[Leica] Except for the lenses

[Mike Johnston <michaeljohnston@ameritech.net>]

Mike Gil: >>>Photographers during the Korean war traded thier Leica
lenses for the much better Nikon lenses during that time.<<<


Mike,
In his memoirs, Beaumont Newhall quotes his own journal from the spring
of 1946, talking about Cartier-Bresson:

"For the Rolleiflex he has no use at all. The square format, the
waist-level position, these he does not like at all. 'The Rolleiflex has
made photographers of too many people.' For his vision, for his point of
view, the Leica is the ideal instrument, except for the lenses. So he
had a Contax f/1.5 lens fitted to his Leica."

- --Beaumont Newhall, _Focus: Memoirs of a Life in Photography_, p. 158.


So evidently in those days it wasn't too uncommon for people to look for
alternatives to Leica lenses. I had always heard that Leica redoubled
their efforts in optics after photographers started using Nikon lenses
on them. Don't know where I heard that.

- --Mike