Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/01/09
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]The Eclair NPR always had a bad reputation during the Vietnam war. As the anecdote says the very first cameraman (a Frenchman), who showed up in Vietnam with his brand new NPR was shot on his very first patrol with the troops. Following the general rule he was dressed like the soldiers in "jungle green". But his new modern camera did not look like a camera. The Eclair NPR with its long extended body, coaxial film magazine plus an extremely long tele-lens with an extremely wide "big caliber" lens shade in front must rather haver looked like an intimidating weapon to the Vietcong sniper. And the French photographer´s battery belt did in no way improve his civilian look. As the story goes only one person -the Frenchman - was killed during that particular patrol. True or not, the immediate effect of that story was that most of us news cameramen desperately tried to look more civilian during the time we spent with the troops. And some camera makers like General Camera and Auricon began to offer their products in new colors like light blue, red and - believe it or not - PINK. I myself worked with a grey CP-16 that still looked like an old fashion camera with its characteristic "Micky Mouse" film magazine. In a later war - Bosnia - the situation became the reverse. There the snipers first went for the cameramen. So finally our cameras became recognized for the powerful weapons they truely are. Claes