old camera?

[Paul Schliesser <paulsc@eos.net>]

Sorry, I've lost the original message, but a short time ago someone on 
the list was asking for information about an old camera; it is a 
smallish, boxy camera that allows both SLR and ground-glass focusing.

I didn't answer at the time, because I was waiting to see if someone who 
knows more about cameras from this era would answer. However, since 
nobody did, I would suggest that it might be an Ermanox.

The Ermanox was important because it was one of the first hand-holdable 
cameras used for available light work. I think that it had an f/2.8 lens, 
and took small plates.

Eisenstaedt used one of these for some of his famous early photos, and 
says in one of his books that he still used it sometimes even after he 
started using a Leica in the 1920s. Some that I THINK were taken with 
this camera: his George Bernard Shaw portraits (even a photo of Shaw 
holding a Leica I), the famous picture of Marlene Dietrich wearing a 
man's suit, and the photo of the ice-skating waiter holding a tray.

- - Paul