100th Anniversary of the Decision to Make the Leitz Klein Film Kamera aka the Leica

[willeica]

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My article is here:

https://www.macfilos.com/2024/06/17/my-decision-is-final-we-will-take-the-risk-ernst-leitz-ii-in-june-1924/

William 

[Almizilero]

A very interesting read, thank you! Didn't know about the anniversary, but I was in Wetzlar at the “Barnack Point” yesterday. How fitting!

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[willeica]

5 hours ago, Almizilero said:

A very interesting read, thank you! Didn't know about the anniversary, but I was in Wetzlar at the “Barnack Point” yesterday. How fitting!

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I decided not to use this photograph as it was so well known. Ernst Leitz and Oskar Barnack occasionally went on holiday with the Ur-Leica. A lot of the negatives from those trips are in the Leica Archive. 

William 

[willeica]

Now available in German.

https://www.messsucherwelt.com/ich-entscheide-hiermit-es-wird-riskiert-vor-100-jahren-sagte-ernst-leitz-ii-einen-satz-der-die-fotografie-veraendern-sollte/

William 

[sandro]

Very nice and interesting, William! I am still somewhat puzzled how exactly the 'Test device' as you call it, was used by Barnack. Do you know the article Barnack published in the first issue of Die Leica, the journal edited by Curt Emmermann?

Lex

[willeica]

3 hours ago, sandro said:

Very nice and interesting, William! I am still somewhat puzzled how exactly the 'Test device' as you call it, was used by Barnack. Do you know the article Barnack published in the first issue of Die Leica, the journal edited by Curt Emmermann?

Lex

 Thanks Lex. You will understand why I stayed away from this in the article other than to note the existence of the device. You will recall that we had quite a bit of debate over the possible uses for this item when we visited the Archive last year. Jim Lager felt it was for testing film stock, but using a guillotine type shutter with a gravity speed of 1/40th in the period 1912-14 would seem to have been risky as regards accuracy, given that shutters with timing, including focal plane items, were around since the 1890s. I believe I have read somewhere that the device might also been used as a viewer as this type of thing had been around at least since the Kemper Kombi of the early 1890s. The Kemper camera also doubled as a graphoscope (viewer) through a removable door in the back. M875 also had a removable back door. I have read a number of theories about the uses of M875 which I cannot relate back to the Barnack/Emmermann piece. Can you say where that might have been pointing? I know that you can speak and read German.

William 

[zeitz]

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Why don't you include that Barnack proposed the camera to Zeiss when he worked for them?  He was turned down by Zeiss.  This certainly had an influence on him moving to Leitz.

[willeica]

34 minutes ago, zeitz said:

Why don't you include that Barnack proposed the camera to Zeiss when he worked for them?  He was turned down by Zeiss.  This certainly had an influence on him moving to Leitz.

I presume you read my article. This was meant to be a short piece to mark the centenary occasion, rather than an extended definitive treatise on the subject. I could have included this and many more bits and pieces, but the article might have come to 50 or a 100 pages if I did that.  Barnack had to be persuaded to make the jump from Zeiss to Leitz and was preparing to turn the offer down. History is full of such twists and turns, 'what ifs' and 'might have beens'.

William 

[beoon]

3 hours ago, zeitz said:

Why don't you include that Barnack proposed the camera to Zeiss when he worked for them?  He was turned down by Zeiss.  This certainly had an influence on him moving to Leitz.

I was aware that Zeiss turned down a camera by Oskar Barnack, are there any more details regarding this online etc?

Alan

Edited June 26, 2024 by beoon

[zeitz]

The only information I have found on the topic is in Lawrence Gubas' book Zeiss and Photography.  There are just two sentences, one at the bottom of page 97 and the other at the top of page 98.  The sentences are from a long letter from Dr Ernst Wandersleb to Dr Schomerus, dated 25 January 1946.  Rolf Fricke provided the translation of the original letter that is used by Gubas'.