[Leica] Favorite Adaptors from Leica

[jshul at comcast.net (Jim Shulman)]

Leica has a rich history of adaptors.  In fact, I think the LHSA would be a
fraction of its current size if there weren't so many fascinating little
ways to adapt Leicas for special uses.  

Leica, over the years, became a breeding ground for adaptors: by refusing to
incorporate essential improvements in their basic cameras, such as
self-timers, light meters, rapid advance mechanisms, etc. they created their
own mini-industry of adaptation.  Some of their adaptors were
well-considered; others less so.  However, most adaptors achieve two things:
they get lost in the bottom of a camera bag (or worse), or they rob you of
valuable time as you attach them to the camera.

My rogue's galley of Leica adaptors would have to include:

ANY Visoflex.  Why use an Exakta when you can adapt a perfectly simple LTM
or M Leica body with an ungainly housing?  I forgot--there's always the
incomparable quality of pre-1970s long focal length lenses from Leitz.

Close-Up attachments.  Ideally we should use cameras that have NO inherent
parallax problems.  RF cameras all have to use Rube Goldberg-esque ways
around parallax.  My Leica favorite is the thingie with the sticks that set
the optimum distance between lens and subject.  There's a photo in a late
30s Leica brochure showing some fellow taking a picture of a cat with this
adaptor--the poor cat looks horrified (with more than a little
justification.)

New York Motor Drive for M4.  Take the quiet and convenience of an M camera,
add a motor drive the size of a ranch house.  Remove the whole shooting
match when it's time to change film--say, thirty seconds after loading the
roll.  This last example may be a bit unfair, since most 1960s motor drive
systems were hardly examples of simplicity.  However, I'm reminded of Sal
DiMarco's famous line, "the quality of 35mm matched with the ease and
simplicity of 4x5"

Jim Shulman
Bryn Mawr, PA

PS.  Three of my all-time favorite goofy adaptors come from the wonderful
world of 8mm movie cameras.  There's the Wittnauer Cine-Twin of 1957,
combining camera and projector in one cumbersome unit.  Guess that'll teach
you not to finish the whole roll of film!  They should have stuck to
watches.  Then there's the Elmo Tri-Filmatic of 1965, which took different
magazines for regular 8mm, super 8, and single 8 film (love to find one of
those someday, just for my perverse collecting delight). 

The grand prize, though, goes to the Bolex Synchomat of 1959, which takes
some 'splainin. In the late 1950s, movie equipment manufacturers saw a
market for sound amateur film.  However, 8mm movie film didn't leave much
room for an analog sound track--an available area near the film perforations
about the size of a gnat's foreskin.  There were attempts to put a magnetic
sound stripe (really, a piece of magnetic tape glued to the film) on the
edge of the film; however, with late 1950s technology the 8mm stripe
couldn't reproduce sound with anything approaching decent fidelity.

Bolex tried a strip adaptor, the Sonorizer (which was rather hilarious--it
was really a base for the projector, with an extra mechanism containing the
sound reader), but they also wanted to offer something delivering higher
quality sound.  After all, they were Bolex--the class act of 8/16mm movie
cameras.  

Bolex introduced the Synchomat for their M8 projector.  The Synchomat
controlled the film's projection speed in synchronization with an open-reel
tape recorder.  Here's how it worked: the 1/4 magnetic tape would be
threaded through the tape recorder, with an additional lap past a capstan in
the Synchomat (which was conveniently mounted next to the tape recorder, in
the same plane as the tape's feed mechanism.  If this sounds complicated, it
was.)  The Synchomat used a flexible cable that attached to the M8
projector; the revolutions of the flex cable controlled the projector speed.
Voila--synchronization, with the high quality of 1/4" open reel tape.

Some of these devices were reported to have been used a SECOND time.