Tag Archives: Elmar

reflections

Toronto. No, not the introspective kind you dream about on a cold winter’s day. I mean the kind that reduce image contrast and limit the number of lens elements used. At left I show two lenses for a film camera. … Continue reading

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a lens for all reasons

Toronto. When Leitz first marketed the Leica in the mid 1920s, it was an innovative success. By 1933 other makers had competing cameras out. The mighty Carl Zeiss organization not only marketed cameras, but their Tessar lens was a excellent … Continue reading

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the long and the short of it

Toronto. In the 1930s, Leitz sold a special short mount coded as COOED for the ELANG 9 cm f/4 Elmar lens head. This strange focusing mount and lens head were intended for use on the rotating focusing stage coded OORES … Continue reading

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hey, hey, hey, it’s fat Elmar

Toronto. In 1930, Leitz began marketing the tiny Leica with an interchangeable lens mount. According to Dennis Laney in his “Leica Collectors Guide” of September 1992, The medium telephoto 9 cm Elmar was one of the first three lenses added … Continue reading

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valau for money

Toronto. Leitz first introduced the Leica in the mid 1920s to keep employment up at their optical works in Wetzlar during extreme inflation in Germany. Bad timing as it turned out. A few years later, the dirty 30s hit with … Continue reading

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ringy thingy

Toronto. Leitz may have just as well used a variant of the early iPhone tag line: “There’s an app for that”, using, “There’s an acc (accessory) for that” instead. In the early years, Leitz made slip-on filters for the petite … Continue reading

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minicams and interchangeability

Toronto. The 35mm cameras were off and running in the late 1920s. Leitz touted their Leica as a precision camera and set out to compete with the physically far bigger cameras of the day, claiming that a small negative could … Continue reading

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making it big – making it better

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

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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close-ups with a Leica

Toronto. For many years Leitz made standard lenses for the Leica that focussed as close as a metre. Want to get closer? Too bad. This all changed in around 1927 when Leitz offered supplementary front lenses for its standard 50mm … Continue reading

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