Duncan about Japanese lenses

[Edi Weitz <weitz@math.uni-hannover.de>]

By request I have typed out some lines of comment from David Douglas
Duncan, taken from his books "This Is War!" [My (reprint) copy was
published 1990 by Little, Brown and Company (ISBN 0-316-195656-0).
The book was originally released in 1951.] and "Viva Picasso" [which
was published in 1980 by Viking Press (ISBN 0-670-74737-8)]. Please
excuse any typos.

Let me just add that these quotes don't reflect my point of view about
the cameras and lenses that Duncan mentions. In my opinion his
statements sometimes sound as if he got paid by Nikon.

By the way, I hope nobody'll sue me for copyright infringement... 
And, could somebody please tell me what a "clickstop lens" (see below) is?

Bye, Edi.

*** Quotation from "This Is War!" starts here: ***

"The photographs in this book were taken with a Leica IIIC, 35mm camera.
During assignments two of these Leicas were carried, one of each side
of my body, slung from their leather straps which went around the neck
and crossed like ammunition bandoliers in front of my chest.

[...]

"Both cameras' regular leather cases were left behind in Tokyo, simply
because they delayed changing film in the field. During those times
when photographs were being made under enemy fire each minute saved
was extremely precious... one never knew when there might be another
opportunity to reload. The reason for two Leicas being used was 
fundamental - one was fitted with the standard 50mm lens, and the other
with a telephoto. By having two focal-length lenses always ready, any
kind of action could instantly be covered. My Leicas were used around
the battlefields of Korea under almost every imaginable handicap - from
the humid, dust-soaked summer months, to the unforgettably cold days of
winter near the Changjin Reservoir. The cameras kept working perfectly,
even after the film itself started breaking during winding - just from
cold. 

"Every photograph in 'This Is War!' was taken with a Leica, but fitted
with Nikkor lenses... made in occupied Japan. Prior to the outbreak
of the Korean War, Horace Bristol, former 'Life' and 'Fortune' 
photographer now living in Tokyo, and I began experimenting with the
whole new line of Nikkor lenses, made by the Nippon Optical Company,
Tokyo, and discovered, to our utter amazement, that their three 
standard lenses for 35mm cameras were far superior, in our opinions,
to any standard 35mm lenses available on the open market - British,
American or German.

"Except for wide-angle and extreme telephoto lenses - over 135mm - where
we thought the German products to be still superior, we sold every other
lens in our outfits... and re-equipped with only Nikkor lenses. The 
Nikkors that we found best were the 50mm, F1.5 (now superseded by a
50mm, F1.4 clickstop lens); the 85mm, F2; the 135mm, F3.5. The entire
Nikkor line of lenses is made in Tokyo, from exclusively Japanese
materials. From glass to gears their lenses and cameras are Japanese.
The only thing in the Nippon Company product not made in Tokyo, of
Japanese materials, is the spring in the focal plane shutter of the
company's Nikon camera - it is Swedish because the manufacturers
consider it superior to any spring steel yet made in Japan.

"As the Korean war progressed, and other magazine and newspaper
photographers arrived in Tokyo, the reputation of the new lenses
spread until, within a matter of only three months, there was scarcely
a photographer working out of Japan who was not using Nikkors on his
cameras. Among the most notable of these were Carl Mydans and Hank
Walker, both of 'Life'. They not only began using the lenses, but soon
had discarded their original German cameras and were using only
Nikons. Max Desfor, Associated Press's top news photographer, carried
the Nikon-Nikkor combination to back-stop much of his work, and would
have used it more for his company except for their partial restriction
against miniature negatives. The same story of popularity was true
with Michael James, of the 'New York Times', John Rich, of NBC, George
Herman, of CBS, and many others who used the camera and lenses to augment
their own coverage as correspondents.

"Prints made from these Nikkor miniature negatives were enlarged, without
appreciable image diffusion, to 30'' x 40'' to be hung by Edward
Steichen in his photographic exhibits at the Museum of Modern Art, in
New York. It has been Captain Steichen's expressed opinion (which 
reflects that of many of us who covered the Korean War) that the 
intimate, naked look of the subjects photographed in Korea was largely
due to the photographers' choice of the miniature camera for most of
their work. If that is true, as most of us do believe, then much credit
should also be given the lenses through which the pictures were taken.

[...]

"...as a whole the exposure was a basic 1/200 sec. at F11. The film 
was always Eastman Super XX, 35mm cartridge loaded. In a few cases
[...] the exposure was 1/100 sec. at F2.2. The sequence of Corporal
Leonard Hayworth [...] was taken at 1/100 sec. with the F1.5 lens
wide open. The exposure for [...] was 1/100 sec. at F1.4, for it
was late afternoon, wintertime, and nearly dark."

*** Quotation from "Viva Picasso" starts here: ***

"An exact time can be pinpoined when most photo-journalists moved to
Japanese cameras. It was midsummer, 1950, at the outbreak of the
Korean War. 

[Short version of the Nikon success story (see above) deleted]

"The news-services photographers arrived [at the Korean War] with their
faithful but cumbersome Speed Graphics, film holders, flashbulbs and all.
A few 'avant-garde' magazinemen (I recall not one woman photographer,
other than the legendary Margaret Bourke-White) came with Rolleiflexes,
which some of us had used during WWII. Veteran newspaper photographers,
like Pulitzer Prize-winner Max Desfor of the Associated Press, tried to
submit 35mm negatives from Korea. The editors wanted only 'big negative'
shots and fired back advice: 'forget that mini stuff!' Desfor quietly added
a Nikon to his gear, secretly souped and printed his films in the honored
Speed Graphic format, then radiophotoed his pictures to New York - to rave
responses. All of Life's arriving photographers - Carl Mydans, Hank Walker, 
Michael Rougier, Howard Sochurek - immediately fitted their 35mm cameras
with Nikon lenses. The first victory for postwar-Japanese products had
been won.

"Most of the photographs in 'Viva Picasso', of the artist in his studio-
homes, La Californie, and the Chateau de Vauvernagues, were made with M3D 
Leicas fitted with Nikon 50mm F1.5, and 28mm F2.8 lenses. A few were taken
with a Leica M3D fitted with a Canon 50mm F1.2 lens, when the light was
almost subminimal and a super-fast lens was needed. A Leicaflex SL, fitted
with the 20mm and 45-90mm zoom lenses, was used for the coverage of
Notre Dame de Vie. At La Californie, all black-and-white film stock was
Kodak XX (rated at 200 ASA); later, at Notre Dame de Vie, the film was
Kodak Tri-X (rated at 400 ASA). All film development was by inspection,
in D-76, at the 'Life' lab in Paris, under the direction of Jacques Andre.
A Nikon-F, fitted with a variety of lenses, was used for the color chapter
of this book, and also for the endpaper shots. [...] All color stock was
Kodachrome I (rated at 25 ASA)."