[rollei_list] Re: Cooke Amotal and Fair-Trade Laws
- From: Peter J Nebergall <iusar4s@xxxxxxxx>
- To: rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 8 Sep 2005 17:25:45 -0500
Its a coated Amotal, f1.4. Looks so much like the coated 1.4 Nikon in
Leica Screw that I wonder if Cooke lenses were the basis for the
Nikons.....
PJ Nebergall
I saw a guidebook with a Reid, said it was sold with a CTH f2.2 as
standard....
On Thu, 08 Sep 2005 18:08:01 -0400 Marc James Small
<msmall@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
> At 09:34 AM 9/8/05 -0500, Peter J Nebergall wrote:
> >T&H lenses had some relation to Cooke. I have a Cooke Amotal in
> Leitz
> >screw.. that I suppose was once on a reid.
>
> I doubt that any LTM Cooke Amotal ever graced a Reid save in some
> sort of
> fit of absentmindedness.
>
> The Taylor, Taylor and Hobson f/2 2"Amotal was the standard lens on
> the
> abortive Bell & Howell Foton camera. When B&H pulled the plug, they
> had a
> stock of lenses on hand and promptly marketed them to some New York
> house,
> quite possibly Peerless, who shpped the lenses overseas to be fitted
> into
> mounts for regular 35mm cameras. The actual conversion was
> performed in
> Italy. This would have been around 1953.
>
> The US Fair Trade Laws of the era allowed the manufacturer to set
> the sales
> price on its products so long as they were sold with only
> factory-produced
> items. Thus, Leitz could dictate the sales price on, say, a IIIf
> camera if
> it were sold with a Leitz Elmar or Summitar lens. However, the
> manufacturer lost this power if the item was sold with an
> aftermarket
> addition, so a discount house could dig deep if it could sell a
> Leica
> camera body with an aftermarket lens. (I suspect that the garage
> industry
> which produced the 1.5/5.8 "Leica Sonnar" and "Sonnarex" lenses in
> the
> later 1940's was an effort to work into this marekt but it was
> quashed for
> reasons which still remain murky. Perhaps the Gehlendienst had
> something
> to do with it!)
>
> In the end, a number of these excellent lenses were fitted into
> exceedingly
> crude LTM mounts and were sold by the discount houses in New York
> and other
> major US cities. Much rarer are those in Contax RF BM, though these
> do
> exist as well.
>
> The lens is a really solid performer and the glass elements were
> made in
> the UK but the lens is really a combination of American greed and
> Italian
> ingenuity.
>
> You might wish to consult your copy of that magnificent and
> magisterial
> tome, NON-LEITZ LEICA THREADMOUNT LENSES: A 39mm DIVERSITY,
> published by
> Wittig in Germany and drafted by one <ah-HEM> Marc James Small,
> where this
> lens is discussed in detail.
>
> The Reid lenses are discussed there, as well, and are also covered
> in
> detail in Hans P Rajner's LEICA COPIES work.
>
> Marc
>
> msmall@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> Cha robh bàs fir gun ghràs fir!
>
> NEW FAX NUMBER: +540-343-8505
>
>
>
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