Leica and focaslide for close-ups. Click image for advertisement.
Toronto. The makers of rangefinder cameras such as the Leica went to great lengths with accessories to allow the cameras to be used for any photographic project. On page 85 of the April 1951 Popular Photography magazine, Leitz NY ran an ad showing how the Leica could be used to photograph tiny objects so they appeared at much larger than life size in the photograph.
The advertisement’s set-up used the older style accessories available back in 1951. The ad was published about 3 years before the modern M series cameras were offered (beginning with the M3). In May, 2020, I did a post showing a closeup of a bead of plant fertilizer. I used a tiny Tessar lens with a Leitz bellows, a Leitz Visoflex mirror box, a digital camera, and some adaptors.
My thanks to my good friend George Dunbar for suggesting this advertisement from the days when minicam rangefinder cameras were gaining popularity over larger film size cameras. At the time, very few SLR models existed and rangefinder camera makers offered accessory ‘mirror boxes’, extension tubes, and bellows to allow closeup work.
Note: the post title is a riff on a song from the 1969 rock opera and 1975 film Tommy by The Who. I previously used the actual song name as a title (Tommy, can you hear me).
