIIF? in a half case with the later Nikon f/1.4. This seems to be the time that Leica (and Zeiss) was under pressure from Nikon.

I'd say maybe half the photos on the web have HCB with a Leica M and the summicron v1. I guess by that time it wasn't so important for him to avoid having his photo taken :). Cheers.

[octo]

On 12/19/2022 at 9:03 PM, Shac said:

Hi William - here's another lens to add to your list. According to Richard L. Simon's (ca. 1952) interview with HCB,  at that time he was also using a Nikkor 50mm f 1.5. Probably very hard to find given that it was introduced in 1950 and discontinued the same year!

I have been using this lens on my IIIg since 1980; I like it because of its history but I must say I find it quite soft. Good luck in your research!

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[willeica]

You'll need a silver I Model A if you are going to match HCB. With a I Mod A the camera comes with the lens or vice versa 🙃

Another coup would be to get the cup in this one, to match the set he is holding.

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On a more serious note, does the Fondation HCB not have any other cameras/lenses of his apart from the silver I Model A?

William 

[Giuliobigazzi]

I wanted to find out about his early cameras so I asked the foundation recently , and was told only his first camera is in the collection and info of the others is not available. 

[williamj]

On 1/1/2023 at 8:05 AM, Giuliobigazzi said:

I wanted to find out about his early cameras so I asked the foundation recently , and was told only his first camera is in the collection and info of the others is not available. 

This must be the camera referred to in his biography as being locked in a safe, and one may speculate that it was the camera that was buried during the Second World War. Thanks for confirming that the foundation has only this one of the cameras that he possessed. 

[williamj]

On 1/1/2023 at 7:43 AM, willeica said:

You'll need a silver I Model A if you are going to match HCB. With a I Mod A the camera comes with the lens or vice versa 🙃

Another coup would be to get the cup in this one, to match the set he is holding.

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

On a more serious note, does the Fondation HCB not have any other cameras/lenses of his apart from the silver I Model A?

William 

Oh I have no illusions about being like HCB. If you’ve ever seen footage of Diego Maradona warming up you’ll know ordinary mortals need not apply. 
 

I received a VIDOM on Friday and that’s a humbling and disorientating experience but I’m sure I’ll get used to it. That’s the official start of the collection. Although I have a DS M3, a Summaron-RF f/2.8 (cf above) and a IIIF, they were not purchased with the collection in mind. 

[willeica]

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9 hours ago, williamj said:

If you’ve ever seen footage of Diego Maradona warming up you’ll know ordinary mortals need not apply. 
 

If you've seen footage of HCB on tiptoe circling around a target, with a prefocussed Leica hidden behind his wrist, awaiting the 'decisive moment', you will have seen the equivalent of that. Which brings me to the important point. It was his mind and his eyes that created his images. His cameras and lenses were but tools which he used to achieve what his mind and eyes saw. But, you already know that 😇

William 

[williamj]

I have indeed seen some footage of HCB and read eye witness descriptions of his actions including presetting the camera. It seems completely fearless and uninhibited.

He said that phrase often, about mind and eyes and heart making photographs and that people spend too much time talking about technical detail. I'm just a fan and it helps me to understand his work by using the same or similar equipment. So far I've learnt that this equipment forces you away from the image in the viewfinder, because what is in the viewfinder is not pretty or seductive, it's just data to line up your equipment and frame the scene.

[pgk]

On 12/31/2022 at 9:43 PM, willeica said:

 

Another coup would be to get the cup in this one, to match the set he is holding.

Is that a crack in it I see? If so it looks like patina extended to other stuff he used besides cameras😉.

[willeica]

Just now, pgk said:

Is that a crack in it I see? If so it looks like patina extended to other stuff he used besides cameras😉.

At the Wetzlar auction in 2014, which I attended, a print of that photo was being sold, but the cup seems not to have been included in the lot😀. When it comes to value, provenance is king as was demonstrated by Barnack’s No 105 World Record price last June. Some years ago, Westlicht (now Leitz) sold a IIIa kit which may or may not have been used by Eisenstaedt to take the famous sailor kissing a nurse in Times Square NYC photo on VJ Day. A copy of a photo came with the kit. It sold for about €100,000. I have the exact same kit which probably cost me about €400. The difference in price is due to the provenance.

My good friend Jim Lager has a photo which he took of Eisenstaedt photographing him when he went to the photographer’s apartment to photograph some of the cameras which he had. Eisenstaedt was using a rare M3 which he had been given by Leica. I have heard stories about what happened to that camera after his death.

William 

[jpattison]

23 hours ago, willeica said:

 

My good friend Jim Lager has a photo which he took of Eisenstaedt photographing him when he went to the photographer’s apartment to photograph some of the cameras which he had. Eisenstaedt was using a rare M3 which he had been given by Leica. I have heard stories about what happened to that camera after his death.

William 

Do tell...

[luigi bertolotti]

Eisenstaedt got the M3 1.000.001 (https://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/companies/Leica/Leica-M3/M3E1-Lars/index5.htm ) and also the one marked by factory as M3 E-1 which was indeed a sort of MP,,, iirc, was auctioned with due emphasis some years ago.

 

[thrid]

On 12/31/2022 at 2:05 PM, Giuliobigazzi said:

I wanted to find out about his early cameras so I asked the foundation recently , and was told only his first camera is in the collection and info of the others is not available. 

I recall reading somewhere that HCB gave Koudelka one of his M bodies, after he got out of Hungary.

[williamj]

HCB also gave Inge Morath the black paint M3-993659 and presumably the accompanying black 50 Summicron Rigid, the camera in the photo at post 23 above, which I understand is the camera Lenny Kravitz has been seen with.

He also gave an M3 camera to William Klein SN unknown as shown in the William Klein documentary but on the web in one place it is said the camera was a IIIf [?], an M3 serial number unknown to Patricio Estay, and M6-1691623 without framelines for 75mm and 135 mm to Yves Maxence along with a 50mm Summicron v1 and the 35 8e Summicron v1.

According to Henny Hoogeveen HCB received M3-700999 from Leitz. He received M3-750000 at the Biennale de Photographe in Paris. According to the Westlich auction of 23 May 2014 dealing with the Abbas rangefinders it is stated that Abbas, Depardon and Cartier-Bresson had M4 cameras with M3 viewfinders.

What happened to the Minox or the Leica CL he was photographed using in the 1970s appears to be unrecorded on the internet. All of these cameras have likely moved on and some may not be recorded as having been used by HCB. Apart from the SN for the I Model A at the HCB foundation none of the SN for the Barnack cameras are in the public domain that I can see. He had a black IIIg although it is sometimes stated that the black IIIg were only made for the Swedish military.

Add more if you know of other cameras.

[Giuliobigazzi]

I’m guessing that anything pre war like this model d are lost, seen as he supposedly buried his model A in order to ensure it’s survival.. I have read that he bought his cameras from Tiranty in Paris, his first model A in 1931 and this model D in 1932/33

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[Giuliobigazzi]

The camera in this shoot could be a ii or iii actually, hard to see if there is a slow speed dial. I wonder if the lens is an Elmar 35 or a collapsed 50

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[williamj]

I think the lens in post #35 is a 35 Elmar f/3.5 because he is using the camera and it is not extended. The lens in post #36 looks the same as in post #35. 

[willeica]

On 1/4/2023 at 8:52 AM, williamj said:

I think the lens in post #35 is a 35 Elmar f/3.5 because he is using the camera and it is not extended. The lens in post #36 looks the same as in post #35. 

And he is using a VIDOM which has a 35mm setting.

William  

[williamj]

Yes, exactly.

Looking at those two photos in detail we see the VIDOM is set to 4-5 m parallax correction. This seems to be his sweet spot if the pink dot on his copy of the 35 Summicron v1 is anything to go on.

The second photo shows a long leather case for what I presume is a 90 mm lens, the holy grail of this thread. Does such a leather case suggest to anyone what the 90 mm lens was, would it be an Elmar f/4.0?

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[frame-it]

 

On 1/1/2023 at 6:43 AM, willeica said:

On a more serious note, does the Fondation HCB not have any other cameras/lenses of his apart from the silver I Model A?

William 

at an exhibit organized by the HCB foundation i saw this one, dont know the model

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Edited January 5, 2023 by frame-it