[Leica] Was Leica Marketed As A Professional Camera Or As A Hobbiest Happy-Snapper?

[Marc James Small <msmall@infi.net>]

At 01:33 PM 3/28/02 -0900, Mark Kronquist wrote:
>Not sure where Contax RF came into the picture in this discussion as Zeiss
>never had a fraction of the pj market share as Leitz, but DDD and other
>shooters were instrumental in the development of the M3 system (see
>VanHasbroecks Book) 

Well, a number of Big Name photo-journalists, most notably Capa, used
Contax during the era under discussion.  And the Contax was vastly
preferred for expedition work as it was somewhat more reliable than was the
Leica.  There was only one Leica on Mount Everest before 1963, while dozens
of Contaxes had been going up and down the place for decades.

We should bear several things in mind:

	-- Editors and art directors micro-managed the gear photographers used to
ensure that the photograph would be printable.  Most editors and art
directors of the era were raised on large-format gear, and were nervous
about the quality of pictures produced by relatively small plate or
cut-film cameras such as the Speed Graphic.  Thus, for these guys to
welcome their arms to medium format was expecting much;  for them to move
rapidly to miniature-format (35mm, 838, &c) was demanding far too much.
Almost no photo-journalist was allowed to use a Rolleiflex until the Second
World War made such cameras acceptable -- Time-Life being, I believe, the
only significant exception.  The Korean War opened the doors to
miniature-format, especially in the persons of the Big Guns who used, for
the most part, Leica cameras with Nikon lenses, though there were some with
Nikon or Canon gear (together with the military photographers, almost all
of whom used either Speed Graphics or Combat Graphic 70's, and a number of
civilian photographers using roll-film and cut-film cameras.)

	--  Most professionals do not have the money to jump ship from camera
system to camera system without some guarantee of a speedy return.  Thus,
few (1%?  5%?  the elite, in any event) were able to make the jump to
either Leica or Contax until their markets -- publication editors and art
directors -- could assure them that pictures taken with a 35mm camera would
be purchased.  And, by the time this had happened, the market had broadened
to include other brands ranging from Nikon and Canon RF to Contax and
Prakina SLR's.  (The first professional camera purchased by Herb Keppler,
for instance, was a Contax S.)

	--  Both Leitz and Zeiss had a scientific background prior to the
introduction of the Leica and Contax cameras.  The  theme of the Zeiss
lensworks in its early years, after all, was the scientific design of
microscopes, while both Carl Kellner and Ernst Leitz had based their
successive shops upon the use of modern production techniques to produce
microscopes.  (For most of the last century, it was de riguer for students
at the better US medical schools to own their very own Leitz microscope, as
it was, in those circles, the 'snob' mark.)  Thus, the profusion of
technical appendages for both systems were natural outflowings of the
heritages of their respective manufacturers, while both companies enjoyed
solid market penetration with scientists and industrial firms, so
advertising for such potential buyers was only common sense.  And both
companies did market extensive technical doo-dads which also influenced the
development of their gear -- Leitz, for instance, developed the original
PLOOT reflex housing from the Leitz epidiascope.  

	--  It is beyond question that Leitz introduced the modern 35mm camera as
the amatuer's camera of choice, while Contax tended more towards more
technical applications.  The use of such gear by professionals began as a
sidelight -- Salomon, for instance, lugging a Leica along with his Ermanox
to shoot the rich and powerful.  But, of course, it grew in light of what
Eisie and Capa did with their Leicas in the build-up to the Second World War.

	-- More than a few high-visibility amateurs, such as George Bernard Shaw
or Hugo Eckener, used Leica and endorsed the product publicly.  Such
endorsements did little for professional sales but did have an impact on
sales to well-heeled amateurs.  (Eckener had served as the Poster Boy for
Ernemann during his first real fame as the Captain of the "Reparations
Airship" LZ-126 and later served the same function for Leitz while
conducting such daring ventures with the GRAF ZEPPELIN as the
round-the-world flight -- and he also used Leitz binoculars, though he
insisted that all German airships use Zeiss glasses as deck binoculars, a
practice continued by the US Navy until supplies dried up during the Second
World War.)

So, in the end, there is no right-and-wrong answer to this question.  The
Leica began as a rather daring experiment in an untested film format;  the
Contax followed five years later and was also quite innovative, though not
revolutionary.  Both soon began to serve as back-up cameras for some
professionals and both cameras developed a very few of the top of the field
as users and advocates.  But without sales to hobbyists, neither brand
would have made it to the outbreak of the Second World War.

Marc

msmall@infi.net  FAX:  +276/343-7315
Cha robh bąs fir gun ghrąs fir!

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