[Leica] Tom Abrahamsson

[EPL]

I got to know Tom quite well over many years, through the LHSA, the LUG, many telephone conversations and get-togethers, and via our mutual friend and fellow Canadian, Reinhold Mueller.

Tom and I shared a dedication to using vintage film Leica rangefinder gear for current photojournalism. We shared a fascination with custom modifications which improved the Wetzlar and Midland gear, and a frustration with the pace of change during the early Solms era.

I have no hesitation in saying that Tom was one of the pioneers in the rangefinder renaissance which burst onto the scene in the late 1980s and through the 1990s. Tom was a clever innovator and a bit of a gadfly to the status quo. It is due to his efforts and inspiration that companies like Cosina/Voigtlander, Zeiss Ikon, Nikon, Yasuhara, Konica and Epson took up the challenge of pushing ahead with innovations in the rangefinder tradition.

The folks at Leica Solms were well aware of Tom's projects. Some of his efforts helped kick-start the Germans out of their complacent doldrums. The Leica gear we enjoy today has some of Tom's cosmic karmic DNA in it.

Tom was an easy man to like. He was generous with his time and his knowledge. He loved a technical challenge and was appropriately pleased when he solved a problem and developed a product better than the factory original. 

I called him a couple of months back with a technical question about one of his brilliant Leica inventions and had no reply to the message I left. Knowing of his earlier health challenges, I figured he'd moved on from such mundane issues, so I dropped the pursuit. I am saddened to learn that he is gone.

He was a good guy, a Leica man of the highest class and a partisan of the LUG. He deserves every honour our community can bestow.

Emanuel Lowi
Montreal