Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/05/12
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 09:33 PM 5/12/98 -0400, you wrote: >"Advantages of the Leica were not appreciated immediately - - - It was in fact >a plate camera, the Ermanox, made by the Ernemann Works, Dresden, and put on >the market in 1924, one year before the Leica that for a few years proved a The Ermanox was popular because it was the only camera until the Leica that really was a "candid" camera. People didn't warm up to the Leica until some proved what one could do with the camera image quality-wise. That took some time. But the Ermanox was dropped like a hot rock once the Leica started to catch on. Why? Because it used glass plates. Single exposure. Guys ran around with big pockets to keep the plates in. Didn't take much motivation when people discovered just how good pictures could be taken. Even then, the genre of candid photography that lead to photojournalism predates the Ermanox too. Andre Kertesz was shooting that style with a bigger camera on a tripod (a la Nicholas (??) Nixon who shoots candids today with an 8x10). What the Leica did that the Ermanox didn't was create acceptance for the basic camera that would rule candid photography to this day. Roll film, focal plane shutter, etc. The whole process was too dynamic to point the finger at one single factor, but in the end, the Leica was the one that finally set the pace. ========= Eric Welch St. Joseph, MO Diplomacy: Say nice doggie until you find a *BIG* stick