[Leica] Karen Nakamura speech

[chs2018 at med.cornell.edu (Chris Saganich)]

Dry roll film hit the scene about 1888 and there weren't many small 
35's around significantly predating the Ur-Leica. The Jens Paul 
Andersen, 1905; Smith 1912 USA (which is extremely rare), and Tourist 
Multiple (which sold towards the end of 1913 and totaled less then 
1,000).  Only the Jens Paul Andersen really qualifies as being 
non-contemporary with the Leica.  The Ur Leica is dated 1914 along 
with the Simplex (New York), Homeos, and the Schoenander (swiss, 
which had a Leitz lens).   By 1925, 35mm cameras became common so you 
can say all 35mm cameras were widely sold by 1925, not just Leica.


At 12:17 PM 3/26/2010, you wrote:
>I have admired Karen Nakamura's enthusiasm for photography and her academic
>work for a number of years. But it is apparent that she didn't write the
>historical perspective in the first paragraph of the press release.
>Photographic archeological and anthropological studies were carried out
>using plate and roll film cameras nearly a quarter century before the Leica
>was invented. Folding cameras using roll film were marketed in the 1890s,
>freeing photographers from the necessity of carrying plates. Amundsen
>photographed the Sooth Pole with a Kodak folding camera in 1912, the year
>before Barnack built the first Leica.
>
>
>The Leica wasn't even the first 35mm camera. There were many others. The
>first actually on the market was the American Tourist Multiple which carried
>enough film for 750 1/2 frame exposures. It was advertised a being suitable
>to record a complete European tour. Unfortunately the camera appeared in
>1913 and WW1 effectively killed the market for it. The Leica was first
>widely sold in 1925.
>
>
>Karen knows far too much about photographic history to have written that
>material. So should members of the NYLUG.
>
>
> >From the NYLUG:
>
>"The invention of the first Leica camera in 1913 ushered in new
>
> >  possibilities for naturalistic photography. Heavy tripod-mounted
>
> >  wooden cameras could be replaced by Oskar Barnack?s pocketable little
>
> >  brass wonder.  Dozens of bulky film plates could be exchanged for a
>
> >  single interchangeable film cartridge.  New vistas for street and
>
> >  field photography were opened up. Anthropologists were early adopters
>
> >  of this technology to bring back images from across the world. It is
>
> >  remarkable that almost a hundred years later we are still using the
>
> >  same film in much the same film cartridge that Oskar Barnack
>
> >  originally developed."
>
>
>Larry Z
>
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