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Post by conan on Aug 24, 2017 1:32:28 GMT -5
Exakta Varex IIb and RTL1000 with some lenses, (all Zeiss, strange isn't it:-) IMG_2039a by Hans de Groot, on Flickr Hansz if you had anything but Zeiss lenses on your German cameras you would probably have been unceremoniously thrown out from the Zeiss Historica Society and also hung drawn and quartered.
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Post by conan on Aug 24, 2017 1:35:28 GMT -5
To me 1959 was the year in wich the 35mm slr became mature in the form of the Nikon F. There was little before it that was as well developed. The Japanese from then on took over the leading role in camera development. Maybe if Germany wasn't devided in East and West things might have gone differently. The Nikon F with plain prism as it was introduced in 1959 The body was but not that lens. Only dummy non-working bits of metal and glass were used for some publicity shots. The early 1.4 were 58mm and were not commercially available until the end of 1959. The 50/1.4 was not available until 1962. You might have to settle like I did with my display - a 50/2 to show what the mighty F was like at its March 1959 release. I have been greatly enjoying all your 3d shots but the Nikon F is in 2d - argh……………..
Your 3d stuff is interesting because knowingly or was in unknowingly? You charted the beginnings of The Pentax and Olympus demise in the 35mm market
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Post by conan on Aug 24, 2017 1:38:18 GMT -5
Great old cameras! Actually Leitz had early designs in 1953 and 1954 for an SLR, the problem was the Leica body was too small to accommodate a proper mirror box and Leitz decided they need a bigger body design. At this stage Nikon and Zeiss and Leica were wedded to the rangefinder design and Leitz were even more conservative than the others. Leitz design was similar to the Russian designs which used the LTM body but provided a dreadful viewing image with their tiny mirrors and small lenses and since Leitz were about to release the M3 with the best viewing system on the market their SLR designs took far longer. In fact, the trade comment about the Leica flex when it was released in 1964 was that it bore no family resemblance to any Leica. Nikon had a far bigger body design and their first working prototypes in 1955 were based on the S2 body which they considered was too small for the mirror box. With the SP development Nikon had all the mechanics sorted out but they still need to add a few millimetres to the F body to get sufficient mirror size.
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Post by belgiumreporter on Aug 24, 2017 6:23:40 GMT -5
To me 1959 was the year in wich the 35mm slr became mature in the form of the Nikon F. There was little before it that was as well developed. The Japanese from then on took over the leading role in camera development. Maybe if Germany wasn't devided in East and West things might have gone differently. The Nikon F with plain prism as it was introduced in 1959 The body was but not that lens. Only dummy non-working bits of metal and glass were used for some publicity shots. The early 1.4 were 58mm and were not commercially available until the end of 1959. The 50/1.4 was not available until 1962. You might have to settle like I did with my display - a 50/2 to show what the mighty F was like at its March 1959 release. I have been greatly enjoying all your 3d shots but the Nikon F is in 2d - argh……………..
Your 3d stuff is interesting because knowingly or was in unknowingly? You charted the beginnings of The Pentax and Olympus demise in the 35mm market
Here you go conan, the F with apropriate 50mm 1:2, it's the oldest 50mm i've got but if i'm correct the 1959 version on the F would have been a 5cm 1:2 Nikkor. Sadly those early Nikkors with focal lenghts in cm rather than mm are as rare as hens teeth and not available for a simple mortal like me Anyway because i also haven't got a 1959 F the one in this pic is a 1962 model (close enough?), so the 1:1.4 in the previous pic could be the correct match. About the charting of the rise and fall of Olympus and Pentax, it did come to mind so not completely oblivious on what i've documented, still looking after some missing links though... PS, for your viewing pleasure this one is in anaglyph 3D.
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Post by conan on Aug 24, 2017 14:49:12 GMT -5
The body was but not that lens. Only dummy non-working bits of metal and glass were used for some publicity shots. The early 1.4 were 58mm and were not commercially available until the end of 1959. The 50/1.4 was not available until 1962. You might have to settle like I did with my display - a 50/2 to show what the mighty F was like at its March 1959 release. I have been greatly enjoying all your 3d shots but the Nikon F is in 2d - argh……………..
Your 3d stuff is interesting because knowingly or was in unknowingly? You charted the beginnings of The Pentax and Olympus demise in the 35mm market
Here you go conan, the F with apropriate 50mm 1:2, it's the oldest 50mm i've got but if i'm correct the 1959 version on the F would have been a 5cm 1:2 Nikkor. Sadly those early Nikkors with focal lenghts in cm rather than mm are as rare as hens teeth and not available for a simple mortal like me Anyway because i also haven't got a 1959 F the one in this pic is a 1962 model (close enough?), so the 1:1.4 in the previous pic could be the correct match. About the charting of the rise and fall of Olympus and Pentax, it did come to mind so not completely oblivious on what i've documented, still looking after some missing links though... PS, for your viewing pleasure this one is in anaglyph 3D. What missing links are you after? You Europeans have an advantage with availability of the German stuff but not early Japanese since they really didn’t start on Europe till the 1960’s. Down under the early Japanese cameras are more readily available since Australia was getting them at the same time as North America. You are right those early tick Nikkors are as rare as hen’s teeth and priced accordingly I display my SRLRS in date they were available order and like you my earliest F is a 1962 but it goes on the 1959 line up to show what was available then I think that many people do not quite understand quite why the F was so significant. The best from Japan was better than the best from Germany and that EPOI and some professionals in America and Japan were letting Nikon know what they wanted in a camera (and Nikon was listening) rather than Zeiss designers and management pandering to their own ideas of what they thought professionals should buy. It is amazing to think that the original Contarex design did not have an instant return mirror and this was only added to the design for the handmade prototypes for the Photokina of 1958. A design change that was to cause all sorts of later problems with spring tensions in the shutter and mirror. To be a little fairer to Zeiss – they were so tied up with leaf shutters and their control of the manufacturers of them that horizontal focal plane shutters and their desire not to licence any Leica patents led much of their development in the wrong direction. Thanks for the anaglyph of the F. The F was a hockey puck, hammer and nutcracker. It was also at one stage the ultimate SLR tool.
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Post by belgiumreporter on Aug 25, 2017 3:12:02 GMT -5
These are a few of my missing links: Topcon super Dm, Minolta Sr2,Pentax ES,Miranda automex,Olympus Om 3-4,Nikon F3 press-AF...some of these are very expensive and maybe will never be added to the collection, others i'll probably will stumble upon one day and then another gap will be filled. The fact that Japanese cameras weren't (officialy) imported in Europe before 1960 could explain why i had to buy my 1959 Canonflex at an Australian Ebay auction, as i never came across one here in Belgium, the later model RM could be found in our region. On the whole early Japanese slr's (when they pop up) command rather high prices, German gear is indeed cheaper over here, but exept for Exaktas i have little interest in them (leave that to Hansz). Next month the Antwerp camera fair will be held once more, it's never predictable what one might find there, so i'm saving up a bit of my money "just in case" When i mentionned the fair to my wife she just "coldly" asked: why are you going there? we can hold a fair of our own.
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Post by paulhofseth on Aug 27, 2017 15:13:18 GMT -5
Further to the comment above on Leica. They did sort of establish a mirror-reflex version albeit a modular one.
The Visoflex mirror box had a large mirror and a very bright prism as well as a direct view "chimney". For macros and long lenses this was considered sufficient -and the compactness of the "Barnack" was maintained.
p.
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Post by belgiumreporter on Sept 12, 2017 5:15:24 GMT -5
Another addition to my pre-'59 collection is this Miranda A it's of 1957 vintage and is the first? (Miranda) 35mm slr with thumb lever film wind and crank rewind.
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Post by belgiumreporter on Sept 12, 2017 5:39:04 GMT -5
With The miranda A came this intriguing soligor Wide 35mm 1:3.5 in M44 mount.It looks like a small fish-eye lens with its large front element and small body and i suppose this design was necessary on a "widangle" slr type lens back then as the retro-focus design wasn't very common and only since 1952 used by Angénieux to solve the problem of short focal lenghts used on cameras with a mirror box. It's my guess this lens pre-dates the A and was maybe designed for even earlier Miranda models. My search for it on google led to nothing, so if anyone can tell me more about it i would be very interested. The serial number on this lens is Y222. Edit: further research has learned me this is indeed a 1957 lens most likely produced only for one year. It is (probably) the first Japanese retrofocus design lens and made by Fujita, but sold under diffrent brand names ( Sears, Soligor,...) It was available in diffrent mounts, among them Exacta, Miranda and maybe M42. Performance isn't bad but not up to takumar standards.
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Post by belgiumreporter on Oct 16, 2017 7:47:52 GMT -5
Another early slr came to join the collection, its the 1958 Wirgin Edixa-Flex type A. this early type has exept for its interchangeable viewfinders little special features. It is a well made (West) German camera with a nice bright viewfinder with wich i found it remarkably easy to focus even on the plain matte screen and with the 2.8 aperture lens. Operation (even after all these years) is smooth and evrything works well. changing the prism is a bit awkward as you need three hands to do so. The 50mm 1:2.8 Steinhell Cassar S is an interesting lens wich i will be testing on digital one of these days.
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Post by paulhofseth on Oct 18, 2017 6:44:57 GMT -5
The small bayonet Alpa also came quite early in the evolution of SLRs.
I have given up on posting snaps here since the procedure is rather complicated with loading up on some other site. If it becomes possible to post directly I will follow up with the appropriate illustrations.
p.
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Post by Rachel on Oct 29, 2017 5:36:46 GMT -5
Paul, you can post an image as an attachment which is fairly straight forward.
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Post by paulhofseth on Oct 31, 2017 15:43:46 GMT -5
The only buttons I could find require an URL. That needs storage somewhere else than on my private servers. I did not find an "attatchment"-buttton.
p.
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Post by Rachel on Nov 1, 2017 4:50:55 GMT -5
Click Reply to get the Create Post window and you will see Add Attachment in the top right hand corner.
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jpp
Contributing Member
Posts: 47
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Post by jpp on Nov 1, 2017 15:12:31 GMT -5
Click Reply to get the Create Post window and you will see Add Attachment in the top right hand corner. A very good new ; I think I'll be more active from now on, I was still following , anonymously but Couldn't attach any pic if wanted...
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