Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/09/04
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]The answer is that Kodak has beat Leica MANY times in terms of lens quality. I own a Kodak Ektra Camera as well as a number of Medalists. The Ektra was, and still is an amazing 35mm camera. It had some of the following features: 1 Interchangable backs 2 Variable FOV view finder (adjustable from 40mm to 254mm) 3 shutter speeds from 1 to 1/1000 sec 4 A wide range of interchangeable lenses 5 an extremely high magnification rangefinder, suitable for the 250 mm lens. (the range finder was separated from the view finder. I have some pictures of these systems on my web site www.lianza.org/tlphotos/ in the camera collecting section.... The web site is a work in progress and any comments, good or bad are welcome. The lenses were designed by some of the finest lens designers in the world (with all due respect to Leica) and there were no compromises made in the design. The cameras didn't sell well because of their expense. On the down side, the shutter was a maintence nightmare and 95% of the existing cameras don't work. Mine does and I'll take it out for a test run against my new Summicron 50 f2 this fall and I'll put a series of side by sides for the group if there is an interest. The Kodak Medalist was a tremendous camera and it still commands relatively high prices amoung working pros. It is a 620 based camera and has a 100mm Kodak Ektar lens which has beautiful imaging characteristics. Many users have had the camera modified to accept 120 film, but I collect them so I purchase re-rolled film from www.filmforclassics.com . Not cheap, but I get to use the old machines in their original form. I still can get verichrome pan for those machines. It's a beautiful imaging combination. The medalist is a 6X9 horizontal format machine that yields 8 exposures on a 620 roll. It's a great machine. Unfortunately, Kodak stopped taking the camera business (from the domestic US side) seriously after the second world . There were still fine cameras made after the war in Germany by Kodak. Today, it is a different story. Fortunately for all us, Leica has concentrated it's talents on building a few very good lenses. I hope they keep doing it.... Tom Lianza Technical Director Sequel Imaging Inc. 25 Nashua Rd. Londonderry, NH 03053 tlianza@sequelimaging.com