Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/07/28
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Jem, the 75/2 ELCAN sounds like it is out of a Vinten Aerial camera. This one used perforated 70 mm film and worked like a slowspeed movie camera. It was mainly used for surveillance flights. The mount is too big to remount on to a Leicaflex as the rear element of the lens is almost "dusting off" the shutter curtain. Impressive piece of glass and the whole camera/lens combo weighs in at 24 lbs. I had one for a while and tried to figure out a way of adapting the lens to a M-camera ( no mirror to get in the way) but it would have required carving a much larger hole in the M-body than the current lens mount. The whole lens/camera combo was bought in UK for 50 pounds.It is not a super rare item as it is military surplus and they must have bought a lot of them in the 70's and 80's. Some of these cameras were used on Harriers during the Falkland "incident". One could probably make a 75mm Hasselblad type camera of the lens, but as the lens was supposed to work in the same fashion as a movie camera lens, the optical quality is suspect. There is a very complex ELCAN made in the 2.5" range for these cameras that is supposed to be extremely good, but again, large mount and filmplane to rear element distance is very short. It would require a custombuilt housing to mount on a still camera. Or use it with the Vinten housing, 24lbs + a 24 volt power supply, that should build up strength in the upper body fast! Tom A