[rollei_list] Re: Serial No's
- From: Marc James Small <msmall@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 07 Sep 2005 22:42:39 -0400
At 12:07 AM 9/8/05 +0100, Nick Roberts wrote:
>Indeed. The Reid was developed in no small part from
>the results of the British Army paying a visit on
>Leitz, and the late lamented Dr Stewart Bell, for many
>years lens tester for "Amateur Photographer" was part
>of that Army team.
Well, not quite the full tale. The British and USians were both cut off
from real Leica cameras by the outbreak of the War, and both encouraged
private companies to make clones, the patents being in the public domain.
In the UK, Reid began working on their camera in 1940, while Kardon began
work on theirs in 1942. Neither camera was to appear until long after the
end of the War but it is important to understant that both companies had
the benefit of the patents to guide them.
In the end, by the time the British team reached Wetzlar, they found it
under US Army control, and discovered to their chagrin that the Reid was
grossly over-engineered. That is, the engineers who designed it had been
in greater awe of German engineering than had the actual German engineers
who designed the Leica camera, so that they went a factor closer on all of
their tolerances. Emil Keller, then the US Army representative running the
plant, and the Leitz family, were much amused at the discomfort of the
British team when they came to know how a basic mistrust of honest patents
had come to cost them much.
But, as a result, the Reid turned out to be the best of Leica clones and
one much sought-after today. Kardon did not fall into a similar trap;
they built a very workmanlike copy of the Leica and it is also now quite a
collectable.
Marc
msmall@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Cha robh bàs fir gun ghràs fir!
NEW FAX NUMBER: +540-343-8505
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