In 1952, when I was fourteen years old, I bought a new Rolleicord. I
have no idea, at this time, which lens it had. I do know that it was
the newest Rolleicord, directly from the distributor.
I photographed lots of stuff back then. But one thing in particular
sticks in my mind.
I belonged to the Santa Cruz Camera Club. That's Santa Cruz
California. Every year I helped the local photo company (Webber's
Photo) photograph the Miss California contest. One year (I was around
sixteen), I photographed one of the contestants (Dina Stearns - she
was a local girl and we all knew her) sitting on an old piling, along
the beach. It was a bright summer day, I had a white reflector to
fill in the harsh shadows. I don't remember the film or developer,
but I was using my Rolleicord on a tripod.
Later that month, there was a Camera Club meeting, the contest theme
being 'still life'. I printed my photograph of Dina to 16x20 and
mounted it on a 20x24 white mount board. I took it to the club
meeting even though it did not qualify as a still life - hey, she was
'still', and she was full of 'life'... ;-)
Anyway, my photo was put up on the display board, to the left of all
of the fruit bowl and flower still lifes. At the end of the judging,
the judge (the club president) said, and I've never forgotten this,
"everyone needs to come up here and look at this photograph of Dina.
Jim Brick took it with his Rolleicord and printed it to 16x20. Come
see how sharp, crisp, and clear this photograph is. And after seeing
this, I don't ever want to hear any excuses for unsharp photographs."
I still have the box to my original Rolleicord. The price marked on
it is $149.50. I wish I still had the camera. I got the camera at
cost, $99, as my uncle's drug store had a photo counter and he was
able to buy directly from the distributor.
My point is, a 16x20 print from my 1952 Rolleicord caught the
attention of the Camera Club president. I still have the print,
stored somewhere, and the negative, which is stored with a lot of
other negs from back then, in the Rolleicord box.
If anybody knows what model Rolleicord, and possibly the lens type,
for a new 1952 Rolleicord, I would be grateful.
Jim
What is the largest enlargement the memeber of this list would have found the Triotar of the Rolleicord II to be capable of?
Mine is approx 1948, a coated version.
I am aware that often you may crop the image and not always print the whole neg.
Would the best definition be around f8-11?
My previous experience has been the triplet lens used in the Chinese Seagull and Pearl River cameras.
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