Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2007/02/16
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Marc, were there ever "plans" for an SL44, or the baby blad? The SL44 might have had a look of the SL2000/3003. Cheers On 17/02/2007, at 10:22, Marc James Small wrote: > At 06:21 PM 2/16/2007, Alastair Firkin wrote: > > >the 1965 post war baby was really a bit of a failure. Of course, that > >makes it all the more collectable. The shutter is a bit "stiff", but > >that is probably because it looks like very little film went through > >it. 127 was dying when it came out: the film was more expensive than > >the larger 120 format and there were few new cameras. Rollei of > >course kept making them ;-) > > The final 127 Rollei, the "Black Baby", is a highly prized as few > were made and it was not in production for long. It did correct > the shutter woes which afflicted a lot of the Baby Greys and is > sought after both as a user and as a collectible. > > 127 film has certainly not cost more than 120 film in the US at > least for the past 40 years, as I regularly shoot both. It is an > interesting format. In the early 1960's, when 120 was the primary > professional format, there were informal discussions between > various companies (my notes are not at hand at the moment, but I > recall that Franke & Heidecke and Victor Hasselblad and AGFA and > Kodak and Ilford were involved, and several Japanese companies) > about attempting to make 127 the new professional film, with "Baby > Hasselblads" joining Baby Rolleis and the like in the marketplace. > The idea is intriguing: the boom in emulsion qualities meant that > a 4cm by 4cm negative in 1965 provided more information than had a > 6cm by 6cm negative in, say, 1950, so that quality would be > retained with about a 40% loss in weight and bulk. > > The idea died a-borning as 120 was just too entrenched among studio > and wedding and event photoraphers and 35mm was becoming the new > universal format for action photographers. WWII US combat > photographers used Graflex cut-film cameras or Rolleiflex cameras, > with 35mm being the fall-back allowed for only the very best, such > as Capa. The Korean War saw this change, though US Army > photographers held to the 70mm Combat Graphic, that Contax on > Steroids. Capa died during the French time in South-East Asia with > a Contax at this side and a Nikon RF in front of him. And Viet-Nam > was almost totally 35mm. > > But I'd have loved to have seen a Rollei SL44 or that 127 Hasselblad! > > Marc > > > msmall@aya.yale.edu > Cha robh b?s fir gun ghr?s fir! > > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information