[Leica] Obituary

[nicholsj at edge.net (Jim Nichols)]

Bill,

I appreciate your grief.  This past year I tried to use a beautiful
Schneider 50mm for Exacta, and sadly found that the primary leaf that
powered the automatic stop-down feature was broken, so it is stuck
permanently wide open.  I sent it to a good lens shop and they said they
had no parts, sorry.  I then contacted the factory, which is still active,
and they also said it could not be repaired.  So, it is also retired.  It
is sad to see the old friends pass on, but I guess that happens to all of
us.

Jim Nichols
nicholsj@edge.net


> [Original Message]
> From: Bill Clough <bill_clough@yahoo.com>
> To: Leica Users Group <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
> Date: 1/19/2005 6:48:02 PM
> Subject: [Leica] Obituary
>
> USA
> TEXAS
> CORPUS CHRISTI
> 19 January 2005
>
> Obituary
>
> Nikkor 50mm f1.4 lens, following a long battle with
> congestive iris failure.
>
>       I started in the business of photojournalism in 1960, with
> a company-supplied Polaroid camera. The lens was, I think,
> f5.6.
>
>         Walking around on a shoot with drying prints
> between the fingers of both hands soon became a bore.
>
>       One late-autumn day, I walked into Sears in Amarillo,
> Texas. Sears sold cameras then. Under the counter was a
> Nikka, Japanese copy of a Leica III. Attached to it was a
> piece of glass so large it looked like a headlight.
>
>       No one could be more proud as I walked into the weekly
> newspaper?s office with that camera around my neck.
>
>       The publisher, in riser shoes, stood about 4-foot seven.
> He made up for it by wearing Italian eyeglasses with thick,
> black frames. Apparently they hurt his nose because every
> time he said something important, he took off his glasses
> and rubbed the bridge of his nose.
>
>       ?Now Clough,? he said, ?everyone knows you can?t get a
> good news picture unless it?s taken with a 2-1/4 camera.?
>
>       I was crushed. I had just paid more than $100 for the
> camera and lens?on a salary of $25 a week.
>
>       Despondent, I went downtown to Hertner?s Camera Store
> (still in business, by the way). Inside, the chief
> photographer for the daily newspaper listened to my tale.
>
>       ?Well, I don?t know why he told you that. LIFE?s been
> using them for 30 years.?
>
>       I kept the camera. But, for the first year, I just cropped
> all my pictures square.
>
>       I retired the lens in 1970--and that should be the end of
> the story.
>
>       Except, a few years ago, after a hiatus of seven years, I
> absent-mindedly Google-searched for ?Leica Users Group.?
> That led to the PAW project.
>
>       I took out the old lens to start shooting?only to find
> leafs of the iris floating inside the lens.
>
>       Called Nikon. I realized the youngster at the other end of
> the line was 30 years younger than the lens.
>
>       Enter Tom Caldwell, the former Tokyo Bureau Chief for the
> late UPI Radio Network, where I also used to work.
>
>       ?Send it to me,? Tom said. I?ll take it to Nikon here.?
>
>       This was in the summer of 2000, just when Nikon 
> re-introduced its SP rangefinder. To do that, it had to
> bring out a bunch of people from retirement who knew how to
> work on the SP.
>
>       So, somewhere in the depths of Nikon in Tokyo, they
> refurbished the lens.
>
>       Sadly, after almost five years in remission, the problem
> has returned. This time, I think it?s time to out the this
> faithful piece of glass back on the shelf.
>
>       Nikkor #392879: 1960-2005: Retired with honor.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>               
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