Unknown rangefinder with Paul Newman

neelin

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What is this cute bad boy pictured with Paul Newman in 1962 (taken by Phil Stern)? The lens says Kodak Ektar, the rest is not legible.

rf2.jpg
 
I think it was made for the military. Some called it Gullivers Leica. The Airborne and Special Ops museum in Fayetteville North Carolina has one just like it. Joe
 
That's what it is -- the Combat Graphic, for 70mm film. Used by the Signal Corps.

So what film would this be that Mr. Newman was making? Really bad fake moustache.
 
It's a shame they aren't converted to 120. The 1950s Ektars were arguably the finest lenses of their day, surpassing anything made by Zeiss or Leica.
 
You couldn't wedgie 120 rolls in there with some spacers and mask the frame?

It would be very hard to make a conversion, much harder than conversions between different paper backed roll film types. You'd essentially have to replace the entire transport and counter mechanism, as that currently depends on the film perforation. Not worth while - if you really feel you need to shoot its lenses, having the Ektars mounted in Fuji G690 or Mamiya Press lens bodies will be quite considerably cheaper than fitting a Combat with another transport.

In any case 70mm is not entirely dead - some cine and aerial stock is still listed. And it shares the master rolls with 35mm, so it would be technically possible to special order any film type also cut to 35mm - provided that you have the cash and fridges to buy and store it in the minimum order volumes they'd demand for such a exclusive production run...

Sevo
 
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