[rollei_list] Re: Capa's Cameras
- From: Carlos Manuel Freaza <cmfreaza@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 25 Sep 2009 12:49:15 -0700 (PDT)
Marc, this is part of the article quoting New York Times, Life, US Army, etc.:
Encounter with "LIFE" Photographers
One day in June 1950, David Douglas DUNCAN, a staff photographer for "LIFE,"
Horace BRISTOL of "FORTUNE," and MIKI, Jun who was actively working at "LIFE"
as the only Japanese contract photographer there, visited our Ohi Plant.
In reference to their visit, MIKI wrote an article entitled "Nikkor and I" in
the "Nikkor Club Quarterly magazine No. 26" (issued on November 30, 1963), as
follows :
"......One day, Mr. MURAI, Ryuichi, a professional photographer came to LIFE to
see his friend.
As he had an unfamiliar lens, I asked him to show it. It was the Nikkor 85mmf/2
lens. I borrowed it and took snap shots of Mr. Duncan, saying, "This is
Japanese Sonnar."
"Oh, Japanese Sonnar. Where's a Japanese Cadillac ?" laughed he with a tone of
kidding the imitation paradise Japan.
I made an enlarged print of 8 x 10 in. (approx. 20 x 25 cm) from the negative
just taken, and I showed it to him, saying, "The picture is taken well even
with a Japanese Sonnar."
Upon looking the picture, his countenance changed at once. With taking out a
magnifier, "Amazing! It's very sharp ! Whose product is it ? Let's go to this
company right away. Contact them, please." said he in rapid succession......"
President NAGAOKA, Masao guided DUNCAN and BRISTOL who visited the Ohi Plant to
tour the factory by themselves. He explained "all lenses were very strictly
inspected one by one, and each lens had about the same degree of accuracy." In
the inspection room, they compared their Leitz and Zeiss lenses to that of
Nikkor, with the projection inspection equipment.
They praised, "The Nikkor is better than German lenses," and bought Nikkor
lenses for Leica.
When the Korean War broke out on the 25th of June, DUNCAN who was staying in
Japan went to the front line with two "Leica IIIc's" equipped with a NIKKOR-S.C
5cm f/1.5 and a NIKKOR-Q.C 13.5cm f/4 respectively.
A few days later, Carl MYDANS, who was famous as a photographer for "LIFE"
since its inauguration, was dispatched particularly to cover the Korean War.
MYDANS, pushed by DUNCAN"s rather forceful recommendation, visited our company,
and also bought Nikkor lenses for his favorite "Contax".
For this purpose, our company modified the range finder coupling section of the
"NIKKOR-P.C 8.5cm f/2" and the "NIKKOR-Q.C 13.5cm f/3.5" prototype lens for
"Contax" in July.
Later, he also changed his camera to Nikon.
DUNCAN and MYDANS took almost all of their pictures of the Korean War with
their Nikkor lenses. Numerous valuable pictures were carried in the pages of
"LIFE." and they won the "U.S. Camera Awards" of 1950 for those works.
Hank WALKER who came to Japan in place of DUNCAN, went to Korea with his camera
changed to a Nikon M, as well as Nikkor lenses.
In December, the Korean Peninsula changed to a place of severe cold, and the
temperature sometimes went down to -20 C.
While other cameras were frozen and didn't work, Nikon worked in good order and
recorded how severe battle was fought.
Consequently, based on the experiences of the "LIFE" photographers who covered
the Korean War, a Nikon with a black painted finish, designed to minimize light
reflects that could be observed by others, was made. This was the first black
colored Nikon body.
Evaluation by "New York Times"
Nikon and Nikkor used by DUNCUN and MYDANS in the Korean War evoked a big
response in the U.S.A.
The "New York Times" issue on December 10, 1950 carried the following article
by Jacob DESCHIN titled "JAPANESE CAMERA" which said that Nikon and Nikkor were
scrutinized by experts and approved for their excellence.
"The first post-war Japanese camera to attract serious attention in America has
created a sensation among magazines and press photographers following the
report by Life photographers in Korea that a Japanese 35mm camera and its
lenses had proved superior to the German cameras they had been using.
The camera is the Nikon, in general appearance a facsimile of the Contax but
combining important features of both the Contax and the Leica plus some
innovations.
The lenses, which include a full range of focal lengths are Nikkor, to which
American experts give a higher accuracy rating than the lenses available for
the German manufactures.
On the strength of the enthusiasm expressed by its photographers in Korea, Life
arranged for a thorough examination of the cameras and lenses by experts here,
and after the equipment had been approved by them, proceeded to canvass the
magazines staff with the result that a considerable quantity will be ordered.
Look magazine photographers also are buying some of the Japanese equipment."
In this article, the same paper reported the results of lens examination as
follows :
"Mitch Bogdanovitch of Eastern Optical Company, the lens expert, put the
Nikkors through a series of rigid test and found that the average quality was
much higher than that of the German lenses.
"The lenses are highly accurate and efficient," he reports "and by comparison
with German lenses more uniform in quality."
He praised especially the 50mm f/1.4 and the 135mm f/3.5 for their resolving
power and minimum aberrational faults.
Frank Scherschel, chief of Life's photographic laboratories, said 50mm f/1.4
was sharper than Sonnar f/1.5."
"Martin Forscher, the export who examined the camera carefully as to mechanism,
quality of workmanship and appearance, described the Nikon as "a combination of
what I feel are the better components of the Leica and the Contax.".......
"In the past," he said, "Japanese cameras have looked nice on the outside but
on examining interior it was found they were crudely made and inefficient,
reflecting a low standard of craftsmanship.
The Nikons, however, are made to close tolerances of accuracy and are well
finished."......"
The letter from W. F. MARQUAT
Major General, U.S. Army
The effort to pursue and accumulate the technology over long years while
following our tradition of quality-first bore fruits and our technology
received a favorable reputation internationally.
On January 6, 1951, Major General W. F. MARQUAT, the Chief of Economic and
Scientific Section of GHQ sent a letter to President NAGAOKA, Masao and
encouraged our company.
"......It is gratifying to note that your company has been accorded world
recognition in a most difficult field which demands extensive scientific
knowledge and exceptional mechanical skill.
......The employees of Nippon Kogaku may take pride in making a substantial
contribution toward the rebuilding of the economy of their country."
--- El vie 25-sep-09, Marc James Small <marcsmall@xxxxxxxxxxx> escribió:
> De: Marc James Small <marcsmall@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> Asunto: [rollei_list] Re: Capa's Cameras
> Para: rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Fecha: viernes, 25 de septiembre de 2009, 4:19 pm
> At 02:58 PM 9/25/2009, Carlos Manuel
> Freaza wrote:
> >I was going to write an addedum to my post and read
> your message. I
> >forgot to add that the Life photographers compared the
> new Nikkor
> >lenses with their old, pre-war, worn-out German lenses
> used during the
> >WWII, new German lenses were not available at that time
> for differnet
> >reasons as you wrote, however the story is not bunk,
> Life
> >photographers believed Nikkor lenses were sharper than
> their old
> >German lenses, it was some years later that Duncan and
> others realized
> >they were comparing apples with oranges, I had no time
> to look for the
> >original article (I have it somewhere), however you can
> find these
> >documented comments in sites like these ones:
>
> Carlos
>
> This is absolutely, totally, completely false. The
> photo-editors both in the Tokyo and US offices refused to
> accept Japanese lenses and so instructed their
> photogs. The editors, of course, were still very
> unhappy with any miniature-format work and were trying to
> get the photogs to shoot with Speed Graphics or Rolleiflex
> TLR's. In any event, to gain permission, Carl Mydans
> arranged a cocked (faked) demo showing that the Japanese
> lenses were better than the German lenses then in short
> supply, and the photo editors gradually backed off.
> Having sworn on a stack of Bibles that the Japanese lenses
> were so very great, Duncan and his ilk could not later admit
> the truth and it has only come out over the past fifteen
> years.
>
> Again, an exact copy can never be better than the
> original. It can be the same, but never better.
> And the Japanese lenses were exact copies of German lenses,
> made using German optical glasses to German optical
> designs. The only improvement of any sort is that the
> Canon thefts of Leitz lenses were properly coated, while
> Leitz at the time was barred from using vacuum coatings by
> German patent laws and had to use soft drip coatings.
> The Japanese lenses in general had weaker mounts than Leitz
> or ZO lenses, by the way, as the Japanese had no access at
> all to quality steels though that would change before the
> Korean War had ended.
>
> The Japanese, especially Nikon, did redesign their lens
> line in the early 1950's and the lenses which appeared from
> 1954 onwards were better performers than Prewar German
> lenses though the Germans, in turn, had done the same with
> the Leitz Summicron and the reworked ZO/CZ lenses for the
> Contax.
>
> Japanese "superiority" is a tale of theft reminiscent of
> the eruption of Voigtländer as a major optical house
> through its stealing the Petzval lens and then skipping town
> in the middle of the night to avoid paying royalties.
> The Japanese went one better as they also stole the Zeiss
> vacuum-coating technology. And the Japanese not only
> never paid a single yen in royalties but they also never
> have admitted their inherent dishonesty. At least
> Voigtänder acknowledged their misdeed long after Petzval
> had died.
>
> Marc
>
>
>
>
> msmall@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> Cha robh bàs fir gun ghràs fir!
>
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