[Leica] F3.5 to F2.8; Summaron.

[s.dimitrov at charter.net (Slobodan Dimitrov)]

The one thing so egregiously lost in this escapade over contrast,  
better, or worse, etc., is the role of the craft of photography's  
other controls. Those being, film, processing, and printing.
Given that these optical formulas were created, when B&W dominated,  
the R&D was directed to work around B&W technical problems, as they  
were then seen.
If one picks the Graphic Graflex Photography primer, as an example,  
it stresses that knowing one's optics is fundamental in the process  
toward the final product, a print. This old school text book provides  
several ways of addressing uncoated and coated optics.
Understanding the capabilities of one's glass, comes about after a  
series of tests are made. It should be noted that much of the glass  
of this period was made when film, i.e. B&W, had very little  
latitude. Expansion and contraction processing techniques were a  
must, and not a fine art choice for one's "statement" in the final  
product.
Even something, as the seemingly insignificant temperature of the  
paper developer, can have an effect on image contrast by exhibiting  
the effect we call flat or poor contrast.
An attempt was made to address some of these fundamental problems  
early on, due to the demand of popular usage, and not so much from  
the needs of the commercial practitioners.
It led to the creation of what, I think, can be called the first  
"automatic" controls in photography.
Can anyone guess what it was?
s.d.