[Leica] Re: Gear I wish I'd kept.

[marcsmall at comcast.net (Marc James Small)]

At 11:20 PM 7/4/2007, Lawrence Zeitlin wrote:

 >All this is documented by Emil Keller, a long term Leica employee, in
 >"The Leica Years."

Emil is a gem of rare worth, Larry, and we have 
corresponded on these points and on others.  Both 
of his books are valuable resources.

I stand by my original statement.  There was one 
Prewar development project and two Postwar 
development projects.  Wagner had little to do 
with the IIIf, as this was simply an evolution of 
the IIIc, though the revised shutter used in the 
IIIf RD was brought about by Wagner's work.

The Leica  H was a private venture never 
supported by the company save in the most basic 
of ways.  Wagner was told before he started that 
the design would not enter production, but he 
persisted and, as he had been told, it was not 
adopted, leading to his resignation from the 
company.  The decision not to build the H was 
probably one of the smartest moves made by Leitz 
at a time when they were making a succession of 
dumb decisions.  Leitz was just too small to 
attempt to fill every niche in the camera market of the time.

Marc


msmall@aya.yale.edu
Cha robh b?s fir gun ghr?s fir!