Did Leica ever make an oscilloscope camera?

[wlaidlaw]

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Did Leica ever make an oscilloscope camera? I know one could use an LTM or M camera with a specialist lens such as the Wollensak Oscillo-Raptar 3"/75mm but given their history of making specialist and laboratory equipment, I would be surprised if they left this field wholly to other companies. Probably the best known seller of oscilloscope cameras in the 1960s and 70s, was Hewlett Packard, with their 19x series of cameras, which I believe used Polaroid instant film. Before the advent of modern electronics, with solid state memory capable of memorising and storing oscilloscope traces, a camera was the only means of recording the traces. This became particularly important during WW2 in the development of the trigger mechanisms for nuclear weapons, where near perfect synchronicity was essential. I suppose the MD series of film cameras, could have been used with an appropriate close focus lens, but I was thinking of something more specialised than that. 

Wilson

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[Anbaric]

Apart from those using instant film, is there any particular feature than an oscilloscope camera had to have? I suppose if the camera is just a box with film and a shutter, then any Leica would do with an appropriate lens and positioning gadget, and the non-rangefinder models like the MD would be the most appropriate (they were of course widely adapted for other technical purposes). I wonder what setup the RAF used to photograph onboard radar screens with Leicas during WW2 (which is more or less the same problem)?

[wlaidlaw]

I think accurate focusing is probably the most difficult thing to overcome. Even Hewlett Packard did not solve this until their final model 198A of around 1969, which used a pair of convergent focus mirrors together with a simple rack, which moved the entire innards of a Polaroid type 40 camera backwards and forwards inside the boxy housing. Using Polaroid film had the advantage of a film with 10,000 ISO/ASA speed rating in the 1960s, which would have been difficult to find before the release of Kodak's T-Max 3200 in 1988, which can be pushed at least 4 stops or more. 

Wilson

[gbpost]

I used Kodak Recording 2475 film with (at that time) very high ISO speeds in the late seventies for street photography at night. I wonder, when this film was introduced and if one intended usage might be oscilloscope photography.

However im my lab time I only used cameras for Polaroid film made by HP or maybe Tectronix, together with their osciloscopes. They may be fixed focus as I dont remember focusing. I pressed the camera against the oscilloscope and pressed the shutter.

[wlaidlaw]

Kodak Recording 2475 film had an ISO rating of 1250, a fair way from the 10,000 of the Polaroid film packs. It is also even grainer than the recently deceased TX-3200. I think I have two or three rolls of TX3200 left. I think Lomography offer some packs of 2475 but I suspect it is way out of date. That is the problem I have with 70mm film, where the last people making it were Rollei until this year, for a 400 ISO extended red sensitivity film at very reasonable price for a 50M bulk can (around €70) and Ilford who charged an exorbitant £250 for a 50M can of HP5. All the other offerings, Kodak Aero Ektachrome, Agfa Aero and Gevaert Aero, are many years out of date. As a result my Combat Graflex is a shelf queen. 

Wilson

 

[Anbaric]

We used to do a lot of close-focus black and white polaroid in the lab, in the days before digital. We took shots of DNA gels after electrophoresis, using dyes that fluoresced in the visible range on a UV lightbox. There was no need to focus - the camera was mounted on a rigid hood that you placed on the lightbox, which determined the focus distance, so it was very easy to use. I think the cheaper film packs only gave us positives, but there was another version with a peel-apart negative you could use to make contact prints.