{"id":30715,"date":"2025-02-05T01:03:35","date_gmt":"2025-02-05T05:03:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/?p=30715"},"modified":"2025-02-01T01:42:08","modified_gmt":"2025-02-01T05:42:08","slug":"mirror-mirror-in-the-box","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/mirror-mirror-in-the-box\/","title":{"rendered":"mirror, mirror in the box"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

a Leitz mirror box Visoflex I (PLOOT) c1956 a few years before the thinner Visoflex II and III were released.<\/p><\/div>\n

Toronto<\/strong>. When the minicams arrived in the late 1920s, the fancier ones used a rangefinder for sharp focus of the chosen subject. A few years later, high end minicams like the Leitz Leica, Zeiss Contax, etc. \u00a0accepted interchangeable lenses.<\/p>\n

It soon became evident that a rangefinder worked great for wide angle to medium telephoto lenses – say up to 135mm. Beyond that (or for close-ups), a single lens reflex (SLR) worked better. The only one around in the 1930s was the famous Exakta (Exacta outside North America). There were other issues with the Exakta – below a normal to medium wide \u00a0focal length, complex lens designs were needed to clear the built-in mirror. Initially wide angle lenses were uncommon. Angenieux solved this problem with retro-focus designs and massive degrees of geometric distortion, very evident when the frame contains straight lines, the camera is tilted, etc.<\/p>\n

To make rangefinder cameras into SLRs some companies built both focussing aids into their cameras (eg the Alpa). In other cases, a mirror mechanism was built into an extension tube sitting between the camera body and a bellows (for close-up with lens heads, or normal photos for lenses with a focal length longer than a medium telephoto.<\/p>\n

Of course mirror boxes, interchangeable lenses, bellows, etc all became obsolete with zoom lenses and the digital era – especially smartphones. Visit our 2025 events to add these rare and wonderful accessories from the film era to your collection! \u00a0See the right hand sidebar for scheduled events. A post will be pinned to the front page of this site as we get closer to each event.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Toronto. When the minicams arrived in the late 1920s, the fancier ones used a rangefinder for sharp focus of the chosen subject. A few years later, high end minicams like the Leitz Leica, Zeiss Contax, etc. \u00a0accepted interchangeable lenses. It … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1944],"tags":[398,1797,2967],"class_list":["post-30715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","tag-camera","tag-mirror-box","tag-ploot"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30715"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30715\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30719,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30715\/revisions\/30719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phsc.ca\/camera\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}