Re: [Leica] Chance from R to Nikon?

[ted grant <75501.3002@compuserve.com>]

<<<<This is an open ongoing discussion, and if I am wrong, please, please
tell me how I err, so I can learn....  Fair 'nuff?>>>>>>

Well OK guys,

Here's a Nikon lens leica body story of real time and not hypothetical
stuff.

Before Leica came out with a "300 2.8 or whatever they were going to call
it", we now know it as the 280mm 2.8.  I was ticked off because they hadn't
come out with a fast 2.8 lens as Nikon had for the 1972 Winter Olympics in
Sapporo Japan.

So I thought what the hell, if the Germans can't get their act to-gether
for working photographers, why not take a Leicaflex to the Japanese and put
a Nikon 300 2.8 on the Leicaflex.  I thought this might crank a few tails
in Germany, later I heard there were few in Wetzlar who thought I had
committed blasphemy! :)

And that's what I did, bought a Nikkor 300 2.8 and Reinhold Mueller, at the
time a technician for Leica Canada adapted the lens to fit my Leicaflex of
the day.

Now I had a pretty wierd looking piece of equipment and for those of you
who recall the hood and lens size of the first 2.8 300. it was a huge
lookinmg mother and drew a great deal of attention.  Even some of the Nikon
shooters when they first saw it on the Leicaflex asked what kind of lens it
was, only to be surprised that it was a Nikkor.

It worked extremely well and I used it until I received my leica 280 2.8
when the first one arrived in Canada in 1983-4. I was kinda sorry to see
that Nikon lens go, as it served me well producing some very crispy looking
images.  Maybe it functioned better than normal because it was attached to
a Leica. Would you think something might have rubbed off from th body to
the lens?:)

Just thought I'd throw that into this lens thread.:)

ted