Tag Archives: Leitz

stretching it

Posted on January 22, 2020 by Robert

Toronto. In 1951, Leitz offered a Universal Focussing Bellows (Bellows I). This bellows worked with the 13.5cm lens head and Visoflex mirror box to make photographs from infinity down to 1:1. A 5cm lens head and the focoslide focussed from … Continue reading →

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no direction home

Posted on December 19, 2019 by Robert

Toronto. The c1937 sub miniature camera called the Compass is designed in the UK and made in Switzerland. It uses 35 mm film (cut or roll) in a full frame format. The design is the opposite of the 35mm camera … Continue reading →

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another point of view

Posted on October 22, 2019 by Robert

Toronto.  The Reprovit IIa is a high end professional copy stand. The connector for the framing/focussing light can be exchanged for a visual right angle 5x magnifier for visual framing/focussing a 2D or 3D subject. This device is a PAMOO … Continue reading →

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copy that!

Posted on October 20, 2019 by Robert

Toronto. One of the tasks a serious photographer does is copy work. It can be a book, a photo, a camera, a lens, accessories, negatives, bugs, stamps, etc. When a great many items must be copied, a copy stand is … Continue reading →

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the long and the short of it

Posted on August 19, 2019 by Robert

Toronto. Those photographers wishing to get closer to their subject than their camera allowed had two choices: an auxiliary lens could be added to the front of the normal lens, or if the lens was interchangeable, the lens could be … Continue reading →

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making it big – making it better

Posted on August 5, 2019 by Robert

Toronto. We often hear that Leitz turned photography on its head with its revolutionary 35mm camera, the Leica. But then what? How could you make such tiny negatives into larger prints? Fortunately enlargers were around before the little marvel and … Continue reading →

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the good, the bad, and the ugly

Posted on July 29, 2019 by Robert

Toronto. When it comes to accessories for the Leica, the ZOOXY and its brethren are right up there as candidates for the ugly prize. The massive weighty thing is a focusing mount and extension tube that connects to an OOZAB … Continue reading →

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come a little bit closer…

Posted on July 16, 2019 by Robert

Toronto. …cried the Mexican girl in the ballad of the same name sung by Marty Robins back in the 1960s. The standard set by Leitz in its Leica lenses was a close-up distance of 1m or 39 inches. Spider legs … Continue reading →

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even educated fleas do it

Posted on July 13, 2019 by Robert

Toronto.   The title of this post is a line from a 1928 Cole Porter song (Let’s Do It). I first heard it in the 1950s on a Columbia LP of Noel Coward at the Desert Inn in Las Vegas. … Continue reading →

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New York in 1914 with the prototype Leica camera

Posted on July 2, 2019 by Robert

Toronto. On the eve of the Great War, the son and namesake of Ernst Leitz, Ernst Leitz II, arrived  in the Big Apple with the novel tiny ur-Leica created by Oskar Barnack. Leitz took a number of street scenes with … Continue reading →

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