Re: Leicaflex vs Nikon F

[Marc James Small <msmall@roanoke.infi.net>]

At 01:50 PM 11/24/97 -0800, Stephen Gandy, intellect and scholar, wrote:
>I'm fairly sure the Nikon F was the first 35 SLR with a 100%
>viewfinder.  If it wasn't, I would like to know who beat them to it.I'm
>also fairly sure they introed fisheye lenses in 35.
>Although they did not invent the mirror lens, I think Nikon's  1000/6.3
>in 1960 was a camera manufacturer's first production mirror lens.
>Nikon's big achievement, however, was to produce the first professional
>quality, integrated, modular SLR system that could do virtually
>everything via its motor, interchangeable screens and finders, bulk film
>holder, and its very wide range of lenses.  Praktina gave it a try a few
>years earlier, but in practice their design simply did not work too
>well.
>Still though Marc, I don't understand how you consider the 1964
>Leicaflex, with a very small lens lineup and lack of pro features,
>competitive with the F's long list of pro accessories and lenses, at
>that point in time.

The Nikon F probably was the first 35mm camera with a 100% viewfinder,
though I don't believe that was probably as solid a selling point as it
should have been.  I do not know the years in which various Nikon lenses
were introduced, but will note that the 2.8/16 Carl Zeiss F-Distagon for
the Contarex wasn't introduced until '73, so I am certain Nikon beat them
by quite a bit with their fisheye.  The '58 Brussels World Fair saw the
introduction of the 8/500 and 10/1000 MTO's from KMZ, which does produce
cameras (Zorki and Zenit) as well as lenses, so I believe the Soviets get
priority on this.  Although the Contarex did not adopt interchangeable
screens until '64 and didn't have a motor drive until '70, or so, it
certainly was a full-blown system camera from its introduction in '59, as
had become the Exakta by that date.  The Nikon may have had the largest set
of offerings, but it was neither the first nor the only 'system' SLR
available by the early 1960's.

I never said, incidentally, that I considered the Leicaflex 'competitive'
with the Nikon F:  I merely contested Marvin's critique that the Leicaflex
was severely outdated by the time of its introduction.  I agree it set no
new boundaries, but still see the Leicaflex as competitive in terms of the
general market.  I do not contest that, had I been a pro entering the
market in '64, I'd have opted for the much fuller Nikon system or, if I
could have afforded the price of admission AND had the muscles to tote it
around, a Contarex.

Marc


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