[Leica] Obituary

[bill_clough at yahoo.com (Bill Clough)]

USA
TEXAS
CORPUS CHRISTI
19 January 2005

Obituary

Nikkor 50mm f1.4 lens, following a long battle with
congestive iris failure.

        I started in the business of photojournalism in 1960, with
a company-supplied Polaroid camera. The lens was, I think,
f5.6.

        Walking around on a shoot with drying prints
between the fingers of both hands soon became a bore.

        One late-autumn day, I walked into Sears in Amarillo,
Texas. Sears sold cameras then. Under the counter was a
Nikka, Japanese copy of a Leica III. Attached to it was a
piece of glass so large it looked like a headlight.

        No one could be more proud as I walked into the weekly
newspaper?s office with that camera around my neck.

        The publisher, in riser shoes, stood about 4-foot seven.
He made up for it by wearing Italian eyeglasses with thick,
black frames. Apparently they hurt his nose because every
time he said something important, he took off his glasses
and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

        ?Now Clough,? he said, ?everyone knows you can?t get a
good news picture unless it?s taken with a 2-1/4 camera.?

        I was crushed. I had just paid more than $100 for the
camera and lens?on a salary of $25 a week.

        Despondent, I went downtown to Hertner?s Camera Store
(still in business, by the way). Inside, the chief
photographer for the daily newspaper listened to my tale.

        ?Well, I don?t know why he told you that. LIFE?s been
using them for 30 years.?

        I kept the camera. But, for the first year, I just cropped
all my pictures square.

        I retired the lens in 1970--and that should be the end of
the story.

        Except, a few years ago, after a hiatus of seven years, I
absent-mindedly Google-searched for ?Leica Users Group.?
That led to the PAW project.

        I took out the old lens to start shooting?only to find
leafs of the iris floating inside the lens.

        Called Nikon. I realized the youngster at the other end of
the line was 30 years younger than the lens.

        Enter Tom Caldwell, the former Tokyo Bureau Chief for the
late UPI Radio Network, where I also used to work.

        ?Send it to me,? Tom said. I?ll take it to Nikon here.?

        This was in the summer of 2000, just when Nikon 
re-introduced its SP rangefinder. To do that, it had to
bring out a bunch of people from retirement who knew how to
work on the SP.

        So, somewhere in the depths of Nikon in Tokyo, they
refurbished the lens.

        Sadly, after almost five years in remission, the problem
has returned. This time, I think it?s time to out the this
faithful piece of glass back on the shelf.

        Nikkor #392879: 1960-2005: Retired with honor.






                
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