[Leica] Re: Contaxi redux

[msmall at infionline.net (Marc James Small)]

At 07:17 PM 6/1/06 -0400, Lawrence Zeitlin wrote:
>Pardon my mixing my faux Greek and faux Latin in this post title, I 
>have several responses to your points:
>
>1. I used a whale oil based clock oil (very expensive) on the Contax 
>gears at the advice of Marty Forscher of Professional Camera Repair in 
>NYC. Marty was a close personal friend of my father. He said it was 
>what he used. Would he lie to me?
>
>2. If exploring the Ubangi-Shairi river, I would first visit my 
>psychiatrist. If he couldn't dissuade me from the trip I would leave 
>both Contax cameras at home. Humidity and fungus would probably make 
>short work of either camera. I would however, take my Nikonos with 35 
>and 75mm lenses, and a backup Rollei 35S in a waterproof Tupperware 
>box. Excessive tropic heat and humidity is bad news for complex 
>cameras. I had several equipment failures with top of the line SLRs in 
>India during the monsoon season. Indian "no problem" repairs took 
>several months. The little Rollei 35 saved my bacon. I understand the 
>reluctance of the 1953 K-2 expedition to use the newly introduced 
>Contax IIa. (1950-61). It follows the dictum of never using new and 
>little tested equipment on a once in a lifetime trip. Remember Amundsen 
>chose dogs and skis instead of Scott's motor driven tracked sled 
>haulers and ponies on the race to the South Pole. "Never be the first 
>by whom the new is tried, or the last to cast the old aside." I 
>experienced this to my sorrow when I last trekked the Appalachian trail 
>in a pair of new hiking boots.
>
>3. I don't take any issue with your comments about Zeiss Ikon's 
>business model disaster. Unfortunately Leica, having also misjudged the 
>photographic marketplace is on the same slippery slope. The latest 
>press release of a 1:1 stock trade with a German holding company augers 
>ill. Perhaps the company is to be broken up into its component parts.

Marty Forscher was not known to have ever told a falsehood.  But Marty
Forscher was often wrong in his approach to camera repair to the point
where several camera companies seem to have fussed at him for his approach
to fixing their products.  This is not a big deal but, trust me, watch oil
and camera lubes are two quite different materials with quite different
requirements for their production.  (Contemplate this for a second and you
will understand what I am saying:  watch oil needs to work best at around
98 degrees F and to be able to supply lubrication for months and years of
continuous operation, while a camera lube needs to be able to work at all
sorts of temperatures and to remain in place and capable of utility despite
the camera being unused for months or years.  Two different sets of
standards, two different lubricants to solve the problem.)  Forscher fixed
professional cameras which were in constant use, so his adoption of watch
oil makes a minor amount of sense, but better lubricants were available at
the time.  For that matter, a can of JC Penny Wheel-Bearing Grease would
have cost you pennies and would have met your needs a lot better than did
this "expensive" watch oil.

Scott used ponies on his final and fatal sled to the Pole.  The
motor-driven sled was an element of an earlier expedition, the one on which
Shackleton broke from his former mentor and went his own way.  As several
commentators later noted, "if you want to get to the goal and die a
national icon, go with Scott;  if you want to reach the goal and die in a
stupid failure decades later, go with Amundsen;  if you want to get home
alive, go with Shackelton".  And Schackleton brought back all of the
pictures from the ENDEAVOUR expedition:  Scott took none, and Amundsen lost
almost all of his on his return trek from the South Pole.

Zeiss Ikon was in a fiscal world of hurt every year after its resurrection
in 1947 and only scraped a bare profit for two of its 24 years of
existence.  Leitz remained quite profitable until it introduced the M4, the
camera which broke the back of the concern exactly as the Contarex damned
Zeiss Ikon.  Unlike Zeiss Ikon, Leitz did not have a REALLY rich uncle, and
so its flounderings since 1967 are quite reasonable while the mere
existence of Zeiss Ikon in the Postwar world remains a remarkable
aberration.  In the end, Messrs Leitz/Leica desrve a huge nod of respect
for merely outlasting Zeiss Ikon and Kodak AG and the like by more than
three decades.  Longevity deserves a place in the Hall of Merit, after all.
 In 1947, Leitz was worried by the Contax S, and in 1954 they were worried
by the introduction of the Contaflex, and in 1956 by the Retina IIIc.  The
Leica M outlived them all by thirty years and more, and more power to Lieca!

If it is time for Leica to fold today, so be it.  If I can continue to get
my Contax D and Prewar Super Ikontas repaired, I will be able to continue
to get my M3 serviced, though getting the meter on my Wetzlar M6 repaired
might soon be impossible.  Avoid electrics, and Bob's your uncle.

Marc



msmall@aya.yale.edu 
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