[Leica] Stereo camera anecdote (mildly OT)

[Paul Chefurka <Paul_Chefurka@pmc-sierra.com>]

>-----Original Message-----
>From: Paul Chefurka [mailto:Paul_Chefurka@pmc-sierra.com]
>
>If he had a spacer between them, he might have been using them 
>for taking stereo photos.
>
>Paul Chefurka
>

When I was in St. Lucia a couple of years ago I noticed a fellow in our
resort taking pictures with what looked like an elongated 35mm SLR with two
lenses and two prisms.  Intrigued, I went up and asked to see it.  It had
Minolta logos on it, and was indeed a single-body, double-headed SLR.  The
lenses were linked by a gear-wheel to synchronize the (manual) focus.  It
had one shutter release in the usual place, and one film wind lever.

I asked him whether it was a stereo camera, and he replied (in a thick
German accent) that it was.  I asked him who had made it (cause I was pretty
sure Minolta didn't have anything like that in their catalogue), and he
replied "I did".  Turns out he was a mechanical engineer (he didn't say who
he worked for), and he's spent two years cutting apart, modding and
reassembling two cameras into one.  Needless to say, I was impressed.  A
homemade Minolta SRT-Hydra...

I didn't ask him why he hadn't used Leicas for his project...

Paul Chefurka