Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2007/06/01

[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]

Subject: [Leica] Capa and His Cameras
From: leicam4pro at yahoo.com (John Biava)
Date: Fri Jun 1 12:45:47 2007

Also stop by the downtown Famous-Barr tea room ( ? ) and try some of their 
cheesecake.  My mother is now 85 and when one of the kids remembers to bring 
some it makes her day !

Marc James Small <marcsmall@comcast.net> wrote:  I have just received the 
following from T Mike 
Fletcher, who is a noted Capa scholar, though he 
still will NOT remind me of the name of his 
wife's bakery and, believe me, the next time I'm 
in St Louis, I'll hit a Krispy Kreme on my way to 
watch the Cards lose their next game!

+++++++++++++++++++
#1 I'm still a good friend of Cornell Capa,
"not was also a good friend of Cornell Capa" #2 Carl Mydans shot the
wars with Contax and then changed to Leica, he didn't like the Nikon too
much. Side bar -- All LIFE shooters always had a Rolleiflex in their
kit, the Rollei was the camera to be used first, and if all hell was
going on then the 35mm, because 120 was easier to handle in the lab, while
35mm was just starting.

Now about Capa's cameras: "Falling Solider"-- 05 Sept 36 was done with
a Leica llla, with either a 50mm Summar F/2 or a Elmar 50mm F/3.5.
Capa stopped working with the Leica, Feb. 1937 sorry I don't have the exact
date. And then he used the Contax ll, with the 50mm F/1.5 Sonnar. He started
with the Rollei when he was doing more work with LIFE magazine. Before
he went to French Indo-China in 1954, he was doing an assignment on
Japan. But he had to use Japanese film and cameras. Nikon gave him 5
bodies and 13 lenses. When he took the LIFE 
assigment to do a follow-up story on the French 
in Indo-China, he took his Contax gear with him 
because he didn't have to think about them, he 
had used them for a longt ime. When he tripped 
the mine, the Contax was in his hand, he had
just made a photo of troops in a rice patty in B&W. The Nikon was
blown off his shoulder and landed about 30 feet away. That Nikon is in
Tokyo now owned by a heavy weight department chain owner. NIKON BODY
Sn#66119612. With a Nippon Kogaku, Nikkor-SC 50mm F/1.4 Sn#342156.
To this date no one knows what happened to the Contax. I have an idea
and I'm working on it, it might be in Paris.

If you need more info. I can dig in my stuff deeper.

+++++++++++++++++++

msmall@aya.yale.edu
Cha robh b?s fir gun ghr?s fir!



_______________________________________________
Leica Users Group.
See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information



Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons.
You are crunchy and go well with ketchup.
 
---------------------------------
Need Mail bonding?
Go to the Yahoo! Mail Q&A for great tips from Yahoo! Answers users.

Replies: Reply from marcsmall at comcast.net (Marc James Small) ([Leica] That St Louis Bakery)
In reply to: Message from marcsmall at comcast.net (Marc James Small) ([Leica] Capa and His Cameras)