[Leica] Nikon S3 war

[Fred Zimmerman <fredz@mindspring.com>]

  The adoption of Nikon lenses is discussed in a fine book by Robert
Rotoloni, The Nikon Rangefinder Camera: an Illustrated History of the Nikon
Rangefinder Cameras, Lenses and Accessories, 2nd ed., Hove, 1983. 
  "It is an interesting story with a cast of world-famous photographers and
a noted writer. It all started in June 1950 when David Douglas Duncan and
Horace Bristol, of Life magazine, were in Tokyo on their way to shoot the
Korean conflict. A young Japanese photographer showed them photos taken
with an 85mm f2.0 Nikkor that were extremely sharp. When Duncan and Bristol
learned that it was made only a few miles away they went to the factory and
obtained permission to choose lenses and cameras at random. They discovered
that they could duplicate the results with ease. Duncan acquired an entire
set of Nikkors in screw mount to use on his Leicas, and shot the entire War
with them. His famous book, 'This is War' was shot with a Leica camera, but
every photo was made through a Nikkor lens! Bristol also used them on his
Leicas and Carl Mydans acquired a set for his Contaxes. In August Hank
Walker arrived and discarded his cameras and went on to shoot the War with
a late model Nikon camera and its lenses. After returning to New York,
Duncan and Mydans brought their newly acquired lenses and cameras to
Eastern Optical Co. for testing. Their optimistic field reports were
confirmed and Life magazine purchased a considerable number of cameras and
lens outfits for their staff, as did Look magazine. Word spread quickly
amongst professionals about the superior resolving power, and amazing
consistencey, of these unknown Japanese lenses. Finally, on December 10,
1950, Jacon Deschin, in his Sunday New York Tiems photography column, told
the enitre story and the rest is history." (pp. 67-8)

>
>Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2000 16:00:19 -0500
>From: Marc James Small <msmall@roanoke.infi.net>
>Subject: Re: [Leica] Nikon S3 war
>
>At 09:42 AM 2/25/2000 +0000, Mike Johnston wrote:
>>David Douglas Duncan was very clear
>>that he switched to Nikon lenses because their sharpness blew him away,
>>and he got other Korean War photographers to do the same thing for the
>>same reason. The superior sharpness of Nikon lenses was what established
>>the company in America. This is a part of the historical record. You're
>>grafting current perceptions onto historical situations.
>
>Mike
>
>This is simple horse-shit.  American editors did not trust Japanese lenses,
>so Duncan and his ilk made this huge production about their "quality" to
>assuage concerns from the boys who were paying their way -- this, after
>all, was in an era when most editors didn't trust MF at all, much less 35mm
>gear.  The Japanese lenses were direct thefts of Zeiss designs, no better
>and no worse than the originals.  BUT they were cheap -- $10 or so for a
>1.5/5cm as opposed to several hundred dollars for a Zeiss Jena lens and
>more than that for Oberkochen, if you could find one.
>
>These guys OWNED their own gear.  If I were going into a combat zone and
>had the choice of risking a $200 lens or a $10 lens, both of equal quality,
>I know where my heart would be!  And if I had to rig a "test" to allow the
>folks with the check books to go along with this, well, so be it.
>
>Popular Photography contacted Dr Bauer, the head of Zeiss USA for his
>comments.  He tried to explain this to them but, alas!, Pop blew this one,
>as they have so many other issues over the years.
>
>Marc
>