[Leica] Black Tape

["Edward Gosfield III, MD" <egosfield@nni.com>]

for those of you who find the Varta and Wetzlar-tape too expensive for your
intended purpose, you should be aware that Varta have licensed a large
Japanese company to make a special tape designed in Germany by Varta.  The
tape is called 'Kontakt', and Varta have sent German QC engineers to the
Japanese factory.  They inspect every foot of the tape to make sure it
meets their original design and manufaturing specifications, and there are
no Japanese personnel permitted in the special inspection room while they
do this.

The tape itself has special features:  it is automatic! It contains
synthetic chromophores which sense the color of the object to which it is
applied, and adjust the tape color accordingly.  If you get up real close
to it you can barely see through the tape, but if you are shooting stuff at
a distance, and moving real fast it works quite well.

In Japan there is a controversy about whether the Kontakt tape is
'Hon-Tapu' (ie "true tape, as in 'hon-yaki'--"true forged" swords and
cutlery) or a clever but inherently inferior design concept.  And of course
the Wetzlar-tape and even the original (Ur-Varta) Varta tape are said to
have special qualities of texture and appearance due to the ineffable
German aesthetic of their designers, who preceded the days of mass-market
computer controlled tape manufacture.

eg

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